LAUSR

As many readers have probably figured out, the title of this foreword is taken in part from lyrics in the song “I Wan’Na Be Like You,” from Walt Disney’s animated film adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book—a sometimes racist, and often human exceptionalist, collection of tales of walking, talking animals that has nonetheless enthralled children of many cultures since it was first published in 1894. Sung primarily by King Louie, an ape who was trying to become human by persuading the young “man-cub” Mowgli to show him the secret of fire, the song and this scene were not in the original Kipling version, but were inspired by the more familiar Greek mythology that pervades early rhetorical theory. However, Mowgli is no Prometheus to the apes of this tale, and for good reason—not only was he too young to have learned how to make fire when he was lost in the wild, but he also seems to think that it is not merely fire that separates ape from man but the good judgment it takes to wield such a potent gift responsibly. We will have to forgive Mowgli his ignorance, as he was literally raised by wolves. Yet history shows that of all the primates, Homo sapiens is ironically among the least wise of all species in this regard, and should not be trusted with fire, as humans have repeatedly used it as a weapon against themselves, others, and nature as a whole.