Reviews
The Companion Species Manifesto: Dogs, People, and Significant Otherness by Donna J. Haraway
600bars's review against another edition
2.0
-i love dogs so easier to get thru for me than theory usually is
-certain tidbits i really liked--like the part about unconditional love bc I'm currently on a bender about how i hate the narrative of love being easy etc
-i facetimed my dog yesterday and i was reading cyborg manifesto then today read companion species and its funny bc u could see my phone as my companion or me+phone as a cyborg and i was talking to my dog as my cyborg self
-overall it seemed a little meandery tho. i guess i like that its a good example of different species coexisting and interacting. But the human-dog relationship is definitely not gonna mirror any other kin relationship imo, plus there's the fact that she clearly fucking loves dogs. I'm about to read the cthulucene book for a class tho so maybe that will clarify more about Kin.
-how do i not think about furries and stuart little and the dolphin-sex man while reading this
-i am really surprised that disability didn't show up as a huge topic in either this or the cyborg manifesto. (there was some vague biotech stuff in CM i guess). sic fi cyborgs in movies are often in existence because they were "repaired" from an injury. service dogs are one of the first things i think of when human-dog relationships are discussed. Im just surprised since there is so much to unpack there
-the part about loving a "kind" of dog rather than individual dogs... my aunt got the same type of dog as the one she had had for several years and i was appalled. i will never do that because to me it feels like replacing a member of the family.
-idk i maybe need to think on this some more. i don't know a lot about dog training pedagogy aside from a youtube channel that convinced me about bite chains being a good idea. this book had opposite ideas on training dogs. when i think about humans I'm against prisons and shit & want restorative justice yet I was very convinced by the punishment framework from the youtube channel. hm. maybe i will have to read haraways "birth of the kennel" lecture.
-my dog didn't have a professional training situation and she is the sweetest most obedient thing and its just her personality and i don't give a shit if I'm anthropomorphizing her and seeing "love" in a way that isn't real/good
-certain tidbits i really liked--like the part about unconditional love bc I'm currently on a bender about how i hate the narrative of love being easy etc
-i facetimed my dog yesterday and i was reading cyborg manifesto then today read companion species and its funny bc u could see my phone as my companion or me+phone as a cyborg and i was talking to my dog as my cyborg self
-overall it seemed a little meandery tho. i guess i like that its a good example of different species coexisting and interacting. But the human-dog relationship is definitely not gonna mirror any other kin relationship imo, plus there's the fact that she clearly fucking loves dogs. I'm about to read the cthulucene book for a class tho so maybe that will clarify more about Kin.
-how do i not think about furries and stuart little and the dolphin-sex man while reading this
-i am really surprised that disability didn't show up as a huge topic in either this or the cyborg manifesto. (there was some vague biotech stuff in CM i guess). sic fi cyborgs in movies are often in existence because they were "repaired" from an injury. service dogs are one of the first things i think of when human-dog relationships are discussed. Im just surprised since there is so much to unpack there
-the part about loving a "kind" of dog rather than individual dogs... my aunt got the same type of dog as the one she had had for several years and i was appalled. i will never do that because to me it feels like replacing a member of the family.
-idk i maybe need to think on this some more. i don't know a lot about dog training pedagogy aside from a youtube channel that convinced me about bite chains being a good idea. this book had opposite ideas on training dogs. when i think about humans I'm against prisons and shit & want restorative justice yet I was very convinced by the punishment framework from the youtube channel. hm. maybe i will have to read haraways "birth of the kennel" lecture.
-my dog didn't have a professional training situation and she is the sweetest most obedient thing and its just her personality and i don't give a shit if I'm anthropomorphizing her and seeing "love" in a way that isn't real/good
comradec's review against another edition
5.0
Did I understand everything Haraway said? Absolutely not. Did I understand enough to love this pamphlet? Absolutely yes.
Haraway uses dogs to theorize on significant otherness, and living/loving/bonding/being with significant otherness/companion species. The messy, bad, and beautiful past & present (on various scales; evolutionary, historical, and face-to-face) of a couple different dog breeds/types are discussed to highlight;
“Dog people need to learn how to inherit difficult histories in order to shape more vital multi-species futures.”
BEAUTIFUL, RESONATED WITH MINE OWN SOUL. And that applies to more than just dogs, it applies to any and all significant otherness we coexist with. Also, I learned a lot of cool stuff about dogs. Also, I definitely need to read Haraway’s Cyborg Manifesto because when she talks about cyborgs I have no idea how to conceptualize that, but it only gets brought up a bit in the beginning of the read.
Haraway uses dogs to theorize on significant otherness, and living/loving/bonding/being with significant otherness/companion species. The messy, bad, and beautiful past & present (on various scales; evolutionary, historical, and face-to-face) of a couple different dog breeds/types are discussed to highlight;
“Dog people need to learn how to inherit difficult histories in order to shape more vital multi-species futures.”
BEAUTIFUL, RESONATED WITH MINE OWN SOUL. And that applies to more than just dogs, it applies to any and all significant otherness we coexist with. Also, I learned a lot of cool stuff about dogs. Also, I definitely need to read Haraway’s Cyborg Manifesto because when she talks about cyborgs I have no idea how to conceptualize that, but it only gets brought up a bit in the beginning of the read.
thebaileygrind1001's review against another edition
1.0
If a professor assigns this book, run. If a crush says they love this book, run. David Foster Wallace is less pretentious and that's something I never thought I'd say. One star because I love dogs.
myreadingcorner_'s review against another edition
2.0
I really liked the chapter of Love Stories, but that's it. As a manifesto it is not a very easy read, yet for a complex read, it does not feel too grounded on theory. I think there were some good ideas, but they were executed poorly. Also, she frequently jumps from one thing to another without fully developing certain topics. As my first time reading Donna Haraway I'm quite disappointed.
colin_lavery's review against another edition
3.0
Not her best academic work, but sweet nonetheless and actually, in my opinion, does a lot to bridge the gap that many try to wedge between the emotional and the intellectual. This came from a place of love.
mburnamfink's review against another edition
4.0
Haraway is a titan of feminist studies of science and technology but did you also know that she's a crazy dog lady? The Companion Species Manifesto is a love letter to Canis familiaris in general, and Cayenne Pepper, an Australian Shepherd, in particular.
This brief volume is a sequel-parody of her famous Cyborg Manifesto (may we all write something so wildly interpreted), but focusing on dogginess, the love of dogs, the intense awareness and trust of human/dog agility competition, domesticity, significant otherness, knotty prehensions and technobiopolitics. It is 100% Haraway, and totally weird and incomprehensible. Meditations on feminist approaches to science studies intertwine with descriptions of dog training methods, and the ongoing conflict between AKC 'purity' and working dog hybridity.
I can't say what I got out of this book. Honestly, I tend to take Haraway as performance art, an academic version of Lord Buckley. It's cool, well-researched, and very flashy, but almost impossible to follow.
This brief volume is a sequel-parody of her famous Cyborg Manifesto (may we all write something so wildly interpreted), but focusing on dogginess, the love of dogs, the intense awareness and trust of human/dog agility competition, domesticity, significant otherness, knotty prehensions and technobiopolitics. It is 100% Haraway, and totally weird and incomprehensible. Meditations on feminist approaches to science studies intertwine with descriptions of dog training methods, and the ongoing conflict between AKC 'purity' and working dog hybridity.
I can't say what I got out of this book. Honestly, I tend to take Haraway as performance art, an academic version of Lord Buckley. It's cool, well-researched, and very flashy, but almost impossible to follow.