Moving On: Human/Animal Hybrids

I'm taking a break from screaming back in the health care debate because the other day, I was free-associating on my bike commute home and somehow I came to the subject of Human/Animal hybrids. Those who oppose them are pretty convinced that such creatures must never be allowed.

Not so fast, man-creature!

Back in the days when I used to read books, I was a fan of Cordwainer Smith, whose short stories and novel about a future universe with a repeating cast of characters and history entralled me. Many of his best characters are human/animal hybrids, and they're noble, put-upon beings. Relegated to a permanent underclass of minimum-wage labor despite being superior to us both physically and intellectually, the dog-people and cat-folk are often depicted fighting for the basic rights that you and I already enjoy. Obviously the seeds of this oppression are being sown today, even though the stories take place 24,000 years from now.

I'd also recommend LIVES OF THE MONSTER DOGS, a 1997 novel by Kristen Bakis which is as haunting as it is enjoyable. From the NY Times Review:

Ms. Bakis's characters are strange hybrids of man and beast, genetically engineered in the late 20th century by the acolytes of a 19th-century Prussian madman, whose warped dream it was to produce a killer race of ''dog soldiers.'' Dressed in vintage military jackets with shiny buttons, these creatures walk upright and speak with the aid of mechanical voice synthesizers. Many wear spectacles or perch pince-nez atop their cold, wet noses. All have prosthetic hands, the brutality of whose surgical attachment they conceal under elegant gloves.

Bakis pulls it off somehow.

Read this stuff. Human/Animal hybrids are actually not so bad. Don't be so governed by fear, sheeple!