Most anthropomorphic animal stories are really about people. The conventional argument says that children find animals easier to relate to as characters. because they’re simpler than human beings, have clearer motivations, and more intuitively suggest archetypes. This is true of many animal characters created specifically for children, like The Cat In The Hat, and it’s also true of most animal characters created for adults, such as the politically-minded rabbits in Watership Down, or the bourgeois pigs in Animal Farm. None of those animals are meant to be taken seriously as animals. All of their animal characteristics are meant to evoke human characteristics. Any reader who asks seriously why The Cat doesn’t walk on all fours, or how Napoleon the pig is able to speak, is in for a condescending conversation from a well-intentioned friend.
I had the privilege tonight of seeing director Wes Anderson and actor Jason Schwarzman converse onstage in Manhattan. It was fun being in the same room with them, and watching them interact with each other. I just wish that Anderson would have been asked better questions.
Dave Karger, an editor for Entertainment Weekly, began by asking Anderson and Schwarzman, who have known each other for over twelve years, about their initial impressions of one another. And so, the two men once again trotted out the now legendary story of Schwartzman showing up to the audition for Rushmore in a private school uniform that he made himself. After Anderson made an offhand reference to “Jason’s cousin Sofia,” Karger made a point of stopping the discussion to clarify to the audience that this was Sofia Coppola, and then making a joke about his own name-dropping. Perhaps noticing that both the guests and the audience were nonplussed, Karger mercifully bit his tongue when Schwartzman later said, in passing, “my mother, who is an actress,” referring to Talia Shire. Watching Anderson, a quick thinkinker and a genius of nuance, field a long series of softball questions, was like watching him get his head wrapped slowly in cotton candy. Read the rest of this entry »
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