Is this interesting or not?

I'm fuzzy as to where all of this animal/civilization obsession of mine is going... Its meaning has always transcended logical thinking. Animals offer a fascinating and ghostly inverse to our human dominion of Earth. That has been enough.

I suppose logic had to enter the picture. It's my biological duty. So now there's ambivalence. I'll look at a photograph, a story, or a piece of footage that has anthrozoological significance, such as the above, and I'll either be held in glorious aesthetic arrest for a good long while - synapses firing, endorphins dancing, filled with renewed faith that civilization can benefit from catching these inverted reminders of its grotesque self. Other times, crushingly, I feel nothing. I clearly recognize the existence of non-human life forces and no triggers are triggered. No eureka moments aha! themselves into the jacuzzi of my pineal gland. Maybe there's a "porn" effect here - the instant, effortless delight has met with overexposure. Maybe I'm changing.

Of course I'm changing. Evolution is afoot. And I do sense a new understanding emerging here. One that will lead to a greater embracing of this wonderfully puzzling subject matter. I'll let you know how it goes.

Underground Order of the Pug...

Around 1740, a series of pug related items were designed as secret emblems for a German underground Masonic-styled lodge known as the "Order of the Pug." It is believed that the Order of the Pugs was created as a fraternal group for Roman Catholics who had been forbidden to join the Masons by Pope Clement XII. Members were required to wear dog collars and had to scratch the door of the lodge to gain entrance. Initiates were said to have been blindfolded and led around a symbol-filled carpet nine times while the assembled "Pugs" of the Order barked loudly and yelled “Memento mori” ('Remember you shall die').

A very rare Schrezheim porcelain snuff box in the form of a pug dog is expected to fetch £12,000-18,000 when it goes up for auction at Bonhams, New Bond Street on 5th July in the sale of the Helmut Joseph Collection of Porcelain Snuff Boxes.

(Thanks Ted)

Meow mix...

I have a hunch what Werner Herzog's reaction to this scene would be, but I've always known that simply fearing animals with sharp teeth has more to do with the fear than the animals.