In this episode 163, we visit with Jordan O’Donnell, author of Zoon Garden, a political allegory and social critique of the human experience in the spirit of George Orwell’s Animal Farm.
Charlotte Readers Podcast is sponsored by Charlotte Mecklenburg Library.
In this episode 163, we visit with Jordan O’Donnell, author of Zoon Garden, a political allegory and social critique of the human experience in the spirit of George Orwell’s Animal Farm.
In Zoon Garden, when the mysterious zookeeper of Clarendon Zoo grants his animals freedom to govern themselves, the creatures create a new land founded upon life, liberty, and happiness for all animals. Though the land seems to function well, each species soon realizes they have differing visions for how the land should be governed.
With the help of Eagle and Owl’s propaganda, the traditional wolves and the progressive sheep quickly emerge as leaders. The two species fight to spread their contradictory visions, pitting the animals against one another, and inadvertently throw the zoo into chaos. Screeching pigeons flood the sky as animals make their opinions known, fact becomes fiction, fiction becomes fact, truth becomes impossible to discern. The wolves and sheep slowly destroy the very land they claim to lead.
