EVERY GENRE HAS CONVENTIONS Beating up the hero always works. Cool Hand Luke. The Grapes of Wrath. Every James Bond movie. If our Western has two gunslingers, they have to shoot it out in the final reel. If our Love Story features a pair of lovers, the two must move apart in the story’s middle before they come together at the end. That’s not formula. Those are genre conventions. Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t, p. 63 Remember at the start of this year when we were talking about the Foolscap Method — the writer’s trick of outlining her story on a single sheet of paper? The first item we cited was GENRE. What kind of story are we telling? We did this because we understood that once we knew what genre we were working in, we had a template of conventions and obligatory scenes that would guide us through every phase of the writing.

All other arguments against meat eating, no matter how strong they are, are meaningless in relation to the fact that animals have the same life spirit that exists in us.

We should feel that by taking an animal life we commit something close to suicide.

No other argument against meat eating is necessary for those who have this inner feeling.

Eating a lot of meat can make your body stronger, but it weakens your mind.

—PLUTARCH

It is very important not to kill children’s natural taste by forcing them to become meat eaters, not only for their health, but for the sake of their character.

We do not know the reason, but we know that people who eat a lot of meat are usually cruel.

—JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU

We cannot close our eyes to those people who eat meat for the satisfaction of their pampered tastes.

The logical arguments against meat eating are not strong enough.

Logic is good, but in some cases it falls short.

But know this: the more compassion a person shows other living creatures, the kinder and better he is.

To kill animals, whether for sport or for fuel, is very cruel.