Mar
1
- ISBN13: 9780805063325
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Amazon.com Review
Finally, a how-to guide, in the guise of a Q&A advice column, for marching, flying, or slithering into the battle of the sexes, whatever your species. In this entertaining and informative book, evolutionary biologist Olivia Judson presents “letters” from sexually frustrated animals, birds, and insects who ask “Dr. Tatiana” to explain some sexual oddity. For example, “Don’t Wanna Be Butch in Botswana” writes, “I’m a spotted hyena, a girl. The only trouble is, I’ve got … More >>
Dr. Tatiana’s Sex Advice to All Creation: The Definitive Guide to the Evolutionary Biology of Sex
Tags: Advice, Biology, Creation, Definitive, Evolutionary, Guide, Tatiana's
that book is a beautiful example for todays mass media: eyecatching but without any deeper content. the style is awful in its forced funnyness. for example the “letters” to the imaginary doctor are signed with `Too Much Heavy Breathing near Malta` or similar brainless synonyms instead of the name of the species. the last chapter is written in form of a talkshow for heavens sake! still worse are the constant thematic jumps. not one chapter takes the sexual strategies of nature serious. buyers are cheated: it is not “the definitive guide” it proclaims to be but a comedyshow that leaves the bad aftertaste of an absurd freakshow. dont mistake me, there are many interesting facts revealed but the presentation robs the reader of any enjoyment. without the useless junk in between that book would be not even half its size. i have the feeling the autor has no inkling that her writing style could be viewed as an insult to the intelligence of the average reader. anybody with a higher education will be thoroughly disgusted with this shoddy pamphlet. i seriously doubt the autor has really read all the works mentioned in the thirty pages long postscript. the aknowledgement at the end is a trivial biography that wallows in personal anecdotes which are of no interest at all. it was a waste of time for me…
Rating: 1 / 5
First, let me state unequivocally that this is an immensely enjoyable book. Creating an alter ego, Dr, Tatiana, who’s a sex advice columnist to the animal world, Olivia Judson offers numerous fascinating examples of the myriad bizarre and entertaining ways in which bugs, fish, birds, and mammals (and a few other things) procreate. The format of the book, with her answering nervous letters from various creatures, is derived from a column she wrote for The Economist in 1997 and it allows her to keep the discussion light and sometimes very funny… The humorous style allows her to explore sexual strategies like adultery, rape, murder, cannibalism, asexualism, homosexuality, etc., without getting too bogged down in their broader implications. That latter point though leads to what will be an equivocation.
It seems, particularly in light of the anthropomorphism that Ms Judson utilizes, like this survey of the sexual mores of other species is ultimately intended to inform our understanding of the various practices we humans engage in. If not strictly suggested by the humanized manner in which she presents her case studies, it is certainly implicated in her conclusion:
I hope that having seen the prodigious variety of sexual practices out there, you’ll be more tolerant of the predilections of others.
This hope is hardly justified by what has come before. Even if we grant for the nonce that Ms Judson has demonstrated that evolutionary pressures have created a wide range of reproductive strategies, a “predilection” is a mere preference for something. Assuming that evolution is sound science, animals respond to an overwhelming force of nature; they don’t just pick and choose sexual behaviors because they seem like fun; only humans have this privilege.
Taken at face value, Ms Judson’s point might invite us to broaden our minds to the point where Jeffrey Dahmer’s cannibalism may be tolerated as just another in a wide range of entirely natural sexual practices. Or rape could be accepted as just an evolutionary adaptation; indeed, evolutionary psychologists have proposed that this may be the case. If Ms Judson is trying to suggest that any behavior we can find in another species deserves our tolerance, she really ought to have made a sustained argument, rather than, in effect, just saying that this stuff happens therefore it’s natural, therefore it should be tolerated. If she’s not suggesting any such thing, then one wonders what the purpose of the book is.
If it’s just a titillating entertainment that’s fine, because it is very entertaining. But if we are supposed to be able to draw any conclusions from the book, the simple fact that neither survival nor reproduction appear to offer much challenge for modern humans would seem to mitigate against the idea that aberrant behaviors are anything more than mere preferences. Factor in the unique human soul and our free will and it seems fair to ask why the exercise of personal preferences should not be subject to moral judgment.
Ultimately, Ms Judson overreaches her material, but not before she’s made reading the book worth our while.
GRADE: B-
Rating: 4 / 5
Interesting tidbits about rare and weird creatures. However, after about 50 pages, enough is enough. The “advice to the lovelorn” format is a little too cutesy.
Ray
Rating: 2 / 5
Starting the book, I was afraid the bit (various species write in to Dr. Tatiana, sex therapist, describing their bizarre f***-life and asking for advice) would get old. Well, maybe towards the end it does verge on over-cute, but for the most part it’s absolutely delightful. Pure fun, and a fascinating exploration of every facet of the f***.
Judson’s collection, of erotic tidbits buried throughout the entire animal kingdom, is wonderful. Risque terms make the writing easy to read and fluid. One leaves the book with a renewed interest in sex–and a brand new lack of embarassment over it.
Few taboos will be avoided here–we learn of phalluses on female hyenas, incestuous mites, the bizarre reproduction of the uncommon slime mold. And what’s more, Judson looks hot on the back cover. It’s terribly hard to mix fine science with entertaining reading: Dr. Tatiana accomplishes this by swamping us with delightful and surprising example after example.
Rating: 5 / 5
This is a fun, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, look at the evolutionary biology of how many different organisms developed their genders and their reproduction methods.
Rating: 4 / 5