Mother Jones magazine has an interview with Toby Barlow, author of the fantastic free-verse werewolf novel Sharp Teeth (I’m halfway through my copy, and I strongly recommend it). The interview focuses pretty heavily on the dynamic of human / animal interaction and the potential benefits of a wolf-pack structure in human society.
I think human beings have all these tools for social connection, which should bring us together but instead causes all sorts of confusion and discombobulation. With dogs, they’re either fighting or they’re falling asleep on one another’s necks. It’s a much simpler form of community that they’ve come up with. I agree, people are oftentimes very self-congratulatory about the civilization we’ve built around us, when in fact lying at our feet are much simpler and more satisfied societies.
Read the entire interview here.