Joyce Carol Oates: prolific author, National Book award winner, Pulitzer nominee. And … dinosaur conservationist?

Oates has a Twitter feed which has come in for a fair amount of criticism in the past. “Here is the problem with your Twitter feed, Joyce Carol Oates: It is, as we like to say on the internet, the worst,” wrote our own Michelle Dean for Gawker last year, citing her “‘Cat food’ in China actually is” comment. The novelist had previously been criticised for linking rape culture to Islam on her Twitter feed, and for saying she’d be “very surprised” if women were harassed in affluent areas.

Oates’ latest gaffe – if indeed it was a gaffe, on which more later – is less controversial, but significantly funnier. After Twitter user Chris Tilly posted, as a joke, the image of Steven Spielberg sitting next to the body of a triceratops which went viral last year, writing “This guy thinks it’s cool to kill defenceless animals then take a selfie. Jerk”, Oates took up the anti-hunter baton.

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

“So barbaric that this should still be allowed … No conservation laws in effect wherever this is?” Oates wrote, retweeting the photo to her 122,000 followers. Tilly was quick to point out to Oates that the “photo was taken in Jurassic Park which doesn’t actually exist. Sorry for the confusion”, but the damage was done.

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 question is: was Oates joking? The most recent book of hers which I’ve read was The Accursed, a gothic mystery which was also dry and genuinely hilarious: she is a funny writer. She could have been.

Joanna Rothkopf for Salon thinks not, on balance: “There are only three possibilities. I will list them here, as well as their likelihood: 1. Oates was making a joke (5 per cent chance) 2. Oates didn’t click on the photo and thought it was a picture of a slaughtered elephant (80 per cent chance) 3. Oates thinks a triceratops was murdered (15 per cent chance).”

My gut feeling is that she wasn’t joking – that it’s Rothkopf’s choice 2. But I hope it’s 3. Partly because I’d love to read a novel by Oates about dinosaurs roaming the earth, and partly because, don’t we all harbour a secret wish that dinosaurs were still around – or is that just me?