Reviews

The Second Body by Daisy Hildyard

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ditzbell's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

4.0

I think this book was super interesting! It proposes some very cool ideas about personal responsibility on a global scale as well as a cool take on how humans view themselves in relationship to "animalness."

I think what I particularly enjoy is the interview aspect of it. I think to fully encompass complex ideas, people too often pull from one field to come to their conclusions, when in reality, the issue NEEDS the diversity of a multidisciplinary approach. Having the perspective of many people on different sides of this issue made for a much more nuanced take that I feel went a step further than most content I've consumed tackling this subject. However, I can't help but feel that because it took this multidisciplinary approach, it comes off as half baked. I want even more people to weigh in! I know that isn't always possible with time and financial constraints, but for me personally, the book would have been better off for it.

Overall though, I still very much enjoyed this experience and would recommend it to anyone! It also finally pushed me to begin Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan novels!

kstrange's review against another edition

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informative reflective medium-paced

3.0

clairefallon's review against another edition

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medium-paced

5.0

jckmd's review

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adventurous informative reflective medium-paced

2.75

amandacs's review against another edition

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fast-paced

3.5

An interesting central thesis that I quite enjoy thinking about, but as a scientist this essay was, at times, frustrating to read. Hildyard seems to touch the surface of many different disciplines within and outside of science, never fully grasping the principles of the field. As a student who has focused my schooling and work over the fields of neuroscience, ecology and anthropology, I think that many of the assumptions that Hildyard holds about science have lead her astray. Science as a general field is about the exploration of questions and ideas. We add knowledge at a snail's pace while questions arise at the speed of a peregrine falcons dive. This is the beauty of the discipline and it seems to me that Hildyard was, at times, frustrated with the lack of definitive answers. Another lapse for me was in how she viewed 'human disturbance' as ecologists placing humans outside of the realm of animals. No scientist that I have studied under would exclude us from the kingdom of animalia and discussing the disturbances that we cause on ecosystems does not exclude us either. Every living thing exerts influence over their environment; studying how human influence impacts other living and non-living thing places us alongside them in the world as ecosystem engineers and animal drivers. These general misconceptions about the philosophy of science made the reading experience less enjoyable, though Hildyard's style was captivating. I picked this up initially because I was reading seminal essays on deep ecology, of which many have tackled similar questions with a wider breadth of knowledge. I would have liked if Hildyard had explored the fields of anthropology and evolution more thoroughly. The essay was a quick enough read and I enjoyed the sections on Hildyard's own life and her literary analyses, which is obviously her area of expertise.