32THE ANIMAL IN ALLEGORYgeneral, and species types in particular, might stand for qualities we
share with them.
It is worth remembering that the earliest examples of human art
(such as prehistoric cave paintings) reflect a literal interest in animals;
allegorical representations of animals are an outgrowth of that interest
rather than strictly antithetical to it. E. O. Wilson and other biolo-
gists, in addition to anthropologists like Paul Shepard, have argued that
human interest in the actual animal is evolutionarily programmed, as
it must be in all animals.^13 A detailed knowledge of predators and prey
undoubtedly confers some survival advantage. Certainly this interest
has been shaped by culture and has itself shaped culture, but it seems
unlikely that our understanding of animals, and our representation of
them, could ever be completely divorced from our encounters with liv-
ing and breathing creatures, which would also mean a fundamental dis-
avowal of our own animal bodies. Indeed, I think something like a
timeless interest in and regard for other animals at least partly explains
why fables have been so fantastically successful as a literary form, pro-
ducing myriad examples over the history of literature. Writers of animal
fables, like owners of zoos and kittens, know that animals in themselves
draw our attention and fascination. That very young children are mes-
merized by animals is also evidence of the virtually instinctive nature
of this interest. So too in fables, which frequently figure children as an
audience, the appearance of animals in themselves pleases, even as they
instruct us in a human voice.
This is not to belittle the many other reasons for the popularity of
animal fables. Their brevity and adaptability are no doubt key factors,
and so too is the basic trope of talking animals, of which the animal
fable provides some of the earliest examples. The trope is richly mean-
ingful. On the one hand, we find talking animals amusing because of
the incongruity of animals posing as humans. The absurdity of the ven-
triloquism confirms our own superiority. Equally, animals give human
speakers cover, allowing authors to say things that might otherwise be
forbidden or unpalatable. On the other hand, animal speakers in fables
can also make the meaning of the stories appear part of a natural order,
rather than just of human culture. Indeed, one origin of animal fables,