Books, Covers and When It's Polite to Point

What the hell was Lewis talking about, anyway?

For me, the expression "you can't judge a book by its cover" is especially amusing. My mother is the published author of over 35 romance novels. The names of the books and the cover art were a constant source of embarrassment and horror for my mother because while she had no control at all over those things*, she knew that people thought she did and judged her for it.

So, don't just a book or its author by the cover.

And don't take dog training advice from Ray Comfort or CS Lewis. (Dude, I loved Narnia, why you gotta play me like this?)

An ex-atheist [CS Lewis] once wrote, "You will have noticed that most dogs cannot understand pointing. You point to a bit of food on the floor; the dog, instead of looking at the floor, sniffs at your finger. A finger is a finger to him, and that is all. His world is all fact and no meaning. And in a period when factual realism is dominant we shall find people deliberately inducing upon themselves this doglike mind."

Actually, most dogs do understand pointing. They are, in fact, one of the few species other than humans to do so. It's possible Lewis' dog did not understanding pointing, but my dog does.

Also, how would anyone know if dogs engage in . . . "factual realism"? Dogs, while capable of understanding 300 or more words, lack the throat and jaw structures to speak as humans do, so we won't be talking to them anytime soon. And what's wrong with factual realism? Sure, my dog regularly bites his own tail, but he's never invaded the Holy Land because god told him so. We'd probably be a lot better off thinking as dogs do.

Seriously, facts and reality are bad? *sigh* That reminds me, you know what happens at the end of the Narnia saga? The preteen protagonists all die. Lewis considered that the best possible ending the story could have had. Yay! Children died! Isn't that great! O_o

How true are his words. Evolution believers dumb themselves down, believing that they are simply apes that have evolved a little more than their animal brethren. But man isn't slightly brighter than the animals. He outshines them in the area of arts, creativity, music, the preparation of his food, an appreciation of his being, the study of his history, language, speech, God, and in many other complex facets of life.

Food preparation? Humans are weenies when it comes to food. My dog doesn't need his meat cooked because his digestive tract is quite capable of eating raw meat, whereas I would likely die trying the same trick. But what about sauces and spice rubs makes us better than animals? Music? Sorry, birds and whales do that all day long. Art? Gorillas and elephants love art. Creativity? What does that even mean? What about birds and their nests or spiders and their webs? Are those beautiful creations not marks of creativity?

Ray, having recently been called out on his characterization of African natives as "savages", decides that it wasn't the hate that was the problem:

However, one area where he completely outshines the animal kingdom, is the area of law. No animal comes anywhere near man’s desire to see that justice is done. The most primitive of us (foul-mouthed white men with ugly tattoos and gaping holes in their ears) believes in retribution. Snatch his beer from his clasping hand, and it’s payback time. This is because those of us who are still sane are moral beings, made in the image of Him who is called "the Habitation of Justice."

Ray, Ray, Ray, Ray. I know you've been told a thousand times that a) vengeance is not justice, and b) humans are not the only animals capable of desiring justice. Monkeys and dogs both have a sense of fair play and demand justice.

Habitation of Justice? The same guy who recommends raping prisoners of war and killing babies? That guy?

Foul-mouthed white men with bad tattoos and gaping holes in their ears? So . . . you're pro tattoos as long as they are well executed? Foul-mouthed white women with bad tattoos and gaping holes in their ears are less "primitive"? I bet most of those people know dogs can understand pointing and monkeys are capable of justice. Unlike you, Ray.

*Editors chose the titles based upon their personal loathing for the authors as far as I could tell. The publishers would send over an "art fact sheet" for the author to fill out, including physical descriptions of the main characters, location of the story, era of the story, and then apparently shred the completed art fact sheet upon receiving it, because the covers never matched those descriptions at all. It was like some sort of bizarre metaKabuki.