Sensational Sensations

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A Review of Diane Ackerman's "A Natural History of the Senses"

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While I have many problems with the language that is used in Ackerman's book, I have found myself coming to appreciate the message that is presented in the book. Throughout the reading, I have found myself thinking more about the incredible features that my own body possesses.

While the overall material of Ackerman's work can be summed up in the three words, "horny old lady", she has a very intriguing way of capturing the reader's eye by adding in memories from her life to create more of a narrative to the book. Her romanticized writing style can either disgust you or lure you in further.

Out of everything said in the book, what stuck out to me the most was the way in which she describes relationships with babies and their mothers. Diane writes how people in other cultures primarily those in less developed nations people carry their babies against their chest or their back, while she looks down upon this, I find it to be condescending to do so.

It is a fact that babies that are held and coddled by their mothers and fathers, as an example I would like to connect this class with my next class, in that we are discussing the Hmong people. They are a people with no land but fierce of spirit. The Hmong people are afraid of western medicine, for good reason, they are told of stories of western doctors molesting women. I believe in a way this relates to Ackerman herself, she is told of these people in a far off land and is afraid of their ways. They are so different from her own that she both romanticizes them while she looks down upon them.

Overall I wish I could read an updated version of this text that has modern science and less racist thoughts on anyone that is not white. I wonder if the author has changed her mind on any of the odd comments that she has made over the course of the book, specifically about peoples of different cultures and ethnic backgrounds.

Comments

  1. William MyungMarch 23, 2020 at 3:37 PM

    To cuddle ones child is a universal trait we humans share with not just each other but other species. Why Ackerman would look down at this is beyond me.

    ReplyDelete

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