Cat

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. Rebecca van Laer and her partner purchase a home and move in with their senior cats, Toby and Gus. Their loved ones see this as a step toward an inevitable future-first comes the house, then a dog, then a child. But what if they are just cat people ? Moving between memoir, philosophy, and pop culture, Cat is a playful and tender meditation on cats and their people. Van Laer considers cats'' role in her personal narrative, where they are mascots of laziness and lawlessness, and in cultural narratives, where they appear as feminine, anarchic, and maladapted, especially in comparison to dogs. From the stereotype of the ''crazy cat lady'' to the joy of cat memes to the grief of pet loss, van Laer demonstrates that the cat-person relationship is free of the discipline and dependence required by parenting (and dog-parenting), creating a less hierarchical intimacy that offers a different model for love.

About the author

Rebecca van Laer is the author of a novella, How to Adjust to the Dark (2022). Her writing has appeared in The New England Review, Joyland, BOMB, and TriQuarterly, among other places.Christopher Schaberg is Director of the Program in Public Scholarship at Washington University in St. Louis, USA, and the author of The Textual Life of Airports (2012), The End of Airports (2015), Airportness (2017), The Work of Literature in an Age of Post-Truth (2018), Searching for the Anthropocene (2019), Pedagogy of the Depressed (2021), and Adventure: An Argument for Limits (2023), all published by Bloomsbury. He is also the founding co-editor (with Ian Bogost) of Bloomsbury's Object Lessons book series.Ian Bogost is an author and an award-winning game designer. He is Barbara and David Thomas Distinguished Professor in Arts & Sciences, Director of Film & Media Studies, and Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis. Bogost is also Founding Partner at Persuasive Games LLC, an independent game studio, and a Contributing Editor at The Atlantic. Bogost is author or co-author of ten books, including Alien Phenomenology (2012)and Play Anything (2016).

Product details

• Authors: Rebecca van Laer
• Assisted by: Ian Bogost (Editor), Christopher Schaberg (Editor), Ian Bogost (Editor of the series), Schaberg Christopher (Editor of the series)
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 02.10.2025
• EAN: 9798765114629
• ISBN: 9798765114629
• No. of pages: 160
• Dimensions: 272 mm x 346 mm x 196 mm
• Series: Object Lessons
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Biographies, autobiographies; LITERARY CRITICISM / Semiotics & Theory, PHILOSOPHY / Aesthetics, LITERARY CRITICISM / Subjects & Themes / Nature, LITERARY CRITICISM / Modern / 21st Century, Comparative Literature, Animals & society, Philosophy: aesthetics, Literature: history & criticism, Material Culture, Literary theory, Animals and society / Animal rights - issues and debates