Day 142: Lavinia

Lavinia by Ursula K. LeGuin.  ISBN: 9780151014248.

This book called something to my attention that I think we need to reintroduce into our lives: animal sacrifice. We already raise animals specifically for sacrificial service on our plates and our bodies, but they no longer receive the respect or the reverence they deserve during slaughter.

It used to be that the only times we ate meat was when it was available - during slaughter season when all of the animals were, uh, “ripe” at once. We butchered them and then we had fresh meat and we cured or treated or sold whatever we knew we wouldn’t be able to consume before it went bad.

Before that, when most of us were mere peasants who couldn’t afford to own meat animals, we might have been able to eat meat whenever some squirrels stupidly tripped our traps, but you can pretty much forget big game hunting. Who has time for that when you’re busy plowing fields and trying to prevent your daughters from being raped by your “betters?” Other than that you might get some during feasts if it was a particularly good year for your village. Honestly it was a miracle that peasants were able to maintain enough nutrition to breed at all.

But back to the sacrificing of animals.  I like it because it respects that individual animal.  It’s like saying, “Here god, we give this back to you because we know and respect its value.”  Why not show that animal a brief moment of respect before quartering it into “good” and “bad” meat parts? Sure, maybe it would make our steak dinners more expensive or it would be harder to find bacon in the grocery store, but we already eat far more meat than what is absolutely necessary for our dietary needs (I’m mostly looking at you Americans who eat it at every single meal).

I honestly don’t find anything reprehensible about animal sacrifice for religious purposes. What I find is wastefulness. I don’t condone killing an animal only to let it rot, or killing an animal only to take one part of it for a trophy. If we’re going to kill and eat these animals anyway, why not provide them with a show of respect for the life we take? If we can buy our Chihuahuas designer carrying bags and outfits to match ours, or our cats custom engraved grave stones so they can be buried next to us, I think we can afford to have a priest/reverend/rabbi/voodoo doctor/whoever say a few words over our dinner before it gets its head dragged through a pool of electrified water.

Day 141: Lavinia

Lavinia by Ursula K. LeGuin.  ISBN: 9780151014248.

“Males in love are ridiculous…They can’t help it.” Page 57.

I think this is probably my favorite quote, ever. Strangely it was about a deer and they compared it to a dog chasing a bitch (LeGuin’s words, not mine). Still, I think it applies across most species. It’s one thing all men can be comforted in knowing: ya’ll look stupid in love. I mean, really, really dumb. It’s hilarious, and endearing, and pretty much the only reason women don’t kill you outright when you get to be a little too clingy.

I’ve been lucky enough to have a couple of men fall in love with me, and oh my god you can tell.  Even the most seemingly respectable man will do the strangest, most irrational things to please you.  And folks, I am all too aware of my looks. I’m not super model material, not anywhere close, and I have had men literally fall over themselves when they are around me because something in their brain goes, “Durrrrrr, I wanna be with that one!”

Oh sure, women do this too, on a smaller scale. We tend to fawn over the men in our lives and gush about crushes, but we do it with other women (or select males).  And most of this occurs fairly early in our lives, so that later girl talks tend to turn more towards pointing out all of your defects.  This is certainly how it’s worked in my life anyway and I know I’m not exactly the average female, but I don’t think it’s far off the mark either.

For me, it was easier to be stupid with some of my potential partner choices because it seemed like I would be young for a very long time and would have plenty of chances to get another one if it didn’t work out. Unfortunately it was also a lot easier to overlook major character flaws, so I ended up with some men who cared nothing for me, and, looking back on it, for whom I cared very little as well.

Having gained some experience with people I did want to be with, I can now recognize the signs of someone who wants to be with me. It starts with about a 20 point drop in IQ level whenever I’m around. This of course necessitates finding an already intelligent man, and having his intelligence drop to slightly above average. I’m okay with this. It actually produces some fairly hilarious conversation/moments, and sometimes the brain can be reverted back to its normal state during times of stress or social anxiety. In other words, if I throw my fiancé into a crowd of academics his brain usually puts on its monocle and black tie and behaves itself at least well enough to interact with other cerebellums. And before I incriminate him any further, I’m going to sign off.

With much love to my Squishy Hubbaboo (and my respect and admiration to any other ridiculous males in love),

Amy L. Campbell.

Day 140: Lavinia

Lavinia by Ursula K. LeGuin.  ISBN: 9780151014248.

There's a theme running through this book that I find somewhat hard to swallow.  Lavinia finds comfort in releasing her will to her destiny and feels that she has more control over her life by doing so.  I guess I might consider that an option too, if I had some old dead poet telling me what was supposed to happen next.  But I don't; and even if I did, I might question whether or not someone whose goal in life was to create something that people would be reading well into the future (in other words, it had to be "entertaining" enough to keep the bloodthirsty masses coming back for gore... get it?).

I mean, if she was honestly willing to fulfill her destiny, she should have just married whoever her parents picked for her.  But instead, she takes advice from "God," who in this case happens to be the poet who created, or at the very least, re-imagined her.  On the one hand, I kind of get that, but on the other I am very disappointed that this is what LeGuin is doing with whatever time she has left to write (she's 81, if you're curious).  I was just hoping for more willfulness on Lavinia's part.  There was a little bit, but it was all within the confines of the male structure and we very rarely see her even thinking outside of the box she doesn't even seem to know she's in.

Maybe that's really how women thought in those days, but it does not make for a particularly insightful or interesting re-imagining of the Aeneid.  I'm also retelling, etc., but there needs to be something that's added to the narrative, and Lavinia just fell flat on her 2-D face.  About the only thing she got were far more lines than Virgil ever gave her, but it wasn't necessarily anything I much cared to listen to.

*This was actually transcribed via phone by Dan Walker from Amy Campbell.  Shortly after finishing the transcription the internet was magically reconnected.  Ffffffff.