“The Death Issue” December 2015 1

And I don't care what anybody says, if I live to be three thousand years old, encounters
like that will always be magical to be, as something about wonder, because I don't know
how that mind is apprehending the world around it. I can see it looking at me and
thinking, how does that thing get around, how does it see its world, but you know, a mole.
I remember getting moles in a garden I used to have. And my neighbour just said to me,
oh, you just bury bottles, half into the grown and the wind blows across it and it drives
them crazy and they all move somewhere else. And I thought I couldn't do that to them.
How can I do that just for some nice lawn? And you do see what happens to animals who
they do drive crazy. Mad bears walking up and down, gorillas. I take the kids to the zoo so
they can see the animals, but they sense it. We were watching a gorilla in one zoo and my
youngest says, where does he go? He thought he was coming to do a little performance
and then goes off somewhere. Where does he go when he's finished? I said no. So where is
his lair? There's one silver back and three or four others
OV: and always seem so mournful. It's interesting that as a society we seem, when we
have animals in programmes, or the internet, whatever, we either emphasise their
violence and their wildness – this is how poisonous they are, this is how big their claws
are -, or humanise them. Look at this cute cat. All of that. It's a weird relationship we
have with them. We don't want to just understand the animal as it is.
JB: it's what we used to do with other races, but aren't allowed to do that anymore. Oh
look at that nice black person from Jamaica with all that rhythm and colourfulness, or look
at that nasty Russian drinking vodka, probably wants to diddle your daughter. Images of
other races. And of course, most of feel like we can't do that kind of stuff any more. We do
it on animals instead now. Kangaroos are just funny, aren't they? Unless you stand next to
one and annoy it. Bears are kind of cute but, you know, some of the stories I've heard
about bear encounters, they're pretty horrifying
OV: yeah, have you seen the Herzog film, Grizzly Man? I mean it's -
JB: yeah. That's a different thing, that guy was not well! But bears, people say you live in
bear country – most people do in bear country – they have very elaborate systems where
people get paid to monitor where bears are, where they can, so for example you get a big
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