| You can read several of the first chapters on Amazon.com, and if you like what you have read you can buy the novel. It’s also available on Lulu.com. |
| Animism, the world’s oldest religion, is brought to life in this novel, in a tale that our distant ancestors may have understood. Animism asserts that objects, places, and creatures possess distinctive spiritual qualities. It is still practiced by what we call primitive tribes today. Animism is not the same as Animalism, described in Orwell’s Animal Farm as a complete system of thought, which he presented as an allegory of Communism. In Animus Isle the animals create Animaligion, a religion solely for animals, with its own set of Nine Commandments, distinct from Orwell’s Seven Commandments.
Orwell’s characters Snowball and Napoleon are antagonists just like Castor and Canaden, but differ in one crucial way…..neither Castor nor Canaden were ever domesticated. Boxer the Cart-horse, Benjamin the donkey, Old Major, the prize middle white boar…who can forget these personable farm animals? Animus Isle has its own cast of characters….Templar the bull moose, Serpento the ancient snapping turtle, Gula the wolverine, the bears, squirrels, fox and raccoon, among others. My animals live in Canada, were born in the wild…and they intend to never lose their wild edge…. Memorable Orwellian phrases such as “Some animals are more equal” and “Four legs good, two legs bad” superbly encapsulate the nature of the evolving society of Orwell’s farmyard beasts and what they are trying to accomplish. In my novel the beavers and their friends are also prejudiced, not only to humans, but other wild animals as well…..animals that happen to be very different, yet are still animals. _________________________________________ I was inspired to write this novel, in part, by modern Environmental Activism. Beginning in the late 1950’s, an increasing number of people have felt obliged to turn to Environmental Anarchism, whether it be Eco-anarchism, Vegan-anarchism, Anarcho-naturism, even Anarcho-primitivism, in a bid to create a field of environmental ethics where none has existed. The beavers in my novel are anarchists….they are reacting to a worsening manmade catastrophe in a totally unexpected way, with unpredictable consequences, not only for themselves, but mankind. One might say they have justifiably seized the mantle of animal liberation from us. Why? Well, what has our activism and anarchism created? Green ideology, Green politics to beget Ecopolitics, Environmentalism to beget Environmental Rights, Social Ecology to Ecologism, to Ecosophy, and so on and so forth and so on…..meanwhile, shrinking habitats continue to shrink, entire populations of animals continue to be driven to the edge, and into, extinction. I have lived in the third world for many years. Realistically, the vast majority of the world’s population, and the governments which mostly pay lip-service to these issues, couldn’t care less. This is a Western problem…..let the West fix it. ________________________________________ This novel plots the role of religion in conflict and science in environmentalism….one might say this tale is a fictional treatise on Irreligion. Is it Scientism, Totemism, or Positivism versus Animism? What does that even mean? Be that as it may, what we end up with is Freethought, Skeptical Inquiry, Nontheism, and yes, Apatheism, joining forces with the Neo-pagans and Eco-pagans of our time. Many years ago Edward Tyler wrote the book “Primitive Culture”, and his ideas are sometimes referred to as the “Tylorian survival of primitive thought.” Perhaps that primitive thought, previously expressed through Old Animism, and since expressed through New Animism, and dare I say it, Environmental Activism, is calling us back to our pre-historic ways….the wisdom of our ancient ancestors can still be tapped from the infinite sub-conscious of rational minds, and still exists in our so-called primitive societies. |