Saturday, April 18, 2009

Did Isaac Bashevis Singer really say "To animals, all people are Nazis" as Princeton University Peter Singer says in recent oped? No! Singer is wrong!

Did Isaac Bashevis Singer really say "To animals, all people are Nazis" as Princeton University ethicist Peter Singer erroneously says in recent oped? NO, HE NEVER SAID THAT.
You be the judge: Professor Singer, you need to do your homework, sir.

READ ON:

The posters bear the heading: "To Animals, All People are Nazis" – a line from the Polish-born Jewish writer Isaac Bashevis Singer.

"In relation to animals, all people are Nazis; for the animals, it is an eternal Treblinka." -- IBS

Did Isaac Singer, Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Jewish writer, really say these words, exactly like PETA and Peter Singer are quoting him?

This new PETA campaign shows a picture of prisoners in a concentration camp beside a picture of chickens in pens with the caption “To animals all people are Nazis”. The phrase is a quote from the late Nobel Prize-winning author Isaac Bashevis Singer. As they say around here. Mr. Singer was a vegetarian. But to quote the CNN article…

The Singer quote, which the group draws upon in its literature as well, was not spoken directly by him but rather comes from his novel “Enemies: A Love Story,” when the main character muses on the plight of animals.

True, Singer was a vegetarian who believed strongly in animal rights, but he himself never said those words in that PETA faux quote mis-attributed to him as the speaker. He never uttered those words, Professor Singer. Please retract your oped piece. Princeton? Oh, brother!

This is typical PETA procedure. “Hey, let's misquote a dead vegetarian author because he’s not around to disagree with us”.

And for Dr Singer to fall for this is terrible, too. Dr Singer, do your homework!

7 comments:

DANIELBLOOM said...

Anon, no no, he did not SAY that....he wrote that yes, but those were "words" he put in the mouth of one of his characters in a short novella he wrote....HE HIMSELF DID NOT SAY THOSE words, the character in his book said that. there is a bIG difference. do your research sir.....but yes, Singer waws a great man, and those words are still good, but make sure you note he did not SAY that himself, his imaginary character in the book said it....understand now?

Unknown said...

They are beautiful words but, as much as they ring true, there is something amiss about not attributing them to the character in the author's book.

Unknown said...

The words are beautiful but, as true as they ring, there is something amiss with failing to attribute them to the character as well as the author.

MaryBs said...

oh yes.......I can certainly imagine Mr. Singer denying that sentence, and sueing vegetarians for attirbuting it to him (which is right and normal...just as any other author, who expresses his/her thoughts through his/her literature and art. And when these sentences are perfectly consistent with their life and the rest of their statements and stances, then the quotation is right. Give me a break, this is really clutching at straws.

DANIELBLOOM said...

well no MaryB, this is NOT about clutching at straws but about correct attributions by OPED columbnists with huge followibng of readers like PETER SINGER has at his OPED platorform.....ask PETER, he is afraid to answer any my emails. that says everything....

tom2323 said...

If you actually think Singer would write that, yet not fully agree with its significance or sentiment, you understand nothing about fiction.

Anonymous said...

Singer's Nobel is in literature, not Peace.

I fully agree with tom2323's comment.