By removing the opposition between animal and human, Beast and Man, Mary began to see that she could start to dissolve the paradox at the heart of our self-understanding (‘I know I am one of Nature’s little kings’). Our lives are animal lives that are in many ways continuous with those of fleas, gorillas, cats and jackdaws. Even our sense of our own dignity and importance does not distinguish us; each animal knows itself a ‘little king’ in its own domain, Mary thought. Later, she would write, ‘the bird’s song is not just a mechanical advance indicator of the violence with which intruders will
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