Review. Dario Martinelli. Lights, Camera, Bark! Representation, semiotics and ideology of non-human animals in cinema (Technologija, 2014)

Devil is in the details. So, first of all, it’s a pity that this book is printed only in 160 copies. Hopefully, it will reach Hollywood and this number will increase. Also, I must mention that the literature list (thanks to Mr. Umberto Eco, I look at it every time I read a scientific book) is a very solid one, and it consists of previous monographs and articles of Dario Martinelli dedicated to zoosemiotics, lots of various scientific literature, books of philosophers, links to movies). The book also has some very interesting and important detail: in its almost 300 pages it gives a thorough and detailed view about “non-human animals” or NHA (yes, these are the politically correct words for animals, considering that a human being is an animal).

One more important detail. This book needs the second part, which would be about “non-human animals” in TV series, because of two reasons: the objective one would be, in my humble opinion, an increasing importance of TV series (I think, they should be investigated very thoroughly), and the subjective one is that I’ve recently watched all 30 “Twin Peaks” episodes again and asked a question to Professor Dario Martinelli (private email conversation, 2014 10 19): “I haven’t found anything about David Lynch's Twin Peaks in Your book, so I wonder, what about the owls (and... dead animals, perhaps?) which are not the owls? Why didn’t You write about it, and what do You think about Twin Peaks / animals in it?” Professor answered: “I am a huge fan of Twin Peaks, which is probably my all-time favorite TV series (at least the first season, and the first half of the second one). When I selected the examples to analyze I realized that there was too much for one book, so I had to make a choice, and in general I left a lot of TV out of it. It's really just that. Otherwise, yes, they would have deserved a mention as well! Thank you for noticing!”

Allora, come va? Let’s go back to the book. It deserves to be read, kept in mind and told to grandchildren. I never thought anyone could write such an interesting journey through the movie world looking through a prism of an animal lover, mi scuzi, a zoosemiotician. Dario Martinelli’s unique style (paradox – the book is very complex, but one can read it as easy as a novel) lets us read about poor NHAs (“yes, animals were harmed”, concludes Dario Martinelli) whom we love and remember from various movies (also about those who scared us – here we will also find the “terrible” BIRDS of Master Hitchcock with their photos included). I do not want to spoil Your reading, so that’s the end of my review. This is one of the best books I’ve ever read. Grazie, Professore!

**

Wikipedia:

Dario Martinelli (Andria, Italy, March 1, 1974) is an Italian musicologist, semiotician and composer. He is Adjunct Professor of Musicology and Semiotics at Helsinki University and until 2007 Guest-Professor at the Finnish Network University of Semiotics. His scholarly approach is influenced by Gino Stefani, Franco Fabbri (from Bologna University, where Martinelli graduated in 1999) and Eero Tarasti (from Helsinki University, where Martinelli received his doctorate in 2002). Among his monographs, "How musical is a whale? - Towards a theory of zoomusicology" (2002), "Zoosemiotics: proposals for a handbook" (2007), "Of birds, whales and other musicians - Introduction to Zoomusicology" (2009), and "A Critical Companion to Zoosemiotics" (2010). As of 2010, he has written some eighty articles, monographs and edited works, published in international journals and compilations. His writings are available in English, Italian, Finnish, Estonian, French, Lithuanian, German and Swedish. Scientific director of the Umweb publishing series, Martinelli is now co-editor-in-chief of the academic journal "IF - Journal of Italo-Finnish Studies". He compiled the first entry "Zoomusicology" for a musical encyclopaedia, and gave the first Zoomusicology course for a University (in Helsinki). "How musical is a whale?" is currently adopted as a text-book in some European universities. As a composer, Martinelli writes experimental music (with works commissioned by Sibelius Academy, and various festivals in Finland and Estonia, alone or together with Finnish composer Petri Kuljuntausta), incidental music (he wrote for documentaries, radio programs and theatre shows), and popular music (he is songwriter for the Italian singer Anna Maria Castelli). Martinelli is also the youngest winner of the "Oscar Parland Award for outstanding contribution to semiotics" prize, established by Helsinki University, in memory of Oscar Parland, the first Finnish semiotician. In 2006, he was knighted by the Italian Republic, for his contribution to the spreading of Italian culture abroad.

http://www.dariomartinelli.eu/

http://www.zoosemiotics.helsinki.fi/

Prof. Dr. Dario Martinelli