Considering the pig, a single-minded bestiary.
Considerations of humanity and hogritude, because an insufficiency of pigs is one of the great faults of all that the gods have made manifest to man.
Husbandry once suggested that pigs think in herds and so find comfort in the press of crowds. For humans, crowds excite our discontent.and reminded of the cureless certainties of all our lives – toil, death and ignorance of our fate. Pigs and man alike need a private wallow for quiet study and meditation and so dispel the feelings of foreboding that arise in the crush and drift crowds.
Breezes in the moonlight are messengers showing us soft white billowing pigs in the clouds above – billowing pigs with ears of silk. And underneath the cotton-nightcap trees wanders a little cold pig-snouted breeze.
In this TED Talk, Dutch artist Christien Meindertsma, author of “Pig 05049” looks at the astonishing afterlife of the ordinary pig, parts of which make their way into at least 185 non-pork products, from bullets to artificial hearts.
Animals are a part of the human imagination, of humanity itself. We read our children stories of animals: “Once upon a time there was an old pig…” But pigs are not just vessels of deliciousness. Pigs are not beings that you can use as mere means. Pigs, and indeed all animals exist for their own reasons, they are not created for man.
Here is the official music video for Sandra Boynton’s “When Pigs Fly.” It tells of a gentle relationship between a parent and child who both happen to be pigs. This short film was storyboarded and directed by Boynton and wonderfully animated by Ira Baker. Ryan Adams does the mesmerizing vocals. The lyrics are here, too – sing along!
