"It's not really a zoo, though, is it?" Blanche said hesitantly.
"What do you mean?"
"Real zoos have live animals."
"So? Is an animal not an animal any more once it's dead? In nature, lots of animals are dead right now. Most animals are dead a lot longer than they're alive. Death is normal. Life is weird."
She looked dubious. I switched tracks. "Animals are easier to look at when they're dead. This is a fact about animals: they live to hide. If you can see it, it's probably dead. Remember that, Blanche." Dead animals soak up your looks, I explained, and never get enough. Live animals like to stay just out of reach of your look. Maybe you see a bit of a hind leg. Then they pull that in too. Live animals are practically defined as animals you can't see completely. Like black holes, the way they look is like your failure to see them. I don't mean they just happen to be out of sight, like a shoe under the bed. They way they look is they're out-of-sightness. The good thing about this is it means you can see them all the time, whenever you want. Invisible animals are all around you. Here's another thing to remember: if you can't see it, it's alive. Every time the world seems boring and lonely, that's exactly when you're surrounded.
"You can see animals in normal zoos, though," Blanche said doubtfully.
"No, you can't."
"Well..."
"You think those are animals?" I said. She looked confused. "You think you're looking at a tiger. But how do you know? Have you ever seen a real tiger?"
"Aren't those real?"
"No! A real tiger is in the jungle. A tiger in a room isn't a tiger. You can't see tigers! That's the point of tigers! Except dead ones. Dead tigers, you can see. That's why our zoo is better. Zoos are for looking, and dead things are for looking at."
Half Life ~ Shelley Jackson
I like to read. And I'm a failure at reading at the moment, but that's going to change. I'm a gamer. Like.. uber.
I have a boyfriend. I've had one for 1/4 of my whole life. Wanna know what's cool about that? It's only been one. Yeah, I'm fairly badass. *flex*
I just needed to change things up. I'll edit the hell out of all of this at some point.
