Date: Wednesday, June 11
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: FREE!! (More here)
*** Offsite at The Bell House (149 7th Street, Brooklyn NY 11215; Map here)
Presented by Morbid Anatomy
***Copies of Animal Madness will be available for sale and signing
Tonight we hope you’ll join us for an evening celebrating animal minds on the fringe-both human and non-as explored in the new book Animal Madness: How anxious dogs, compulsive parrots and elephants in recovery help us understand ourselves by writer and historian of science Laurel Braitman. The book is a tale of insanity in the animal kingdom and the ways in which creatures like compulsively-masturbating orangutans or wombats on anti-psychotic drugs have helped humans make sense of our own wild minds, and how to heal them.
For tonight’s event, Laurel Braitman will read selections from her book touching on such topics as bonobos with human psychiatrists, the story of “Animal Pharm,” and killer elephants who are rehabilitated back into society after “psychotic breaks.” Journalist, humorist and documentary maker Jon Ronson will disclose a little of his next project (suspense!), tell stories from his book The Psychopath Test, and give a sneak preview into his work-in-progress book on the topic of public shaming; there will be vintage short films from Oddball Films including “The Cat Who Drank and Used Too Much,” (1987) “In a Harem” (about a poodle in a harem); I’m Mad at Me (1974), a mini-musical of children’s anger and frustration, “Mae West Meets Mr. Ed,” a claymation version of Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species and ” Caninabis - The Junky Dog (Color, 1979)! There will also be selections from Dana Sherwood‘s “Banquets in the Dark Wildness” film series; phrenology readings by author Colin Dickey, music, drinks, and more. Copies of Animal Madness will be available for sale and signing along with Jon’s books.
Jon Ronson‘s nonfiction books, The Psychopath Test, Them: Adventures with Extremists, Lost at Sea and The Men Who Stare At Goats, have all been international and New York Times bestsellers. The Men Who Stare At Goats was adapted into a film starring George Clooney. His most recent book is Frank: The True Story That Inspired The Movie. In the US he’s a regular contributor to the PRI show This American Life. Frank, a new movie co-written by Jon, will be released in the US in August, and stars Michael Fassbender and Maggie Gyllenhaal. He is currently working on a book about public shaming for publication in early 2015.
Laurel Braitman is author of Animal Madness: How anxious dogs, compulsive parrots and elephants in recovery help us understand ourselves (Simon & Schuster, June 2014). She just completed her PhD in history and anthropology of science at MIT and has written for Cabinet, The New Inquiry, Orion and other publications and performed live for Pop Up Magazine in San Francisco. When she isn’t writing, she is organizing concerts for gorillas, sea lions and buffalo. She is an affiliate artist at the Headlands Center for the Arts and lives on a houseboat in Sausalito, California.