The book I'm reading and almost done with is, Speciesism by Joan Dunayer. It is excellent and I really like how Dunayer totally picks apart at the language used by other animal rights authors. Specifically, Gary Francione and Steven Wise, whose books I've read and thought I mostly agreed with!

And evidently I need to read Dunayer's other book, Animal Equality: Language and Liberation since being correct (and vegan) with language interests me!

Anyway. You may have noticed the other day that I typed "deers". This usage comes directly from my reading of Speciesism...

To remind readers that any group of nonhumans consists of multiple individuals, I often use uncommon (but accepted) plural forms that end in s: fishes rather than fish, squids rather than squid, minks rather than mink. As noted in The Merriam-Webster Concise Handbook for Writers, hunters, fishers, and trappers generally refer to their victims with plurals identical to singluar forms: two "quail," three "trout," four "beaver." Such usage blurs the victims together, de-emphasizing their individual sufferings and deaths.

Nods.

Static8 > Journal > Archive > 26 july 2009 Entry