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A review by sarahglen
Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life by Lulu Miller
4.0
"There is grandeur in this view." — Darwin, Lulu's dad, me staring longingly out the window as I enter month 5 of quarantine
Everyone is saying this, but wow, what a book for the moment: "Chaos is the only sure thing in this world. The master that rules us all."
Lulu Miller is one of my favorite podcasters, and her talent carries over here. If you're looking for a quick read to remind you of the humanity in all of this, *gestures wildly* this is for you.
Read this if you want to crack your brain even further open to the "useful but arbitrary lines we draw around an ever-evolving flow of life for our convenience." Oh, and listen to her Longreads and Radiolab interviews as companion pieces too.
A few quotes I enjoyed:
— "The name itself is a thing of great power, then, the vessel that drags the idea from the imaginary to the earthly realm. Before the word, however, the thinking goes, the concept is largely inert."
— In discussing Trenton Merricks, a philosopher at UVA who joyously questions if chairs exist, Lulu writes, "The human mind is not always so good at carving up its worlds, that the names we place on things often turn out to be wrong... (it's a) a reminder to say humble, to stay wary of what we believe."
— bonus points for this sentence: "what's for certain is that taxonomists, also, get a little woo-woo about the whole naming thing."
— "Trying to believe what we know is not true could be society's downfall.... Sift truth from bullshit."
— Albert Priddy absolutely would have sterilized me: "He was a zealous eugenicist, known for having sterilized women for being 'man-crazy,' having 'wanderlust,' telling 'coarse stories,' and even passing notes in class."
— Honestly the set up of this scene made me cry: "Pretty Boy and Pretty Girl flit their wings, as if clapping. The ices cubes in everybody's glasses pop and tinkle as the morning whirls on. The living room is a menagerie of movement and light and laughter and warmth. The living room is alive."
— "I wondered what it would feel like to look down and see a Supreme Court-sanctioned stamp of unworthiness."
— "To get stuck on a single hierarchy is to miss the bigger picture, the messy truth of nature, the whole machinery of life."
— "The category 'fish' hides all of this. Hides nuance. Discounts intelligence. It gerrymanders close cousins away from us, creating a false sense of separation to preserve our spot at the top of an imaginary ladder."
— "But, man, did she taste good. Like lavender and rubies and the hard-candy lies you roll around on your tongue to cut class."
— "What other truths are waiting behind the lines we draw over nature?"
Everyone is saying this, but wow, what a book for the moment: "Chaos is the only sure thing in this world. The master that rules us all."
Lulu Miller is one of my favorite podcasters, and her talent carries over here. If you're looking for a quick read to remind you of the humanity in all of this, *gestures wildly* this is for you.
Read this if you want to crack your brain even further open to the "useful but arbitrary lines we draw around an ever-evolving flow of life for our convenience." Oh, and listen to her Longreads and Radiolab interviews as companion pieces too.
A few quotes I enjoyed:
— "The name itself is a thing of great power, then, the vessel that drags the idea from the imaginary to the earthly realm. Before the word, however, the thinking goes, the concept is largely inert."
— In discussing Trenton Merricks, a philosopher at UVA who joyously questions if chairs exist, Lulu writes, "The human mind is not always so good at carving up its worlds, that the names we place on things often turn out to be wrong... (it's a) a reminder to say humble, to stay wary of what we believe."
— bonus points for this sentence: "what's for certain is that taxonomists, also, get a little woo-woo about the whole naming thing."
— "Trying to believe what we know is not true could be society's downfall.... Sift truth from bullshit."
— Albert Priddy absolutely would have sterilized me: "He was a zealous eugenicist, known for having sterilized women for being 'man-crazy,' having 'wanderlust,' telling 'coarse stories,' and even passing notes in class."
— Honestly the set up of this scene made me cry: "Pretty Boy and Pretty Girl flit their wings, as if clapping. The ices cubes in everybody's glasses pop and tinkle as the morning whirls on. The living room is a menagerie of movement and light and laughter and warmth. The living room is alive."
— "I wondered what it would feel like to look down and see a Supreme Court-sanctioned stamp of unworthiness."
— "To get stuck on a single hierarchy is to miss the bigger picture, the messy truth of nature, the whole machinery of life."
— "The category 'fish' hides all of this. Hides nuance. Discounts intelligence. It gerrymanders close cousins away from us, creating a false sense of separation to preserve our spot at the top of an imaginary ladder."
— "But, man, did she taste good. Like lavender and rubies and the hard-candy lies you roll around on your tongue to cut class."
— "What other truths are waiting behind the lines we draw over nature?"