Thomas Pynchons Animal Tales: Fables for Ecocriticism

Throughout his works, Thomas Pynchon uses various animal characters to narrate fables that are vital to postmodernism and ecocriticism. Thomas Pynchons Animal Tales: Fables for Ecocriticism examines case studies of animal representation in Pynchons texts, such as alligators in the sewer in V.; the alligator purse in Bleeding Edge; dolphins in the Miami Seaquarium in The Crying of Lot 49; dodoes, pigs, and octopuses in Gravitys Rainbow; Bigfoot and Godzilla in Vineland and Inherent Vice; and preternatural dogs and mythical worms in Mason & Dixon and Against the Day. Through this exploration, Keita Hatooka illuminates how radically and imaginatively the legendary novelist depicts his empathy for nonhuman beings that live somewhere between the civilized and uncivilized, the tamed and untamed, and the preternatural and supernatural. Furthermore, by conducting a comparative study of Pynchons narratives and his contemporary documentarians and thinkers, Thomas Pynchons Animal Tales leads readers to draw great lessons from the fables that Pynchon offers to stimulate our ecocritical thought for tomorrow.