Author Joyce Carol Oates possibly has some beef with director Steven Spielberg about animal conservation -- all over a picture of the director with a dead dinosaur.
Seemingly in the spirit of and the hype over the release of the next installment of the Jurassic Park franchise, Jurassic World, Twitter user Chris Tilly tweeted out a still from the first movie, which Spielberg helmed. The photo captures the director sitting in front of a defunct animatronic triceratops, with a parodical commentary included:
This guy thinks it's cool to kill defenceless animals then take a selfie. Jerk. pic.twitter.com/WbgMklrd9u
— Chris Tilly (@TillyTweets) June 9, 2015
Oates, who presumably spotted the photo on her feed, had some choice words:
So barbaric that this should still be allowed... No conservation laws in effect wherever this is? https://t.co/hgavm9IBaM — Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) June 9, 2015
The photo itself is the remnant of a viral joke: in 2014, satirist Jay Branscomb posted the still, and well-intentioned outrage culture with a conservation-centric bent ensued.
Tilly immediately tried to clarify his tweet, just in case JCO wasn't in on the joke (I'm hedging by bets that she is -- she's a wickedly funny lady):
@JoyceCarolOates @YesThatsTheJoke Hi Joyce - photo was taken in Jurassic Park which doesn't actually exist. Sorry for the confusion.
— Chris Tilly (@TillyTweets) June 9, 2015
Whether she's being sincere or snarky about Steven Spielberg's Ernest Hemingway-esque dinosaur quarry is almost irrelevant -- let's just all agree that Jurassic Carol Oates is a national treasure.
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