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A review by losthitsu
A Natural History of the Senses by Diane Ackerman
1.0
This book was a disappointment. I expected a decently written, informative book on the history of human senses, and instead got a strange mix of facts, myths and incredibly self-indulgent personal narrative that I couldn't bring myself to care for.
I understand the book is 25 years old so some theories will be inevitably outdated, but Ackerman mixes scientific theories with bits of randomly picked interesting trivia that she clearly didn't bother to critically examine and some wide-spread folk beliefs that not even QI panellists would fall for. The writing style tries to be sensual and poetic, but sounded utterly pretentious to me (there is a limit to the number of times you can use 'robust' in 300 pages without sounding ridiculous and Ackerman crosses the point and leaves it far behind her). The whole book felt like a chance for the writer to brag about her fantastic life experiences (yes we get it, you got to tag Monarch butterflies and it was amazing, good for you!) while trying to pass her incredibly narrow, white-rich-American-heterosexual-woman point of view as the universal way of experiencing senses. It would work perfectly well as an autobiography or a personal narrative but not as something that aims to be sold as popular science.
I understand the book is 25 years old so some theories will be inevitably outdated, but Ackerman mixes scientific theories with bits of randomly picked interesting trivia that she clearly didn't bother to critically examine and some wide-spread folk beliefs that not even QI panellists would fall for. The writing style tries to be sensual and poetic, but sounded utterly pretentious to me (there is a limit to the number of times you can use 'robust' in 300 pages without sounding ridiculous and Ackerman crosses the point and leaves it far behind her). The whole book felt like a chance for the writer to brag about her fantastic life experiences (yes we get it, you got to tag Monarch butterflies and it was amazing, good for you!) while trying to pass her incredibly narrow, white-rich-American-heterosexual-woman point of view as the universal way of experiencing senses. It would work perfectly well as an autobiography or a personal narrative but not as something that aims to be sold as popular science.