In Defense of Penguins

As a result of my recent foray into the (unfortunately sparse) literature on Utopian Socialist societies, I've been experimenting over break with a Shaker lifestyle. I get up very early, work steadily but not relentlessly, and commit myself to a new standard of cleanliness and simplicity. By experimenting, that is to say I got the idea two nights ago, worked fairly seriously at it yesterday, and threw in the towel when I turned off my alarm this morning at whatever ungodly predawn hour it was when it rang. Dragging myself out of bed at the much more reasonable spring break hour of 9:30, I was ready to beat a hasty retreat from modernity once more when I saw the staggering volume of emails in my inbox. I've gotten most of the way through them, though, and this one from my friend Niklas made it worth my time:

Isaac,

While I think Darwin's Nightmare is one of the best documentaries I've ever seen, if not the best, there surely is no need to slag off penguins [see my previous post]. For they are the coolest, and motherfuckin' hardest, wonders of the animal kingdom. And they practice mutual aid. At 50 degress below, in arctic snowstorms. After not having eaten for four months. So there.

Niklas may or may not be aware that the morality of penguins has in fact been a point of contention recently. Conservative columnists have had a field day with this movie, claiming that it underscores that lifelong monogomous heterosexual relationships are the only natural form. They had to be disappointed to discover that penguins have their share of gay partners (successfully raising a child!) and prostitutes (on a serious note-- please don't mistake me as equating the two). Last but not least, there is always gang rape, exhibitionism, group sex and cross-dressing. Credit to Long Sunday and Crooked Timber for some of these references.

While I would like to see a source for the communistic tendencies of our Arctic comrades, I'm willing take Niklas' word for it. At the very least I can agree that it may be inappropriate to "slag off penguins" just because I don't like the turnout at the Oscars. But I don't see anything wrong with just hitting them with a club, especially since it sounds like he says "whee!" when he bounces off the snow. And if you can read Latvian (and Niklas probably can), this guy seems to agree with me. For those of you not offended by the exploitation of pingu labor power, you may also enjoy the other offerings from Yeti Sports. I used to be especially fond of Flamingo Drive, but I haven't actually had time to play those games since I came across them a year or two ago with my brother Josiah and friend BJ.

One final note: the promised writeup on the visit with Marcel van der Linden is still forthcoming. I'm feeling pressed to get going on this because the email from Niklas reminds me of the last time I was supposed to write something on a visiting scholar (Gary Nash) and completely dropped the ball. So, since I'm somehow maintaining a steady pool of about 12-15 regular visitors and another 5-10 strangers each day, I ought to get on top of that. Look for it this weekend.