Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Week 6: Six-word stories

You know the drill. "For sale, baby shoes: never worn."

Post a 6 word story summary of any one chapter of Black Beauty AND another 6 word story summary from any of the critical essays we've read so far that is in conversation with that chapter. So, 2 six-words stories. THEN Give 1-2 sentence explanation how you are making a connection, observation, or argument.

EXAMPLE
April night, a drunk ruins me.  ("How it Ended" Black Beauty, chapter 25)
They can suffer. You can talk.  ("Principles of Morals and Legislation", Jeremy Bentham)

Black Beauty's first person narrator suffers at the hands and whims of many careless human masters. When he stumbles and throws Rueben, Beauty has to endure both the physical pain of his injuries and, even if momentarily, the harsh judgements on his character.  In the following chapter, forensic evidence exonerates him but he is still sold because his knees are bruised and so starts a chain of events for him and many horses who are "abandoned without redress to the caprice of a tormentor" (Bentham qtd in AR 9).

22 comments:

  1. Six word story from Peter Singer article: We have needs so do animals

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    1. Can you offer a 2nd 6-word to place in conversation with the first one, plus a summary as to how you are making that connection?

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  2. "I know he meant no harm, I never said he did" (Part I, Black Beauty).

    "Was it cowardice, that I dared not kill him...Was it perversity, that I longed to talk to him...Was it humility, to feel so honoured" (DH Lawrence, 149).

    I chose both these quotes because they both refer to the well being of someone or something. The first quote explains how they knew that the horse never had any bad intentions of hurting or killing the man. The second quote shows how they felt shame for ever thinking that they would hurt something that had no bad intentions.

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    1. These are great connections. I wonder---can you redux these quotes, in your own 6-words?

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  3. Act from common sense, not fashion. (“Plain Speaking”, Black Beauty, Chapter 11)
    Suffering is not unique to humanity. (“Principles of Morals and Legislation”, Jeremy Bentham)

    In this chapter in Black Beauty, his master makes the case that if people were to act from common sense and not from what is “cool” or “fashionable”, then the world would be better off. The argument is directed at the use of bearing reins to hold horses heads up, but the point is well made that the horses deserve to have their heads free, “as free as men’s are”. To reduce the suffering of the horses not only makes life better for them, it also makes it easier for their human masters to control them.

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    1. Yes, this chapter absolutely ties into the old adage that "beauty hurts."

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  4. Negligence and lies lead to suffering. ("A Humbug," Chapter 31)
    Don't cause unjust torture to animals ("Principles of Mores and Legistlation," Bentham)

    I found Bentham's essay quite interesting because he was not opposed to the eating of animals, so long as they were not caused suffering. He states that there may come a day when animals have rights against torture. In Black Beauty, the new groom is very negligent and doesn't clean as well as he should, causing the horse unjust suffering that was easily preventable. This would go against Bentham's beliefs.

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    1. yes, negligence is that slow moving torture that gives Animal Planet's Animal Cops its ratings.

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  5. Harm was not in heart, I understand. (Chapter 1, Black Beauty)
    Namby-Pamby, Not Brave, Internally Honored (DH Lawrence,149)

    Reason that I made this connection was because it was very apparent that horse never meant any harm, despite him killing the man. According to the horse he "forgot" his manners and apparently disapprove of his moms advice. The second 6 word summery I gave of Lawrence poem, epitomizes the three major events that happened in the poem.

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    1. this is a great connection to what is observed/confused as animal behavior and what is overlooked as human folly.

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  6. Spiegel: Ignorance allows for accepting animal slavery.
    Black Beauty, Chapter 6: Horse lives to serve human desire.

    I was able to make a connection between chapter 6 of Black Beauty, and Spiegels article "In Defense of Slavery". In this particular chapter, Black Beauty is narrating his life in which he must "stand up in a stable night and day except when I'm wanted". Further he explains that he is covered in "straps here and straps there, a bit in my mouth, and blinkers over my eyes". This can lead the reader to believe that Black Beauty is virtually a slave to humans. He lives to serve their needs. This belief connects to Spiegel's ideas that animal slavery is viewed as okay simply because it is ignored and accepted by society.

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    1. Good observation. Black Beauty's abrupt change from a creature with physical mobility to one trained for the ready marks a shift in his horse life.

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  7. Black Beauty, Chapter 9: I have feelings and get tired.
    Descartes: No actions show animals can think.
    I thought that Descartes statement that animals don't perform actions which shows us they think was opposite of Black Beauty Chapter 9. Merrylegs throws a rider off because he thought humans don't know horses have feelings and get tired. I believe that if an animal does not like how they are being treated they will react to show they are unhappy. Although they don't think using words, their reaction shows they know what is occurring.

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  8. this scene was particularly familiar in that i was reminded of the petting zoo or the part of the children's zoo that offers animal rides

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  9. Black Beauty Chapter 13: Abusiveness causes pain, learn to be good.
    Jeremy Bentham: they suffer so why shouldn't we show compasion.

    In this chapter black beauty is watching a boy mistreat a pony. By abusively hitting more then once with a whip. But then the horse reacts and pushes the boy down. Someone else makes sure that the boy learns a lesson by telling his parents. I think this demonstrates that people doing have compassion for animals and that they feel superior just because they have a whip. But we should remember that animals also have feelings and react to the pain. More humans have to learn to treat animals better because they do suffer just as we do.

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  10. Black Beauty Chapter 6 : Beauty has all, except for liberty
    Lawrence: Out, out, be gone good riddance!

    I felt these two connected to each other because there is both a outside affect tugging and pressuring the movement and dessertation of one's present place of habit. Whether affection or the hand of man, humans and animals experience the same emotions.

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  11. Black Beauty Chapter 23: Intolerably tight reigns, york rears up
    Descartes: Animals cannot talk and cannot think

    I chose these two six word stories to illustrate how descartes is incorrect in assuming nonhumans can't think because of their inability to command languages. Nonhumans and humans do not share a language, but they do share senses and feel pain in a similar way. This has huge implications for rights surrounding animal cruelty.

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  12. Black Beauty Chapter 6: A nice prison is not freedom
    Plutarch: Treated like animals; raise the standard.

    What I mean by my six word story for Plutarch is that we see inhumanity toward humans (such as cannibalism) as "treating each other like animals." Where to use such a phrase is perhaps giving animals less value than they deserve.
    Then the Black Beauty quote adds another wrinkle: even when we treat an animal in the way we consider well, it might not be what the animal wishes. Wind animals would rather roam the wild with their freedom than live in pampered captivity.

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  13. "Human carelessness threatens lives of horses" (Chapter 16 "The Fire"
    "Animal welfare sacrificed for human entertainment"(Zoos, Captivity and The Academy).
    I chose to draw a comparison between the chapter "the fire", in which Black Beauty becomes trapped in a fire caused by a cigarette bud, and Rothfel's article on the flaws of animal captivity because both represent how animals are often forced into precarious positions of human dependency when under control of people. For example in the same way that Rothfels explains how animals in zoos often develop health problems as a result of their captivity and then are forced to rely on the same humans for relief, Black Beauty and the other horses were put in danger by the carelessness of a caretaker and then forced to wait for the same humans to guide them out of the fire.

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  14. Chapter 13 of Black Beauty: Boy beats, horse kicks, lesson learned
    -In this chapter the boy was beating his horse for not doing exactly as he wished, when the horse reacted the boy was punished. This is not always the case because sometimes the animal is punished for just reacting to trauma or pain. I think this show that animals can try to show us what is wrong and what they're feeling through physical action.

    The snake: Human violence leads to missed chance
    -The piece talked about how human education teaches us to assert our dominance, but i this case it leads to a kind of sorrow over a possible interaction that was missed by the man throwing the snake.

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  15. Black Beauty 6 word story: "Mother Trains Child For Hard Life"
    Everything was created 6 word story: "Children were created to praise God"

    In the beginning of Black Beauty it tells of how Beauty was raised by his mother and his owner, only to be sold time and time again. From birth your mother is training you for your future. Whether that is to be a hard worker and making your own money or being a stay at home mom. In the Everything was created story it talks about how Heaven and Earth created children so that when grown they would praise and honor them.

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  16. "Animals are not lesser than humans" Black Beauty, Chapter 2
    "No speech capabilities? Humans are superior" Descartes, From the Letters of 1646 and 1649

    Chapter 2 of Black Beauty is when "Rob Roy" is killed by the huntsmen and dogs. Clearly, this chapter depicts how animals are unfairly used for human enjoyment, despite the fact that they feel emotions (as shown by the other horses' reactions). I thought this tied into Descartes's essay, since his standpoint "justifies" the view that animals are less intelligent than humans (which is generally the reasoning behind using them for human enjoyment and consumption).

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