nature books Archives - Notes of Oak

Human Hubris Dictates ‘The Soul of an Octopus’

10/01/201802/24/2023
by Hannah Huff

A BOOK REVIEW OF SY MONTGOMERY’S NONFICTION TEXT – THE SOUL OF AN OCTOPUS: A SURPRISING EXPLORATION INTO THE WONDER OF CONSCIOUSNESS

Perhaps it’s because I just read Ill Nature, with its incisive critiques of humanity’s handling of animals, from scientists in the name of research, to zookeepers in the name of conservation. Or maybe it’s because my friends are cephalopod aficionados who don’t need to cosset octopuses in an aquarium to recognize their significance as living creatures. But for being a book entitled The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness, Sy Montgomery’s 2015 text seems awfully fixated on oblivious humans, while offering only a surface-level, diluted view of the souls the title purports to give prominence to.

A BOOK REVIEW OF JOY WILLIAMS’S ILL NATURE ESSAY COLLECTION

I found Ill Nature: Rants and Reflections on Humanity and Other Animals by Joy Williams tucked at the top of the nature section at the Iliad Bookshop in North Hollywood, CA. The book’s titular pun and subtitle reeled me in, since I’m a reader specifically seeking texts that grapple with the ways humans individually affect nature in the 21st century. Indeed, one of the most successful aspects of this book of essays by Williams, who is more widely known as a short story writer, is that it identifies the reader as a primary culprit in nature’s malaise.

Human Hubris Dictates ‘The Soul of an Octopus’

A BOOK REVIEW OF SY MONTGOMERY’S NONFICTION TEXT – THE SOUL OF AN OCTOPUS: A SURPRISING EXPLORATION INTO THE WONDER OF CONSCIOUSNESS

‘Ill Nature’ is Even More Vital in 2018

A BOOK REVIEW OF JOY WILLIAMS’S ILL NATURE ESSAY COLLECTION