Bits and Pieces

Reviews / Votes

"O'Brien's wonderful study offers rich readings of the mediation of animal lives and deaths by cinema and television, its connections to slaughter and taxidermy, and related questions of race and commodification. O'Brien traces the historical and material contours of these entanglements in highly astute and accessible terms, prompting us to look anew at animal and animalized presences on-screen, from slaughter cinema to 'TV trophies'." -- Laura McMahon, University of Cambridge "Bits and Pieces explores the ways in which film and television mediate our understanding of animal life and death, and especially the issue of animal slaughter. The scholarship is sound, and the presentation of the material and writing style are wonderfully clear and crisp." -- Claire Jean Kim, University of California, Irvine "O'Brien rightly finds images of animals everywhere-but doesn't try to approach the subject encyclopedically. Instead, she hones in on parallel thematic and imagistic tracks, and takes intensive looks within. Bits and Pieces is a compelling, well-written, and deeply researched work." -- Cynthia Chris, College of Staten Island, CUNY "A seminal, original, and groundbreaking study, "Bits and Pieces: Screening Animal Life and Death" by Sarah O'Brien will have a special value for readers with an interest in how the cinematic and televised portrayal of animal life has impacted public perception. Exceptionally well written, organized, and presented, "Bits and Pieces: Screening Animal Life and Death" is unreservedly recommended as a unique addition to personal, professional, community, and academic library Cinematic & Television History collections and supplemental Performing Arts curriculum studies lists." -- Wisconsin Bookwatch, Midwest Book Review "Challenging more traditional studies of animals in film that relegate interest to sequestered genres (i.e., wildlife films) or key figures of interest, O'Brien brilliantly adopts an associative mode of scholarship that leads decades, genres, and mediums within each chapter, allowing for unexpected resonances that performatively enact the book's interest in the generalized violence and affective potential that resides in animal death as a portable and predominant interest within visual culture." -- Luke Kuplowsky, Discourse