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A review by anagrace
Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life by Lulu Miller
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
i ugly cried reading the epilogue of this book. very happy that i started my year by reading it.
in "why fish don't exist", the author searchs for meaning in life, since the "we are all meaningless and unimportant in the face of the universe" approach isn't exactly working for her.
she turns to david starr jordan, a prolific taxonomist who seems to go unaffected by the hardships and setbacks in life, and who keeps going on the impossible task of finding order in a world reigned by chaos.
in this journey, she discovers many qualities of jordan's she wished to have, but also some extremely dark aspects of his biography, which include eugenics. here, we are warned about the dangers of seeing others as unimportant, and perhaps of putting too much importance on ourselves, even when we don't realize and are adamantly agaisn't it.
in the end, she finds a way of dealing with the indifference of the universe by relying on uncertainty, and on the relationships we build with one another.
we matter to each other, so we matter. period.
plus: we learn a lot about the history of taxonomics, and david starr jordan's role in it, and it's truly fascinating.
in "why fish don't exist", the author searchs for meaning in life, since the "we are all meaningless and unimportant in the face of the universe" approach isn't exactly working for her.
she turns to david starr jordan, a prolific taxonomist who seems to go unaffected by the hardships and setbacks in life, and who keeps going on the impossible task of finding order in a world reigned by chaos.
in this journey, she discovers many qualities of jordan's she wished to have, but also some extremely dark aspects of his biography, which include eugenics. here, we are warned about the dangers of seeing others as unimportant, and perhaps of putting too much importance on ourselves, even when we don't realize and are adamantly agaisn't it.
in the end, she finds a way of dealing with the indifference of the universe by relying on uncertainty, and on the relationships we build with one another.
we matter to each other, so we matter. period.
plus: we learn a lot about the history of taxonomics, and david starr jordan's role in it, and it's truly fascinating.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Ableism and Racism
it gives an history on eugenics, therefore containing mentions of racism and ableism