Name: Pity the Animal
ISBN: 9781892061676

Chelsea Hodson

Literary Nonfiction. PITY THE ANIMAL, an essay by Chelsea Hodson, explores the concept of human submission and commodification by way of window displays, wild animals, performance art, and sugar daddy dating websites. "How much can a body endure? Almost everything."

Pity the Animal

Trever

This was so much better than I expected. Usually these indie books praised in publishing circles but mostly unknown outside them I find to be annoying/pretentious/unoriginal, but Pity the Animal is none of these. Hodson managed to capture a certain unnameable atmosphere, the one of commodification, specifically in relation to the female (and male) body. Insomuch as its addressing the topic of a commodified culture it reminded me of  Miss Lonelyhearts, but this is more personal (duh, it's non-fiction) and less humorous. It isn't really an essay or a memoir or a philosophical tract, though: it's kind of like a non-fiction  Speedboat meets Miss Lonelyhearts meets TS Eliot. It's pretty great.