Prayer DogsTerry Tempest Williams

Discussion QuestionsAccording to the idea of Darwinism, humans seem to be more superior because we possess complex intelligence, languages, emotions and morals. What do you think about this statement? What is your definition of “the animal culture?”Have you or your family ever owned a pet? What have you learned from owning one?

Discussion QuestionsWhat do you think of these two pictures? Which one is more of your ideal ecosystem?

Author BiographyPersonal Life:

Terry Tempest Williams born September 8, 1955 in Corona, CA; but Utah is her true hometown. Her family was exposed to radiation resulted from the atomic testing at the Nevada Test Site between 1951 and 1962. 7 out of 9 Tempest family members who were exposed to radiation died from breast cancer, including Williams’s mother – who inspired her to write her latest book When Women Were Birds (2012).Graduated from University of Utah with a degree in English and followed by a Master of Science degree in environmental education in 1984. Met her husband Brooke Williams in 1974 and the couple married 6 months later. A Mormon.Working as a Scholar for O.C. Tanner Inc. (human resource consulting), a columnist for The Progressive, and as a Montgomery Fellow (extended curricular program at Dartmouth College) teaching environmental studies writing course.

Author BiographyLiterary Career:

Until 2012, 7 books published from which Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place (1991) was the most acclaimed.

Prayer Dogs belongs in her book called Finding Beauty In A Broken World published in 2008.

Creative non-fiction author; most of her writing is a reflection of her hometown in Utah. Also wrote a few collections of poems (mostly for children) and personal essay. Her literary topics range from the wilderness of West America, to nature preservation, to feminism, to family, to exploring our relationship to culture and nature.

Author BiographyActivism and Awards:

As a naturist, she is strongly pro-nature:In 1995, the U.S. Congress members, each received a copy of Testimony: Writers Speak On Behalf of Utah Wilderness that she edited with another colleague.In 2009, she marched with other naturist authors and in Washington DC to protest against coal mining and promoting clean energy.

Her activism awards include:The Robert Marshall Award from The Wilderness Society.The 18th International Peace Award given by the Community of Christ Church.

Her literary awards are: The Distinguished Achievement Award from the Western American Literature Association. The Wallace Stegner Award from The Centre for the American West.A Lannan Literary Award for Nonfiction.A John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in creative non-fiction.

Author Biography

ContextThe number of prairie dogs in the world by 2008 is at almost 5,000 species, only 5% of the amount in 1920. This number is far decimal compared to the initial prairie dog population in millions from the Pleistocene era. Due to the expansion of agricultural activities and urban development, the habitat of prairies dog has decreased significantly. They are strongly considered to be endangered species while the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service denied such recognition and protection service. There is a number of almost 200 golf courses in Utah. 11-million acres in land are reserved for agricultural activities.

Cultural Criticism School

Culturist studies the diversity significance of different cultures, despise its time and location origin. The domain cultures are considered to make a significant and/or popular impact upon the humane history and society.

Most of them are classic studies (such as Shakespeare, Plato,…). Other minority groups (African American, gays and lesbians,…) find their spotlight when their revolutionary made an impact upon our culture.

Ultimately, culturists argue that all cultures must be viewed as equal.

The Culture of Prairie Dogs

Williams explains the culture of prairie dogs that includes their usual behaviours, conditions of their habitat, and their role to the entire ecosystem of Utah. In this culture, prairie dogs are described with emotions, intelligence, languages, behaviours, and community-building ability that might be distinctive (of animals) but are characterised to be familiar to our humans. Such culture also has a history that maintains for thousands of year, for the prairie dogs has appeared since the Pleistocene era. Williams intends to introduce the culture of prairie as evidence to prove that prairie dogs community shares the same historical and cultural foundation like us humans. This familiarity helps to eliminate the false perception that humans are more supreme species because they have supreme emotions, intelligence, and community compared to of animals.

“What about the Other?” (95)

The Other refers to an individual or community or culture (minority in general) that is outside of the domain culture or preference.

The Other in this essay is the prairie dogs. First of all, they are outside (or even in-the-way) of many Utahans’ oblivious effort of invading their natural habitat to extend agricultural activities and urban development. In other words, they are outside the domain idea of “humanistic benefit.”

Secondly, the prairie dogs are also outside the domain idea of animal preservation because they are often perceived as too wild, too trouble-some, too unfriendly, and too rodent to be “sentimental” enough (102).

These domain tendencies are problematic to the effort of equalising the culture of prairie dogs with the our human culture. Instead again, they put the species to be under the mercy of human arrogance.

“A Poison World”“A poisoned world. We are living in an increasingly toxic world, not just physically but emotionally. It is not a comfortable connection to make for most people: the ill-treatment of human beings and the mistreatment of animals. Both responses belong to arrogance, a lack of respect for life in all its diversity and complexity” (104).The world is divided because of our differences, but worse, of our hostility toward new or uncommon ideas. This bubbles ourselves inside a false reality where ignorance and arrogance dulls our ability to see the Other as equal. Within a world where Ego wins Eco, the Other often got mistreated and harshly judged for being different. We’d become oblivious to our surrounding and put our future at stake.

Discussion QuestionWhat do you think is the literary technique(s) that Williams use in her essay? Ethos? Pathos? Logos?What do you think of her conversation with the neighbour at the end of the essay? On page 104, Williams said, “There is not limit to the extent to which we can think ourselves into the being of another?” What do you think of this statement? Do you agree or disagree with it?