Search
An association of writers working to advance literature, defend free expression, and to foster international literary fellowship. Manhattanville MAW Summers Writers Week Online
Pen Blogs
Recent Posts
PEN Blogroll
Browse by Subject
View by Post Title
World Voices Blogs
PEN Member Profiles
FAQ
Sign In
spacer
Newsletter

Home > Browse Member Blog Tags



MEMBER BLOG TAG: apes

Monday, July 6, 2009 1:27AM
 
Harold & Salman & Henry & Susan
Tags: Harold Pinter, Salman Rushdie, No Mans Land, Nobel Lecture, Tapestry of Lies, PEN World Voices, Richard Crasta, hatred of lies, freedom of expression, truth-telling in literature
 

HAROLD & SALMAN & HENRY & SUSAN

    “What surrounds us therefore is a vast tapestry of lies.”—Harold Pinter, Nobel Prize Lecture.

 

Until May 2, 2009, my chief encounter with Harold Pinter was a recording of his...

 
More | 0 Comments | Add a Comment
 
Sunday, January 18, 2009 1:08PM
 
Apes, Out of the Human Shadow
Tags: Apes, bonobos, chimpanzees, Hanuman, Old Monkey
 
By emphasizing their kinship with us, we can easily consign apes to a role as children or simply as "inferior" people. If, as some researchers estimate, chimpanzees have 98% of the same DNA as human beings, does that mean that they are only 2% inferior? Or that gorillas are only 3 or 4 % inferior? Whatever legal implications people may see in this idea, it certainly will not make apes seem very interesting.

And if we choose to regard apes as children, it must be children who will never grown up. This may address Victorian fantasies about the innocence of childhood, which we often see in the fantasy of bonobos as "hippy chimps," but this is a very limited, and superficial, appeal....
 
More | 0 Comments | Add a Comment
 
Home | Site Map | Copyright / Privacy Policy | Contact Us © 2004-2012 PEN American Center. All rights reserved.