I'm a fan of Jean M. Auel, the prolific author of the Earth's Children series that begins with the book Clan of the Cave Bear. The books follow the life of Ayla, who is separated from her parents and tribe as a child, is adopted by a Clan ( "the flat heads") that is not of her own people, and is eventually shunned by them for being so different.
Driven to survive on her own, she spends a winter surviving by holing up in a cave in a valley, only going out into the cold to hunt with a sling shot and surviving by foraging plants in summer weather. Eventually, she finds a wolf cub that is also alone to be a companion and through observation and training, turns him into a prehistoric pet wolf - dog who comes when she whistles, to the amazement of every person she encounters from then on. This then is Jean M. Auel's way of introducing the relationship that humans and dogs have had for thousands of years.
When all the breeding dogs into small and even incompetent animals began, who really knows? I once watched a video about what the world would be like if there were no humans. Dogs would quickly resume their traditional lives of hunting in packs, and most of the flat faced ones would be so bad at hunting that they probably wouldn't survive.
Showing posts with label dogs in literature. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dogs in literature. Show all posts
9/6/12
DOGS IN LITERATURE : TAISHA ABELAR'S MANFRED
Speaking of Taisha Abelar's new book (see past posts) that still hasn't come out (I just checked a popular book selling site on the net) one of my favorite characters in her first and only published book is the "dog" Manfred.
Come on - we know he is a sorcerer trapped in a dog body! But how that happened?
In this book Taisha encounters Manfred in the mysterious house in Mexico where she is in a spiritual apprenticeship. Manfred likes to lay on her, taking as much of her energy as he can. Manfred is a sensitive beast, who overreacts when anyone says he looks like a toad. So of course the word must be spelled out around him. T O A D! He calms down when you say that someone else looks like a toad or that he does not look like a toad!
Carlos Castaneda said that Taisha wrote this book while in dreaming. I wonder if Taisha ever had a dog or dogs in real life. I wonder if Manfred will make a reappearance in the long awaited new book?
In this book Taisha encounters Manfred in the mysterious house in Mexico where she is in a spiritual apprenticeship. Manfred likes to lay on her, taking as much of her energy as he can. Manfred is a sensitive beast, who overreacts when anyone says he looks like a toad. So of course the word must be spelled out around him. T O A D! He calms down when you say that someone else looks like a toad or that he does not look like a toad!
Carlos Castaneda said that Taisha wrote this book while in dreaming. I wonder if Taisha ever had a dog or dogs in real life. I wonder if Manfred will make a reappearance in the long awaited new book?
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