Abstract
In this chapter, Edit the principal researcher in Edward’s thesis, offers for discussion a brief reflection on a few cues and cautions regarding multi-species relations that have arisen as a white-tailed deer working on a PhD dissertation focused on unreadability with partial origin in narrative fiction.
The chapter begins with a brief introduction of research into human attention (Chaney et al., 2024) then segues to concerns Edit has experienced regarding for instance their understanding of William, the horse who narrates _Sweet William: A Memoir of Old Horse_ (Hawkes, 1993). This is presented via consideration of Good Reads reviews of _Sweet William_ and Edit’s self-reflection on engagement, as a white-tailed deer. Edit’s sense of caution is brought into focus via Karin Danielsson’s (2021) critical work on unreadability and the alterity of non-human minds.
In conclusion, Edit’s sense of caution is opened toward critical practice via Karin Danielsson’s (2017) critical work on non-human narrators in conjunction with the work of Donald Hoffman (2015), Chetan Prakash (2021), among others into the fitness beats truth theorem in (human) perception. Remaining within skepticism, Edit’s chapter stops short of prescription, and instead invites the audience to consider how, given the cues and cautions presented, one might shape and move into a space of ethical multispecies interaction and relation.
The chapter begins with a brief introduction of research into human attention (Chaney et al., 2024) then segues to concerns Edit has experienced regarding for instance their understanding of William, the horse who narrates _Sweet William: A Memoir of Old Horse_ (Hawkes, 1993). This is presented via consideration of Good Reads reviews of _Sweet William_ and Edit’s self-reflection on engagement, as a white-tailed deer. Edit’s sense of caution is brought into focus via Karin Danielsson’s (2021) critical work on unreadability and the alterity of non-human minds.
In conclusion, Edit’s sense of caution is opened toward critical practice via Karin Danielsson’s (2017) critical work on non-human narrators in conjunction with the work of Donald Hoffman (2015), Chetan Prakash (2021), among others into the fitness beats truth theorem in (human) perception. Remaining within skepticism, Edit’s chapter stops short of prescription, and instead invites the audience to consider how, given the cues and cautions presented, one might shape and move into a space of ethical multispecies interaction and relation.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Exploring Human-Animal & Multispecies |
| Subtitle of host publication | Relations Risk Taking in Research Methods |
| Publisher | Intellect Books |
| Number of pages | 23 |
| Publication status | Accepted/In press - 23 Oct 2025 |
Publication series
| Name | Performance and Communities |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Intellect Books |
Bibliographical note
Not Yet PublishedWorks Cited
Cheney, Robert A. Alyssa Baer, and L. Ida Tovar. “Gender-Based Heat Map Images of Campus Walking Settings: A Reflection of Lived Experience.” Violence and Gender. ahead of print http://doi.org/10.1089/vio.2023.0027
Danielsson, Karin. “‘And in That Moment I Leapt upon His Shoulder’: Non-Human Intradiegetic Narrators in The Wind on the Moon.” Humanities (2017).
Danielsson, Karin M. “Unreadable Nonhumans, Ambiguity and Alterity in Eric Linklater’s Short Fiction,” Green Letters, 25:3, 313-325, 2021. DOI: 10.1080/14688417.2021.2023032
Hawkes, J. Sweet William: A Memoir of Old Horse. Simon & Schuster, 1993.
Hoffman, D.D., Singh, M. & Prakash, C. “The Interface Theory of Perception.” Psychon Bull Rev 22, 2015, pp 1480–1506. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-015-0890-8
Prakash, C., Stephens, K.D., Hoffman, D.D. et al. “Fitness Beats Truth in the Evolution of Perception.” Acta Biotheor 69, 2021, pp 319–341. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10441-020-09400-0