# SDMB Book Club - The Call of the Wild **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 15, 2015, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-book-club-the-call-of-the-wild/709886 "2015-01-15T13:24:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![pbbth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f9ae1b/32.png) [@pbbth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pbbth)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2015, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-book-club-the-call-of-the-wild/709886/1 "2015-01-15T13:24:33Z")
Howdy folks! It is time to talk about Jack London’s The Call of the Wild. I’m opening this up to comments for a few hours before I come back and post my own opinion, so please let us know what you thought of the book! ---
**Author:** ![pbbth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f9ae1b/32.png) [@pbbth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pbbth)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2015, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-book-club-the-call-of-the-wild/709886/2 "2015-01-16T01:06:19Z")
I was so excited about this month after The Woman in White turned out to be so great and I’ve got to say I was very disappointed. I couldn’t even finish the story, not because it wasn’t a good book but because it was such an upsetting read. They kidnapped him, beat him, starved him, choked him, etc. from the very first page of the book and I have a very difficult time with bad things happening to animals in books and movies. I got 15% into the book and decided I couldn’t read any more and put it away. I really wanted to like it but it was just too much for me. ---
**Author:** ![Helena330](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/helena330/32/531_2.png) [@Helena330](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena330)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2015, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-book-club-the-call-of-the-wild/709886/3 "2015-01-16T01:08:25Z")
Oh crap. Maybe I don’t want to read it, either. ---
**Author:** ![Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2015, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-book-club-the-call-of-the-wild/709886/4 "2015-01-16T01:34:22Z")
I liked it! It was a pretty brutal in places, but Buck’s initial “breaking” was mercifully brief, and I was glad to see that he became absorbed in the work, and became top dog again. I was nervous every time he changed owners, and glad to see that most were demanding but fair, as Buck saw it. When we finally reach the truly bad owners - is it better or worse that their abuse is the result of incompetence and desperation, rather than calculated cruelty? I enjoyed Buck’s transformation from an “unduly civilized” dog to a lean, cunning creature not much tamer than his distant savage ancestors. London waxes poetic in describing this metamorphosis, but I thought he got a little carried away with the eruption of ancestral memories, as when Buck dreams about sharing a fire with pre-human cavemen. My favorite passage: > [@](#): > > Love, genuine passionate love, was his for the first time. This he had never experienced at Judge Miller’s down in the sun-kissed Santa Clara Valley. With the Judge’s sons, hunting and tramping, it had been a working partnership; with the Judge’s grandsons, a sort of pompous guardianship; and with the Judge himself, a stately and dignified friendship. But love that was feverish and burning, that was adoration, that was madness, it had taken John Thornton to arouse. ---
**Author:** ![pbbth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f9ae1b/32.png) [@pbbth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pbbth)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2015, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-book-club-the-call-of-the-wild/709886/5 "2015-01-16T04:42:04Z")
> [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](#): > > I liked it! It was a pretty brutal in places, but Buck’s initial “breaking” was mercifully brief, and I was glad to see that he became absorbed in the work, and became top dog again. I was nervous every time he changed owners, and glad to see that most were demanding but fair, as Buck saw it. > > When we finally reach the truly bad owners - is it better or worse that their abuse is the result of incompetence and desperation, rather than calculated cruelty? > > I enjoyed Buck’s transformation from an “unduly civilized” dog to a lean, cunning creature not much tamer than his distant savage ancestors. London waxes poetic in describing this metamorphosis, but I thought he got a little carried away with the eruption of ancestral memories, as when Buck dreams about sharing a fire with pre-human cavemen. > > My favorite passage: I’m glad you enjoyed it! I just couldn’t do it. I had to go give my dog extra scritches and belly pettings after reading the first part of the book, promising no one would ever hurt her or try to take her away like that. I’m happy to hear that he gets to be top dog again after all he went through. ---
**Author:** ![pbbth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f9ae1b/32.png) [@pbbth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pbbth)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2015, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-book-club-the-call-of-the-wild/709886/6 "2015-01-16T16:23:47Z")
Anyone else get a chance to read CotW? Anyone? Bueller? ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2015, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-book-club-the-call-of-the-wild/709886/7 "2015-01-16T22:10:12Z")
> [@pbbth](#): > > … it was such an upsetting read. They kidnapped him, beat him, starved him, choked him, etc. from the very first page of the book and I have a very difficult time with bad things happening to animals in books and movies. … I share that feeling; those passages were hard to read. Also, I wasn’t really convinced by the repeated assertions that the dogs “loved their work,” despite that work killing them with exertion and exposure and lack of food. Certainly humans have always tried to breed dogs that are eager to please (and thus, over the millennia, let the not-eager-to-please character traits die out)…but the specifics about pride in one’s place in the sled-team seemed a bit anthropomorphized. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2015, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-book-club-the-call-of-the-wild/709886/8 "2015-01-16T22:54:48Z")
It’s in the public domain, here’s an online site: [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/215/215-h/215-h.htm](http://www.gutenberg.org/files/215/215-h/215-h.htm) ---
**Author:** ![pbbth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f9ae1b/32.png) [@pbbth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pbbth)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2015, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-book-club-the-call-of-the-wild/709886/9 "2015-01-17T03:09:59Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > I share that feeling; those passages were hard to read. > > Also, I wasn’t really convinced by the repeated assertions that the dogs “loved their work,” despite that work killing them with exertion and exposure and lack of food. Yeah, dogs love to make their people happy and keep busy but I don’t imagine dogs would enjoy the type of work that they were being used for in the book. When I went to Finland I went dog sledding and the huskies loved what they did, looking back at you when you stopped them as if to say, “Come on, lady, we have more running to do!” but they got to go back to their nice little homes with their plentiful food and loving people to brush their fur and rub their bellies when they were done. ---
**Author:** ![pohjonen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pohjonen/32/423_2.png) [@pohjonen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pohjonen)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2015, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-book-club-the-call-of-the-wild/709886/10 "2015-01-17T19:53:38Z")
It has been many decades since I read it but I was wondering if it was _Call of the Wild_ that contained the part about a man transporting a body by sled and being followed by hungry wolves. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2015, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-book-club-the-call-of-the-wild/709886/11 "2015-01-17T23:22:00Z")
> [@pohjonen](#): > > It has been many decades since I read it but I was wondering if it was _Call of the Wild_ that contained the part about a man transporting a body by sled and being followed by hungry wolves. The sequel, _White Fang_ ---
**Author:** ![MsKaren](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a183cd/32.png) [@MsKaren](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsKaren)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2015, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-book-club-the-call-of-the-wild/709886/12 "2015-01-18T02:39:28Z")
I really liked this book when I read it first lo-o-o-ong ago as a kid. That said, as tough and knowledgeable as today’s kids see themselves about all things violent, I think most modern kids would be shocked. Animal violence has really moved into a crosses-the-line area. That modern sensibility (along with today’s sensitivity to racism, sexism, and other of the past’s common disparagements of the disabled or children) is a good thing. I’m just saying it makes seeing the story without being overwhelmed by the violence and pain difficult. The story is very moving to me. I love how Buck learns, and makes moral choices. He never loses his intelligence or dignity, even when making tough choices like fighting to be lead dog, or refusing to tow those fools’ ridiculous possessions over the thin ice, or seeking revenge against the Indians. Buck befriended the weaker and marginalized dogs as a sled dog. Did he learn that from the Judge? Maybe. Back then, with the judge when he was a happy dog, Buck was not a deep thinker nor passionately in love with his people. “Love, genuine passionate love, was his for the first time. This he had never experienced at Judge Miller’s down in the sun-kissed Santa Clara Valley. With the Judge’s sons, hunting and tramping, it had been a working partnership; with the Judge’s grandsons, a sort of pompous guardianship; and with the Judge himself, a stately and dignified friendship. But love that was feverish and burning, that was adoration, that was madness, it had taken John Thornton to arouse.” Jack London gives Buck as much depth and dignity as any author has given any character, and, like so many stories about men and women, Buck suffered greatly to reach his potential and live a life true to himself. ---
**Author:** ![pbbth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f9ae1b/32.png) [@pbbth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pbbth)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-book-club-the-call-of-the-wild/709886/13 "2015-01-19T04:18:21Z")
Okay, based on the poll responses I’m choosing Frankenstein to be our book for next month. Hopefully that one will generate a little more conversation in February! ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-book-club-the-call-of-the-wild/709886/14 "2015-01-19T21:18:36Z")
> [@MsKaren](#): > > I really liked this book when I read it first lo-o-o-ong ago as a kid. That said, as tough and knowledgeable as today’s kids see themselves about all things violent, I think most modern kids would be shocked. Animal violence has really moved into a crosses-the-line area. … This made me curious about the question of _The Call of the Wild_ being assigned reading in schools: has that changed, though the years? After all, it’s a short book that contains no sex or profanity, and is about animals–which would have made it a natural for school reading lists. But as you say, attitudes change, and the violence against animals that might have been glossed over in earlier decades is more likely to be challenged today. Some results of my search: > [@](#): > > Generally hailed as Jack London’s best work, The Call of the Wild is commonly challenged for its dark tone and bloody violence. Because it is seen as a man-and-his-dog story, it is sometimes read by adolescents and subsequently challenged for age-inappropriateness. Not only have objections been raised here, the book was banned in Italy, Yugoslavia and burned in bonfires in Nazi Germany in the late 1920s and early 30s because it was considered “too radical.” [http://www.bannedbooksweek.org/censorship/bannedbooksthatshapedamerica](http://www.bannedbooksweek.org/censorship/bannedbooksthatshapedamerica) Many similar descriptions can be found on other sites. But it’s worth noting that the NEA included the book in its “Big Read” project. The 13-page Teacher’s Guide downplays the issue of violence–in fact, that word is nowhere to be found in the Guide: [http://www.neabigread.org/teachers\_guides/lesson\_plans/callofthewild/London\_TG2014.pdf](http://www.neabigread.org/teachers_guides/lesson_plans/callofthewild/London_TG2014.pdf) ---
**Author:** ![MsKaren](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a183cd/32.png) [@MsKaren](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsKaren)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2015, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-book-club-the-call-of-the-wild/709886/15 "2015-01-20T00:20:56Z")
That is very interesting. Common Sense Media recommends it for 12 and up, but does have a violence warning. [https://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/the-call-of-the-wild](https://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/the-call-of-the-wild) NEA "Big Read’is for all members of the community including the adults. It says “The Teacher’s guides contain lesson plans and other resources geared toward middle and high school students.” So I guess the consensus is that it is fine for older kids. As far as banning in the past in those previously mentioned countries my guess it was not for violence but for radical ideas about civilization, individualism, and similar content. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2015, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-book-club-the-call-of-the-wild/709886/16 "2015-01-20T01:01:41Z")
> [@MsKaren](#): > > As far as banning in the past in those previously mentioned countries my guess it was not for violence but for radical ideas about civilization, individualism, and similar content. I got that impression, too. It was banned in those places for being subversive, basically. Certainly Jack London _was_ consciously expressing his political/social philosophy in the book, through the story of animals–not quite as openly as did George Orwell, but…still. ---
**Author:** ![Helena330](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/helena330/32/531_2.png) [@Helena330](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena330)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-book-club-the-call-of-the-wild/709886/17 "2015-01-22T08:08:27Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > I got that impression, too. It was banned in those places for being subversive, basically. Certainly Jack London _was_ consciously expressing his political/social philosophy in the book, through the story of animals–not quite as openly as did George Orwell, but…still. It was still pretty open. He portrayed humans as horribly brutal, and elevated the nobility of nature. There’s quite a lot of complexity to this story. I was able to find the introduction to my version on Google Books. It was written by John Seelye and gave me a much better understanding. It’s pretty long, but even reading a few pages might be of interest: > **[The Call of the Wild and White Fang](https://books.google.com/books?id=XXxxAp-h5OIC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false)** > > The Call of the Wild is Now a Major Motion Picture Starring Harrison Ford!Timeless tales of wolves, dogs, men, and the Wild, The Call of the Wild and White Fang are two of the world’s greatest adventure stories. The biting cold and the aching silence... You’ll have to scroll down to the intro.