February 29, 2004

Reactionary animals. From "The Life of Pi," from a passage defending zoos:
If a man, boldest and most intelligent of creatures, won't wander from place to place, a stranger to all, beholden to none, why would an animal, which is by temperament far more conservative? For that is what animals are, conservative, one might even say reactionary. The smallest changes can upset them.They want things to be just so, day after day, month after month.
From the old Simon & Garfunkel song "At the Zoo":
Ourang-outangs are skeptical
Of changes in their cages ...
Zebras are reactionaries ...

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