The zoo, as we know it, actually started off as a menagerie meant to amuse and entertain royalty. Two such early menageries were built by King Louis XIV of France in the 17th century. The more famous one at Versailles came later. At first, the king had a farm at Vincennes, which he had turned into a menagerie. It had lions, tigers, leopards, wolves and dogs. The king and his courtiers would stop by to watch the ferocious animals fight. But then, the king had a change of philosophy.

Beautiful People

If you have seen even two minutes of 'Harry & Meghan' or 'Moving in with Malaika', you will notice similarities. It is apparent in the manicured settings, the carefully coiffed look, and in how the celebrities featured talk about their decision to do the shows. When it comes to the last, both sets turn great personal impetus into a larger, greater personal mission, which by the power of great production, telescopes into some great civilising mission whose point you might miss, but whose viewability you will succumb to. The celebrities in both shows as well as those brought in to make/cheer their case use combat rhetoric and imagery --- now victim, now beleaguered, reluctant warrior, turning around in slo-mo, now up against the Other, now winning, now closing in, etc. etc. etc. These shows are definitely easier on the eye than most of the gritty plebeian reality TV shows that have had us hostage since the 1990s. And they are different only in the carefully inserted mission statement.

Birds of a feather

The menagerie at Versailles, within walking distance of the palace, was different from the one at Vincennes and others in its carefully designed setting. An octagonal building was at the centre, the balcony surrounding it “offering views over the different enclosures arranged in a fan shape around it”. Louis XIV’s menagerie was also distinct in that it displayed only beautiful creatures. No ferocious animals at all, very few mammals, and mostly birds — flamingos, ostriches, swans and the Demoiselles of Numidia or the crown-crested crane. The settings and inhabitants of Versailles together were communicating some idea of the ideal and the graceful, of civilite. Historian Peter Sahlins writes, “Instead of the conquest and containment of violence, the king shifted the model of animal spectatorship towards the peaceful contemplation of civilised animals.” Of course, now we know that Louis XIV had the wings of the exotic birds clipped, to keep them from flying away.