This was a delightful and detailed look at a handful of creatures, some of which we might refer to as invasive. The author jumps around at times, and perhaps a bit more than I’d like, but I thoroughly enjoyed both the deep dive into specific species as well big picture view of their ecological importance.
While I respect his work in the field of entomology, and have enjoyed papers and other books he’s written, this work was not what I expected. Though I am not the target audience, I felt that the title of was misleading and the overall presentation poor. It was misleading in the sense that the majority of the book was dedicated to somewhat repetitive anecdotes which fall within Wilson’s wheelhouse, and that rarely confer any lessons on being a scientist. The lessons which were presented could easily be grouped into two categories: “take risks” and “find your niche.” Neither of these were discussed in any detail outside of the stories of how this paid off for him. As for the overall presentation, the “letters” jumped around, repeating themselves, failing to build on one another or towards an particular goal.
I enjoyed the first book of this trilogy far more than I enjoyed the latter two. The village and the way a mythology was built up around the technology of the old world was beautifully done.
Not my usual fare, but I devoured this book. A beautifully spun re-imagining of Greek mythology, where the gods are painted in such a way as to make them feel as distant and aloof as those who meddle in mortal lives might be. It’s a love story, as much as it is a story of a god coming of age.
The book started to lose me here. I was hoping for more progression from the characters; a sense that their journey would lead to some ideological shift aside from “technology will solve all our problems.” The book does not seem to want to progress past that. s
The ending of this book was tragic in comparison to where I thought it was going. With a world overrun by biological horrors, the remaining survivors have been clinging to the technological remnants of the old world as their only lifeline. Instead of finding a way to live within this new nature, or perhaps alongside it, they dig up even more tech from the old world and smash the natural world back into a subservient state.
What irritated me was that they learned nothing, and instead continued to rely on the seemingly magical tech and what I’ll call an industrial mindset. Nothing changed, and they will simply end up right back with destroying everything in a future built in an image of the past. Koli remains naive from start to finish, while the rest of the people are still looking for a savior to come and solve all their problems.
In the end, I think the farmers on the hillside had the right approach.
Not his typical fare, but entertaining nonetheless. The writing is decent, and at times I enjoyed his characterization of war and the way the characters came to terms with it. The ending felt rushed, the middle a bit more drawn out than I’d like, and at times the way he wrote the main character clearly conveyed I was reading a man trying to write from the perspective of a woman.
I would file this under entertainment in the vein of a B-rated action movie. The quality of the writing is adequate, and I burned through it quickly, but it left me without a substantial impression.
I started recording papers in March.
Steps through Dogen’s ideas by doing a dive into chunks of the text one after the other. I found it approachable, though less readable overall than Ronald Purser’s paper. They touch on different things, so it’s to be expected.
A clear and understandable introduction to Dogen’s idea of time. I will read this again at some point in the near future.
I enjoyed the first section of this paper, though the portion which attempts to define things in mathematical terms was less than useful. Regardless, it’s fairly readable despite the dips into philosophical jargon, which, given it’s an academic paper, is expected.
Not technically a paper, but a decent introduction.
