Badger Badger Badger Badger Badger Badger Badger Red Deer! Red Deer!

January 23, 2016 6:36 AM

Charles Foster has lived as a badger, a red deer and an urban fox among other animals. Extract from his book. (Contains descriptions of worm eating)
posted by fearfulsymmetry (12 comments total)

Lived far too authentically, I'd say. If he'd been a little less accurate in his deer impersonation, maybe that hunter wouldn't have shot him.
posted by leotrotsky at 7:05 AM on January 23, 2016

Seriously, though, sometimes I don't see much of a difference between performance art and mental illness, except for additional privilege and a better ability to self-rationalize.
posted by leotrotsky at 7:10 AM on January 23, 2016 [6 favorites]

Guessing the snake would have been a slither too far.
posted by davemee at 7:18 AM on January 23, 2016

that guardian article is genius... i can't tell if any of this is real.
posted by ennui.bz at 7:57 AM on January 23, 2016 [2 favorites]

Just remembered I saw a badger for the first time last year... pretty sure it wasn't Charles
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 8:14 AM on January 23, 2016 [1 favorite]

I wouldn't call this performance art. He doesn't seem to be performing for anyone in the slightest.
posted by eamondaly at 9:32 AM on January 23, 2016

Obligatory @getinthesea.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 9:55 AM on January 23, 2016 [1 favorite]

I wouldn't call this performance art. He doesn't seem to be performing for anyone in the slightest.

...but then he wrote a book about it and now has an article in the Grauniad about that book. How is he not performing?
posted by leotrotsky at 11:05 AM on January 23, 2016

Chunt could give him tips. He's lived as a badger for a long time, as other animals for even longer, and all his forms have at least two buttholes.
posted by delfin at 12:00 PM on January 23, 2016

Female Badger
posted by whuppy at 3:48 PM on January 23, 2016

As per usual, my initial response is: That looks like a really good way to get infested by ticks.

And lyme disease.
posted by RedEmma at 10:18 AM on January 24, 2016

"His wife is a lovely grounded woman who runs the house and looks after their four young children." It's so nice for Charles Foster that he has such a woman to manage the emotional labor and her preoccupations with "children's bottoms and putting food on the table" so he can revel in his "beautiful and bonkers metaphysical quest."
posted by narancia at 8:09 AM on January 25, 2016 [2 favorites]