Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* In previous books, Rothenberg has taken highly original approaches to studying the music of whales and birds. He now presents a leaps-and-bounds inquiry into the role beauty plays in evolution. He begins his bravura investigation into nature's extravagant beauty with a penetrating look at the sculptural creations of bower birds. Are we seeing the result of selection of the beautiful in action, along with a bird species' evolved aesthetic sense? Rothenberg argues that to understand nature's frills and flourish, including the wildly impractical peacock's tail, we must look beyond the rigid pragmatism at the core of current evolutionary theory and accept that beauty is not utilitarian. He finds accordance in the pioneering work of ornithologist and MacArthur fellow Richard Prum and in German polymath Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919), who coined the term ecology and created galvanizing drawings of the exquisitely detailed microscopic sea creatures known as radiolarians. Rothenberg also explores the ways such modern artists as Paul Klee and Jackson Pollock have opened our eyes to nature's symmetry, patterns, and rhythms. With verve, multidisciplinary fluency, and an encompassing vision, Rothenberg accomplishes his mission to change the way we perceive and understand the intertwining of natural evolution and human cultural evolution, beauty and life, art and science.--Seaman, Donna Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
While many people are happy to simply appreciate nature's beauty, Rothenberg seeks to understand why beauty exists in the first place, and what that means to our existence. Evolution and mutation determine what features are passed on in each species, but nature also offers "case after case of wild, untrammeled craziness," patterns, colors, and behavior that are clearly not needed for survival. Rothenberg notes with amusement how Darwin thought ornamentation-colorful feathers, brilliant songs, mating dances-existed to "delight the mind" of potential mates, throwing evolutionary control into female hands, an idea that didn't sit well with Victorians. Rothenberg goes on to discuss how animal patterns (animal art) have influenced human creativity in cubist and abstract art as well as military camouflage. Not many authors could find a way to interweave abstruse art theory with discussions of squid and their glorious "dynamic tattoos," elephants who paint, and Paleolithic cave art, but Rothenberg succeeds, with this entertaining wander through the world of art and the places where it intersects science. 16 pages of color illus.; b&w illus. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
A trained musician, Rothenberg (philosophy & music, New Jersey Inst. of Technology; Thousand-Mile Song: Whale Music in a Sea of Sound) became curious about the aesthetics of animals as he shared duets with aviary birds. As he considered extravagant beauty, like birdsong, Rothenberg came to question scientists' traditional insistence that evolution serves functionality. In contrast, Rothenberg proposes the idea of aesthetic selection, whereby all living beings favor natural beauty regardless of functionality. Working on this theme, Rothenberg leads readers through Darwinian theory, neuroscience, and modern and prehistoric art. His all-encompassing book recalls the work of writers from a variety of disciplines-David Quammen, for instance, who parses Darwinian theory in The Song of the Dodo, and Elaine Scarry, whose On Beauty and Being Just is a crisp treatise on beauty. Ultimately, Rothenberg demonstrates the merits of gathering these strands together through interdisciplinary collaboration. VERDICT Though readers may sometimes feel assaulted by questions as they read this book, they will almost certainly find something that challenges their perspective on the world. Recommended for those with eclectic interests and a penchant for philosophy.-Talea Anderson, Walla Walla, WA (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A philosopher and musician proposes that art is important to nature and that a deeper consideration of art in nature can enhance not only our understanding of evolution but of art itself.Rothenberg (Philosophy and Music/New Jersey Institute of Technology), who has explored the mystery of bird songs (Why Birds Sing, 2005) and the songs of whales (Thousand Mile Song, 2008), now takesup a broader question: How can the existence of art and beauty in nature be explained? He launches his investigation by introducing bowerbirds, whose artwork he feels makes art more necessary to evolution then if only humans produced it. "Each species," he writes, "has its own aesthetic, which defines what colors, sounds, and shapes its members desire." Rothenberg finds support for his views in the work of Yale's Richard Prum, curator of birds at the Peabody Museum, who argues that beauty has been overlooked in the study of evolution. The author quotes Prum extensively on the co-evolution of appearance/performance by males and appreciation/taste in females. Thus evolution produces results that are not only practical but also beautiful. Natural selection, writes Rothenberg, is simply not sufficient to explain what nature shows us. The author also examines how beauty comes out of form and is built up out of the basic laws of physics and chemistry. Understanding this sharpens our human eyes whether we are art creators or art viewers. A special appeal of this book is the illustrationsof the elaborate bowers created by bowerbirds, of striking variations in feather patterns and of amazing examples of animal camouflage. Rothenberg does not omit human art, either, examining prehistoric drawings discovered in the Cave of the Three Brothers in France, as well as cubist paintings, scientific drawings and contemporary sculpture.A fun, freewheeling discussion of the role of aesthetics in evolution and a celebration of the beauty to be found in the great diversity of life.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
