A Combative Coexistence

I agree with Maddie that our lives as humans are inherently intertwined and that we cannot truly understand and relate to other non-human animals. However, I wanted to focus on the likeness between animals and humans. Haraway addresses this idea by presenting the illustration Meeting of the American Association of Lapdogs. In this illustration, the lapdogs are bothered by the influence of laptops. However, the likeness between the lapdogs and the laptops in this pun is that, from the human perspective, they both occupy space on one’s lap.

To consider the lapdogs and the laptops as representations of the relationship between humans and animals is to conceive the idea that we as beings all occupy space on this earth. It doesn’t necessarily suggest a hierarchy, with the exception of the role of the absent humans, but a sort of combative coexistence. I think this is an interesting, because, while Haraway’s focus is the connection between humans and other beings, this observation seems to present the idea that we don’t connect in a cohesive way as one might presume.