Is Your Dog a Post-Modernist?

Not only does David Wroblewski tell portions of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle from a dog's point of view (and think of the many ways that could go wrong), he is also startlingly observant about these creatures so close at hand that, perhaps, we take them for granted. Take this wonderful sentence about Almondine: "The swing of her tail rocked her chest and shoulders like a counterweight." For writers, that's one of those now why didn't I think of that sentences.

This description of Almondine made me recall a comment at the Inprint Gala a few years back that had me laughing out loud. Poet Mark Doty was one of the readers that night. In a preamble to one of his poems, he explained that he'd been asked to contribute to an unusual anthology: one comprised of poems about, or spoken from the point of view of, a dog. It was at that point, Doty remarked, that he discovered that his dog was a formalist. (The clever canine's contribution was, if memory serves me right, a sonnet.) My own dog, I must record, is a great connoisseur of public radio podcasts, especially KCRW's Bookworm (personally I doubt if our segmented friends are as bookish as man's best friend). I know this because every time I reach for my iPod, the mutt starts wagging her tail avidly (like a counterweight)--because she knows we're going out for a walk.

On a more serious note, Doty has written at much greater length about the subject in his acclaimed memoir Dog Years.

Posted on Thu, January 21, 2010 by Robert Cremins

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