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Book Special - July 2010 | |
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INSECTOPEDIA, by Hugh Raffles |
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2010, 544 pages, b/w photos. This new book is a stunningly original exploration of the ties that bind us to the beautiful, ancient, astoundingly accomplished, largely unknown, and unfathomably different species with whom we share the world. Organized alphabetically with one entry for each letter, weaving together brief vignettes, meditations, and extended essays, Insectopedia is a mesmerizing exploration of history and science, anthropology and travel, economics, philosophy, and popular culture that shows how insects have triggered our obsessions, stirred our passions, and beguiled our imaginations. The book offers a glimpse into the high-stakes world of Chinese cricket fighting, the deceptive courtship rites of the dance fly, the intriguing possibilities of queer insect sex, the vital and vicious role locusts play in the famines of west Africa, how beetles deformed by Chernobyl inspired art, and how our desire and disgust for insects has prompted our own aberrant behavior. Deftly fusing the literary and the scientific, Hugh Raffles has given us an essential book of reference that is also a fascination of the highest order. Hardcover; 6-1/2 x 9-1/2”. About the author - Hugh Raffles teaches anthropology at The New School, New York City. He is the author of In Amazonia: A Natural History, which received the Victor Turner Prize in Ethnographic Writing. He received a Whiting Writers’ Award in 2009. An unsolicited commentary - “This is the best book I’ve read about insects in a very long time. It moves between scientific facts, biography, anthropology and personal experience. Raffles goes to Niger and talks with people in small rural villages about their names for the different “criquets”, finds out how they are collected, prepared as food, and marketed. He tells us that Henri Fabre is a hero in Japan and where you can even buy Fabre action figures (in the 7-11s). The book also examines subjects that I knew nothing about before, such as the propaganda about Jews and lice in Nazi Germany, and Squish videos (you’ll have to read it). It is both erudite and entertaining. Treat yourself to some great summer reading.” Linda Wiener, Ph.D. in Entomology, faculty member at St. John’s College, Santa Fe, New Mexico |
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Order by July 31, 2010 for 15% discount Cat. No. 3386S  Insectopedia special
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$25.45  |
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