Art

Music

The term "puppy" has many definitions that extend beyond the description of a young dog. The word figuratively or literally may be interpretable by diverse audiences. "Puppy" may reference love, submission, frailty, or particular aspects of culture and interpersonal phenomenon discussed further in Chapters Three, Eight, and Thirteen. Some audience members may derive one meaning from lyrics while others interpret the same lyrics as having a distinct meaning. Interpretations may be individual, social, contextual, or cultural. Three examples of songs with lyrics using the term "puppy" are "Puppy Toy" performed by British musician Tricky (2008); "Craven Choke Puppy" performed by Jamaican musician Bob Marley (1992); and "Too Many Puppies" performed by the American rock band Primus (Claypool, LaLonde, & Alexander, 1990). Their diverse, yet overlapping, allusions may suggest various definitions and understandings of the word "puppy" within English-speaking cultures that could reveal or influence attitudes towards puppies (Heine, 2009).

Tricky's duet, "Puppy Toy," may describe people and dogs involved in dependent relationships. "'Again, we go round and round. I'll get the drinks. I guess it's always my round.' 'Can you get me that drink?'" (Tricky, 2008). The song could be interpreted by a dog handler to be about a service dog, who retrieves drinks (Grace, 2013; Youtube.com, 2010). "'Friends, girls, they come and go' ... 'Got any cash?' 'She likes that money, boy! She needs a puppy toy'" (Tricky, 2008). The lyrics could be understood to describe a dog handler, who abstains from socializing, in order to afford toys for a service dog. A handler with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) could interpret some lyrics to describe dissociative episodes and panic attacks. "'You stare and look confused ... Won't love, won't care again.' 'Girl, you got a vicious tongue.' 'You're talking to me?' ... 'Girl, you seem insecure' ... 'Get your head right.' 'There's nothing wrong with me'" (Tricky, 2008). An assistance dog may lick a handler when traumatic memories have been triggered. At the beginning of a dissociative episode a handler suspiciously may view a service dog. A night terror related to PTSD is portrayed in a commercial for The Royal Dutch Guide Dog Foundation. In the commercial, a veteran is experiencing a nightmare in which he is wounded and trapped in carnage while another soldier is whimpering and licking him (KNGF, 2014). The veteran is stirred from his nightmare by his assistance dog, who is whimpering and licking him. The commercial demonstrates that service dogs momentarily may be confused with flashbacks. Even though Tricky's song was written by a British musician, the Dutch commercial illustrates that a lyrical interpretation applying to a service dog and handler's relationship may be understood by people fluently speaking English in other societies.

Bob Marley's song "Craven Choke Puppy" (1992) may be understood to have a number of different meanings in English and Jamaican Patois; thus, colloquial or symbolic use and interpretations of "puppy" could be multidimensional (Kripke, 1991). For example, Craven A is a brand of cigarettes sold in Jamaica. "Craven-a, go choke a puppy" could refer to poisoning and suffocation during animal testing, smoking, or secondhand smoke inhalation (Marley, 1992). The lyric could refer to deteriorative effects of teen rebellion on youth. The phrase "craven choke puppy" has been translated by Jamaican patois websites as meaning "[s]omeone who wants everything but when it's ... [given] to them, they can't handle it," which may refer to corporate gluttony (Jamaican Proverb, 2014). Related is the phrase "crab'n choke puppy" possibly meaning that "[a] craven puppy will choke" or "[i]f you are greedy[, then] it can hurt you" (Wise Jamaican Proverbs, 2008). The implied meaning and phonology of "craven" seems to suggest "craving" (i.e. overwhelming want), and not necessarily the correct meaning of "craven" (i.e. contemptible coward). In each translation, a "puppy" may represent something desirable, which may be a unit of measurement, a goal, a lifestyle, or an object, etc., which in excess is corruptive. "Craven a-go choke puppy ... So you want all for yourself alone, and you don't think about the other man" (Marley, 1992). The "puppy" may be a coveter, who is suffocated by excess; for example, a puppy may choke on an excessively large bone. Marley sings, "Can you dig it?" possibly asking whether the "puppy" can live frugally rather than hoard wealth (Marley, 1992). "The craven dog will lose his bone ... [running] after something else. Can't take it for themselves alone. They don't think about the other man" (Marley, 1992). Marley symbolically may refer to devaluation of property or interpersonal relationships.

Primus' song "Too Many Puppies" seems to be about America's foreign wars, violence, and oppression (Claypool, LaLonde, & Alexander, 1990). "Too many puppies are being shot in the dark. Too many puppies are trained not to bark at the sight of blood that must be spilled so that we may maintain our oil fields ... Too many puppies are taught to heel. Too many puppies are trained to kill on the command of men wearing money belts" (Claypool, LaLonde, & Alexander, 1990). The lyrics may be a social commentary about the role of military working dogs and veteran assistance dogs. "Too many puppies are just like me ... afraid to see the visions of the past brought to life again" may describe PTSD flashbacks experienced by deployed military working dogs and human military (e.g. soldiers) (Claypool, LaLonde, & Alexander, 1990).

Film

Dog-themed films may differ in their depictions of dogs as heroes and victims from films in which storylines about humans are the predominant focus and dogs are jokes. In dog-centric films, humans may attempt to balance burgeoning domestic life, which includes dogs' companionship. This is discussed in detail throughout Chapter Nine. However, dogs typically must evade societal problems and endure speciesism. Through this paradigm, Walt Disney films subtly have commented on dog–human problems, such as dog abduction, breeding, pet stores, animal control, dog fur, killing and other pertinent and complex topics discussed in Chapters Five and Six. For example, in the animated film "One Hundred and One Dalmatians," Cruella De Vil, who is called "devil woman" by Dalmatian Pongo, attempts to steal and skin Pongo and Perdita's puppies in order to manufacture a fur coat (Walt Disney, 1961). The names Pongo and Perdita (i.e. Perdy) insinuate "pongo" and "perdida" meaning "I set/place/apply" and "to be lost," respectively, in Spanish, which describe the Dalmatians' toils (Walt Disney, 1961). Cruella and her goons shock the audience's conscience, and film characters are appalled by the thought of puppy fur and dog torture, discussed in Chapter Four. Two Disney characters from "Lady and the Tramp," Peg and Bull, a Pekingese and a Bulldog, respectively, briefly make cameos in a pet store window in "One Hundred and One Dalmatians" during a scene in which local dogs network to locate the stolen Dalmatian puppies; but in "Lady and the Tramp" Peg and Bull face extermination while they are imprisoned in an animal shelter (Walt Disney, 1955; Walt Disney, 1961). "One Hundred and One Dalmatians" may suggest that dogs in pet stores are the same dogs in animal shelters, who are not purchased or adopted, or in Lady's case, who are lost or stray (Walt Disney, 1961). Lady and other characters from "Lady and the Tramp" (e.g. Tramp and Jock) also appear in "One Hundred and One Dalmatians" to relay information about the whereabouts of the missing puppies (Walt Disney, 1955; Walt Disney, 1961). Their appearance in specific locations germane to the plot of "Lady and the Tramp" provides evidence that Disney purposefully illustrated Peg and Bull in a pet store in "One Hundred and One Dalmatians" (Walt Disney, 1955; Walt Disney, 1961). Jock, a Scottish Terrier, emerges from his doghouse into his fenced backyard; and Lady and Tramp, an American Cocker Spaniel and a mixed-breed, respectively, together appear to be stray outside the pet store. In "One Hundred and One Dalmatians," 84 of the 99 Dalmatian puppies had been purchased at pet stores by Cruella or her thugs (Walt Disney, 1961). The film implies that mass breeding and puppies' status as property may make them vulnerable to torture and murder. This message contrasts, and yet reinforces, Disney's commentary in "Lady and the Tramp" on extermination of dogs and puppies in animal shelters (Walt Disney, 1955).

Human-centered films tend peripherally and reductively to depict dogs and puppies. Graphic focus on dog feces is not uncommon in American comedy, but a few widely viewed films, such as "Pink Flamingos" and "American Wedding" (i.e. "American Pie III"), morbidly depict scat or coprophagia appealing to voyeurism and juvenility (Cusack, 2012; Dylan, 2003; Waters, 1972). For example, an Adam Sandler movie, "Billy Madison," depicts a human stomping on dog feces (Davis, 1995). Billy Madison's modus operandi is to place paper bags filled with feces onto victims' porches and set the bags on fire. When victims attempt to stomp out fires, they are smeared by dog feces. Liberally repeated dialogue from this scene includes, "He called the shit "poop!"; "Don't put it out with your boots, Ted!"; and "Don't tell me my business, devil woman!" (Davis, 1995). Later in the film, after Billy Madison attempts to earn a high school education, he humiliatingly analogizes to the industrial revolution a children's story about puppies. Madison, who has the intellectual acumen of a third grader, selects the category "Reflections of Society and Literature" during a Jeopardy-type game played against his nemesis Eric Gordon (Davis, 1995).

Game Host: Mr. Madison, the Industrial Revolution changed the face of the modern novel forever. Discuss, citing specific examples.

Billy Madison: Uh, Okay. The Industrial Revolution to me is just like a story I know called The Puppy Who Lost His Way. The world was changing, and the puppy was getting bigger.

[Time lapse]

So, you see, the puppy was like industry. In that, they were both lost in the woods, and nobody, especially the little boy — "society" — knew where to find them, except that the puppy was a dog, but the industry, my friends, that was a revolution.

Game Host: Mr. Madison, what you have just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

Billy Madison: Okay, a simple "wrong" would've done just fine (Davis, 1995).

This scene is so well-known in American culture, that is was footnoted 11 years after "Billy Madison" by a Texas judge, who denied a bankruptcy motion due to incomprehensibility (King v. King, 2006).

Or, in the words of the competition judge to Adam Sandler's title character in the movie, "Billy Madison," after Billy Madison had responded to a question with an answer that sounded superficially reasonable but lacked any substance,

Mr. Madison, what you have just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

Deciphering motions like the one presented here wastes valuable chamber staff time, and invites this sort of footnote. (King v. King, 2006).

The scene in "Billy Madison" and the court's citation are sophomoric and acerbic, two characteristics occasionally observed to be detrimental to the American justice system and society (Davis, 1995).

Mythology

Dog myths have been used for millennia to propagate religion, reproductive rituals, and other foundations of human civilization, but American culture tends to diminish the importance and influence of ancient mythology (Cusack, 2015; Fontenrose, 1981; Johns, 2008; White, 1991). For example, Valentine's Day (i.e. Saint Valentine's Day) celebrated in the United States as a secular holiday may have evolved from puppy sacrifice and Roman mythology about a wolf (Volo, 2015). The Feast of Lupercalia celebrated Faunus, god of agriculture; and Rome's founder Romulus and his twin Remus were honored by a fertility sacrifice of a goat. A ritual involved boys using blood soaked strips of goat flesh to slap fields and spank women; and a dog was sacrificed during a purification ritual inside a cave where the twins allegedly were suckled by a wolf. Drawing from an urn, people would choose partners' names with whom they would mate during the next year; thus, February 14 allegedly became known as the annual date on which reproduction began.

The most widespread dog myth may be the hound of hell, Cerberus, readily recognizable to Americans as the character Fluffy in Harry Potter (Bloomfield, 1905; Rowling, 1997). Beyond the land of dreams and gates of the sun, a dark realm called Hades was said to be inhabited by spent souls, who crossed the River of Woe without their bodies (Bloomfield, 1905). Greeks represented Cerberus using many descriptions, including some descriptions of Cerberus as passive; but many myths about the hound of hell, such as the description provided by Homer, said that the vicious dog of Hades ravaged flesh. Early in the myth's development, he was depicted as having 50 heads. Greek poetry described the hound of hell as having three heads and snakes on his back; and some Greek pottery, statues, and sarcophagi depict a single- or double-headed dog, such as a collie, with a reptile's tail. Cerberus may be depicted with snakes, who have been used to symbolize the afterlife in numerous ancient and modern civilizations, including America; and also associated with dog-faced water snakes in the Cerberus family. Romans also associated Cerberus with serpents and with guarding the dark kingdom. Romans consistently depicted the dog as having three forms, such as three fused bodies, necks, tongues, jaws, or heads. An explanation of three-headed Cerberus (i.e. Kerberos) is that the dog may have had two puppies, who doted on Cerberus causing the trio to appear to be a three-headed dog. This explanation may be reminiscent of the holy trinity because one entity may be the same as three entities via perception and fatherhood. Cerberus' three heads have symbolized infancy, juvenility, and old age. Tellingly, Americans are said only to be certain of death and taxes; and have joked that owning the three-headed hound of hell could save owners on a dog tax because Cerberus would only count as one dog. However, if the American government were to attempt to seize the other two dogs, then the owner would be able to claim damages from the government for the destruction of two dogs, further discussed in Chapter Six. At trial, the government's witness rigorously would be cross-examined, maintaining that Cerberus is three dogs; but then, opposing counsel would inquire as to why the witness referred to Cerberus using one name and singular pronouns. This humor suggests that America's bureaucracy and adversarial legal system could puncture the veil and deflate the aura around ancient mythology.

Puppy-shaped Art

Several famous contemporary works of art have depicted puppies through media including balloons, steel, flowers, and graffiti. Balloons pervade American culture (e.g. birthdays and holidays), and therefore, may be compatible with puppies, who are extremely popular. For example, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade has included the following dogs: Frieda the Dachshund; Lucky Pup; Underdog; Snoopy; Clifford The Big Red Dog; Goofy; Beethoven; Spike from "Rugrats"; "Blue's Clues"; Scooby Doo; and Jake from "Adventure Time" (Hadge, 2014). American artist Jeff Koons' Balloon Dog (12 ft. x 10 ft. x 4 ft.) is a brightly colored stainless steel and reflective metallic sculpture designed in the shape of one of the most popular balloon animals, a dog. Koons made Balloon Dog before creating less expensive balloon animals. The use of stainless steel to reproduce a widely recognized effigy of a dog embodies Americans' view of dogs as animals, toys, and aesthetically pleasing objects. Balloon Dog was not Koons' exclusive foray into puppies' immense cultural resonance. Koons' second most notable work is Puppy. By combining a steel substructure with an overcoat of fresh flowers, Koons produced a 43-foot sculpture of a sitting puppy. Flowers, a universal medium, captured the essence of terriers' soft and scruffy coats while the steel support bolstered the sculpture to achieve terriers' stillness and unwavering assuredness. Puppy was displayed by the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain where terrorists attempted to disguise themselves as gardeners to transport flowerpots containing grenades and machine-guns into the museum, but their plan was foiled, and Puppy was unharmed (Robinson, n.d.).