http://thesecondpass.com/?p=3589
is a good assessment of why there’s not much to like about this particular treatise. For someone who purports to be showing us that the eating of animals is morally wrong (and obviously so), he shows a troubling tendency to engage in unclear argument. Anyone who writes “’Speechlessness / Influence / Speechlessness / Influence’ densely repeated for five whole pages” should ‘set off alarms’, as a prof of mine likes to say. Ambiguous and possibly even empty terms like the ones he prefers often buckle under pressure, creating fissures where contradictions can easily take root.
He’s no philosopher, but neither does he like to quote them. As the source above points out, he hasn’t written anything new, and he hasn’t written it any better.
We cannot, in 2009, with the publishing industry the way it is, honestly be complaining about something being published that has been talked about before. I mean, really.
And whether he has written it better or not I would think is a point of contention.
I hate to be a dick, Ms. O’Connell,
You know I didn’t think you were being a dick until you said that.
but he seems to be about as lucid about his reasons for being a vegetarian as you are - he’s faintly aware that eating meat is bad and that it’s not hard not to, or maybe that it is hard to be a vegetarian; in a similar vein, he’s about as sure as you are that there’s a reason for this book, and isn’t committed enough to any particular reason to actually make it stick - which, on balance, may be why you’re reading it.
It seems that this Second Pass dude finds ambiguity and equivocation the enemy, but I do not. I don’t think JSF does, or any other honest, truth-seeking person worth their bandwidth.
I would venture to claim that the whole appeal of JSF is reading about this from a relatable, empathic narrator who is willing to equivocate right along with us, to give us information— the dreaded anecdotal or no!— and let us think about it.
I think he does know what he believes, but like any faithful person, I think he believes in it enough for us to make our own decision.
Please read the above. Look into the sources if the criticism of JSF seems to stick. And who knows. Maybe you’ll have good reasons for vegetarianism yet.
Thanks for the link! I had heard about all of the JSF backlash but i had yet to read of it in print.
Unfortunately I was immediately turned off by his defensiveness and seeming-jealousy of JSF’s success and inherent likeability (and the demonic HIPNESS, the dreaded fonts!).
You know what’s good for writers? To be liked. For people to enjoy reading them. To not be dicks. Because then more people will read them! And then more people will know about something— something that has at its central issue LACK OF AWARENESS.
I understand the concern that the message is being filtered down by a messenger perhaps the “movement” did not choose. Maybe the vegans don’t want JSF as their poster boy. But you know what? No one was doing a very good job before. I gave up meat a year ago and read a new book a week and I had yet to want to read a book about it, to find out more about a life decision I made, because I find all of the literature about it fucking annoying. I don’t want to read shit from people like this Second Pass guy. I don’t want to read angry bullshit. I just don’t. I want to read about JSF and his fucking new baby BECAUSE THAT IS ADORABLE. Maybe that makes everyone sick, but that is true and if you care about the message you care about it being received well. BRING IN THE BABIES, I SAY.
If you have something you want to impart and you want people to listen and trust you, don’t be a dick. Also: babies.
The point is JSF is trying and succeeding.
Everyone needs to pull their heads out of their asses and think about the greater good.
SOMETIMES THE GREATER GOOD INVOLVES VERY FANCY GRAPHIC DESIGN. AND THAT’S OKAY.
SUCK IT UP, AMERICA. FUCKING SUCK IT UP.
