“If a given combination of trees, mountains, water, and houses, say a
landscape, is beautiful, it is not so by itself, but because of me, of my
favor, of the idea or feeling I attach to it.”
-- Charles Baudelaire

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Of Snails and Tigers

Another timely link. Following our discussion during last class about knowing the “Other,” I ran into this article by Tim Flannery in The New York Review of Books: “Tigers, Humans, and Snails”. He reviews two books, each of which involves close contemplation/observation of other species; one book involves a snail and the other a tiger.

The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating
by Elizabeth Tova Bailey
Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 190 pp., $18.95

The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival
by John Vaillant
Knopf, 329 pp., $26.95

Of course, anything written by Vaillant is bound to be good (in my opinion, his book The Golden Spruce is a must-read for all British Columbians). But Flannery’s review/description of The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating also has me deeply intrigued—just the title alone is enough to have me reaching for my wallet!

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