About Being an Animal

Post 798:

So I ordered a few fresh books to throw into the rotation the other day, including Jack London’s Call of the Wild. I wanted to re-read it and do a video deal comparing the newest movie version and the book, etc.

Well, Amazon left an opened package at my door (weird) and it wasn’t Call of the Wild but instead White Fang. Okay. There’s bigger problems. I read it.

As a kid I loved the White Fang movie. I haven’t seen it in forever but I bet it still holds up. On the re-read I was pleasantly surprised by the experience. London is a beast of a writer, always to the point and on the money with his word choices. At first I wasn’t really excited about reading about frigging wolves because they’re mean and vicious and what the heck can I learn from a wolf. Turns out, quite a bit.

The growth and maturation of the cub into a full grown wolf is delightful to read. I wondered why I was getting into it so much. I realized that London is skilled enough to make an animal more interesting than a ton of the human characters I’ve written and read over the years, no joke.

There’s a lot to learn from our hero wolf. Yeah, he can be a savage like any wild animal, but he’s just trying to make his way in the world against all the odds. I’ll repeat. All the odds. London does a great job of showing every perilous step on the path to survival for so many of the animals (and men) in the story. It’s pretty cool how he writes out the thoughts and concerns of the cub as it goes forth stumbling into the world. You can’t help but relate.

I’ve never written an animal, but I might try. The allure for me is that they aren’t doing anything just to do it. It’s all about staying alive and thus all important—as a reader, it’s a nice escape and also a nice reminder to let go of the crap that doesn’t matter. Good stuff. Thanks Amazon. Keep sending me the wrong books. Cheers and see you after.