ABSTRACT
Chapter 6 focuses on the human-animal bond in Mean Spirit, Hogan's message-driven novel, which draws on insights gained in course of the writer's poetic contemplation, restaging scenes and reintroducing motifs used in her poems. Once again, Hogan launches a plea for compassion toward all earth beings, and focuses on animals as teachers of wisdom and allies in anti-colonial resurgence. From the majestic (horses), through the despised (bats, stray dogs), to the humble and nearly invisible (bees), the animals in Mean Spirit are depicted as dependable companions, models of intelligence, of cooperative spirit and companionship, endowed with a sense of humor (horses), an instinct for justice (bees), and feelings of responsibility for, and gratitude to, their human friends (dogs). Looking for answers to questions concerning the ending of violence and the possibility of multispecies thriving, Hogan advances the idea that, alienated from the more-than-human context, a self-standing individual is bound to turn (self-)destructive because he or she is merely a stage in the movement of the species toward humanity-in-relation: a complete humanimal being.
