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Summary
Summary
Though not generally perceived as graceful, crows are remarkably so--a single curve undulates from the tip of the bird's beak to the end of its tail. They take flight almost without effort, flapping their wings easily and ascending into the air like spirits. Crow by Boria Sax is a celebration of the crow and its relatives in myth, literature, and life.
Sax takes readers into the history of crows, detailing how in a range of cultures, from the Chinese to the Hopi Indians, crows are bearers of prophecy. For example, thanks in part to the birds' courtship rituals, Greeks invoked crows as symbols of conjugal love. From the raven sent out by Noah to the corvid deities of the Eskimo, from Taoist legends to Victorian novels and contemporary films, Sax's book ranges across history and culture and will interest anyone who has ever been intrigued, puzzled, annoyed, or charmed by these wonderfully intelligent birds.
Author Notes
Boria Sax teaches at Sing Sing prison and online for the graduate program in literature at Mercy College. He is the author of many books, including Imaginary Animals , also published by Reaktion Books.
Reviews (2)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In this vivid and enjoyable meditation on crows in art, literature and history, Sax (The Serpent and the Swan: The Animal Bride in Folklore and Literature), a scholar at Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, New York, gives the genus Corvus the enthusiastic treatment it deserves. Crows have always preoccupied people?as tricksters and crop thieves, as harbingers of death or creators of the world, as models of marital fidelity and bearers of prophecy. But Sax?s book is more than an endearing act of monomania. Part of a series that includes odes to dogs, ants, snakes and other cardinal companions and familiar pests, this volume emphasizes that animals and allegory are still fundamental to the human imagination. The 95 illustrations (27 in color) are beautifully reproduced: from a Japanese ink drawing of a plump crow bending plum boughs to contemporary photographs of the Yeoman Raven Master feeding his wards at the Tower of London, where they are believed to protect the English Crown. Sax can sound moralizing when he generalizes; in his discussion of Poe?s ?The Raven? he asserts: ?Few people [?] stop to even consider what the poem might be about.? The book?s organization?by region and epoch?is logical but not necessarily ideal. The inevitable overlaps in regional and historical views leads to a kind of redundancy rather than the kind of elaboration that might have arisen in a more free-ranging discussion. Sax is wholly successful, however, in transmitting the wonder and admiration with which he regards these iconic birds. (June) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Choice Review
These four books are the first in this new series on natural history by experts on individual animals; at least a dozen more are in preparation. The format is the same for each volume: 150-200 pages of text, profusely illustrated (photos, drawings, paintings); a convenient "Timeline" highlighting eras and dates of significance in the animal's history from prehistory to the present; and list of Web sites.Cockroach is heavily laden with examples from literature and poetry, plus film and TV--Copeland is a former English professor with a penchant for eco-feminist material. Ever intriguing is the sex life of some animals, as in the case of one species of cockroach whose females give birth without males at all (which essentially is a form of cloning). Cockroaches, it seems, are (possibly) more intelligent than many insects; therefore, implanting remote-control devices into live cockroaches--making experimental "robo-roaches"--is (probably) cruel. One comes away with respect for the cockroach, which emerged before South America and Africa were split in two, and thus survived the several catastrophic episodes that destroyed about 95 percent of all species.Crow, by literature professor Sax, includes other members of the Corvidae (magpies, ravens, rooks, jackdaws, etc.) and draws on science, poetry, mythology, and legend. It is organized chronologically but includes chapters on specific topics and cultures (a delightful chapter is devoted entirely to scarecrows, another to crows among Native Americans). Along the way one learns the origin of "crow's feet," "crow's nest," "Jim Crow," and "to eat crow"; there is even a discussion of Poe's "The Raven."Ant, by historian Sleigh, starts with some scientific facts on the more than 11,000 species of ants, then moves into myths and how ants have been anthropomorphized, from Aesop to Disney. Obedient and hardworking, ants were role models within the old natural theology tradition; today's scientists look for parallels between ants' collective behavior and human information science (think Internet). Malevolently, ants' swarming armies trek across wide swaths of land, ultimately raiding our kitchens. The last chapter is an engaging exposition of a disagreement between E.O. Wilson and Deborah M. Gordon; she contends that ants' behavior is not as fixed and purposeful as Wilson proposes.Tortoise, by historian and archaeologist Young, begins with tortoise facts and anecdotes, often drawing on Darwin's writings and his fascination with tortoises of the Galapagos Islands. The well-known myth of the flat Earth placed on the back of a tortoise comes from several cultures. As emblems, tortoises range in attributes from morality and modesty to bad luck and evil. A chapter treats the exploitation of tortoises for food and medicine, e.g., their shells are used for ornamentation or in musical instruments. Another chapter on their appreciation, especially in China where they were symbols of endurance, provides a litany of various pet tortoises in history, both real and in literature, especially the legendary race between the Tortoise and the Hare. ^BSumming Up: All four books: Recommended for all levels. D. Topper University of Winnipeg