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casparb's review against another edition
I sort of scanned thru this for an essay toward the end of 2022 but didn't feel it qualified for a read. There's an extraordinary pathos to this one , which swings toward a knowingness of it being the last of his books, and projection into the future, further avenues that could have been explored. Appropriately, the text is shortened by the fact that the lecture ran overtime & he had to wrap up quickly.
derrida was famously inspired by this one when he walked out the shower nakey (I have heard while on the loo?), and was confronted by his cat . he also describes having sex while the cat (presumably the same one) spectates
Now this self, this male me, believes he has noted that the presence of a woman in the room warms things up in the relation to the cat, vis-à-vis the gaze of the naked cat that sees me naked, and sees me see it seeing me naked, like a shining fire with a cloud of jealousy that begins to float like the smoke of incense in the room.
the big coinage for this one is animot, a charming little play. but be VERY alert to the other work happening with suis/suivre. - Que suis-je? (who am I (following)?)
anyway memes aside this is a brilliant little book & a robust work of theory, entirely worthwhile. The confrontation with descartes is habitually rigorous but the surprise cld be in Derrida's treatment of heidegger here, drawing out the hidden cartesian foundations of his project, surprise esp seeing as onkel martin is seen as The central figure in D's work.
As with every bottomless gaze, as with the eyes of the other, the gaze called "animal" offers to my sight the abyssal limit of the human: the inhuman or the ahuman, the ends of man, that is to say, the bordercrossing from which vantage man dares to announce himself to himself, thereby calling himself by the name that he believes he gives himself.
derrida was famously inspired by this one when he walked out the shower nakey (I have heard while on the loo?), and was confronted by his cat . he also describes having sex while the cat (presumably the same one) spectates
Now this self, this male me, believes he has noted that the presence of a woman in the room warms things up in the relation to the cat, vis-à-vis the gaze of the naked cat that sees me naked, and sees me see it seeing me naked, like a shining fire with a cloud of jealousy that begins to float like the smoke of incense in the room.
the big coinage for this one is animot, a charming little play. but be VERY alert to the other work happening with suis/suivre. - Que suis-je? (who am I (following)?)
anyway memes aside this is a brilliant little book & a robust work of theory, entirely worthwhile. The confrontation with descartes is habitually rigorous but the surprise cld be in Derrida's treatment of heidegger here, drawing out the hidden cartesian foundations of his project, surprise esp seeing as onkel martin is seen as The central figure in D's work.
As with every bottomless gaze, as with the eyes of the other, the gaze called "animal" offers to my sight the abyssal limit of the human: the inhuman or the ahuman, the ends of man, that is to say, the bordercrossing from which vantage man dares to announce himself to himself, thereby calling himself by the name that he believes he gives himself.
natsilene's review against another edition
4.0
First, second and fourth essay were incredibly interesting and filled with brilliant insights and ideas that can be very useful even for my current thesis project, however I found the third one just unintelligible word salad
scmiller's review against another edition
4.0
It's Derrida. So, super confusing, very wordy, but the ideas are, of course, present and thriving. Completely awesome analysis of the animal within, or, the animal that we are. Lack of non-male and non-whiteness present in text, however.
georgekn__'s review against another edition
4.0
Maybe it’s because I’m feeling quite ill at the moment but I really had to use a lot of brain power to get through this. It felt rather … heavy. I think the hardest part of understanding this book is getting used to the prose. Due to it being a transcript you have to really fish through the language to understand what Derrida is trying to say.
This book is somewhat affectionate of the role that animals have played in Derrida’s work, yet it is more focused on critiquing the relegation of animal life that takes place as a direct result of grouping all non-human animal life under the term ‘animal’ and distinguishing them as different to man. Going back to genesis and looking at the animal throughout time.
There is almost a sense of pleading with his audience regarding the modern industrialised treatment of animals, but Derrida being Derrida cannot simply prescribe a simple version of animal rights within his work.
This book is somewhat affectionate of the role that animals have played in Derrida’s work, yet it is more focused on critiquing the relegation of animal life that takes place as a direct result of grouping all non-human animal life under the term ‘animal’ and distinguishing them as different to man. Going back to genesis and looking at the animal throughout time.
There is almost a sense of pleading with his audience regarding the modern industrialised treatment of animals, but Derrida being Derrida cannot simply prescribe a simple version of animal rights within his work.
tmcphetridge4's review against another edition
challenging
informative
slow-paced
2.0
This is a literary theory book I had to read for class. Entirely about a man having an existential crisis about his cat seeing his naked balls on display. While I appreciate him finally tackling why philosophy hates animals so much and bringing animals into a better light, I cannot help but imagine this man butt-naked hunched over his desk furiously writing while his cat stares at his naked ass.
natali_gramajo's review against another edition
3.0
I found it hard to understand. He would go over the cat seeing him naked over and over. It took me a while to get it. The ideas overall were very different from what I have read before.
xvarenah's review against another edition
5.0
Exquisito, cualquier reflexión de(s)constructiva debería empezar por aquí. Derrida expone con claridad el carnofalogocentrismo que domina al hombre y que lo somete a someter al animote, no existe -y sin embargo ha sido capaz de existir- reflexión sin la reflexión sobre el 'animal'.
sentient_meat's review against another edition
5.0
In his The Animal That Therefore I Am Derrida explores the definitions of human and the animal, and explores (and problematizes) the limits between these two groups. Through readings of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, the Genesis Story, Descartes, Kant, Heidegger, Husserl, Lacan, and Levinas, Derrida questions the western metaphysical traditions thoughts regarding the animal and its radical separation from humans. This is probably one of my favourite books by Derrida. The force of his argument lies in the rigorousness of his thinking, and the care with which he attempts to think human and animal as members of the same group (animal heterogeneously understood) and radically other from each other.