AustLit

 (Publication abstract)

'We are a lonely species, dwelling on an isolated ridge; aspiring to be with gods, resigned to living with animals.

'We live with animals in many ways, in a blend of fact and fiction. A number of them, livestock, the chickens and cows of the world, we exploit mercilessly in their millions, milking them, killing them, stealing their eggs. This happens furtively, in industrial slaughterhouses and dairies that don’t advertise themselves, to animals that we keep in scrupulous anonymity.' (Publication summary) 

‘In human reckoning, Golden Ages are always already in the past. The Greek poet Hesiod, in Works and Days, posited Five Ages of Mankind: Golden, Silver, Bronze, Heroic and Iron (Ovid made do with four). Writing in the Romantic period, Thomas Love Peacock (author of such now almost forgotten novels as Nightmare Abbey, 1818) defined The Four Ages of Poetry (1820) in which their order was Iron, Gold, Silver and Bronze. To the Golden Age, in their archaic greatness, belonged Homer and Aeschylus. The Silver Age, following it, was less original, but nevertheless 'the age of civilised life'. The main issue of Peacock's thesis was the famous response that he elicited from his friend Shelley - Defence of Poetry (1821).’ (Publication abstract)