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In Goat Mountain, by David Vann, the numerous lines with which the characters carve up the surface of the territory and the flesh of their prey testify to their desire to dominate the world and those who inhabit it. Yet the motif of the broken line that runs through the narrative and the writing suggests that this relationship to the world has become untenable. The proliferation of descriptive fragments which sketch the abundance of lines drawn by other-than-human animals offers a life-saving model of habitation and relationship to the living world.