Overview

"A stunningly original exploration of the ties that bind us to the beautiful, ancient, astoundingly accomplished, largely unknown, and unfathomably different species with whom we share the world. For as long as humans have existed, insects have existed, too. Wherever we ve traveled, they ve traveled, too. Yet we hardly know them, not even the ones we re closest to: those that eat our food, share our beds, and live in our homes. Organizing his book alphabetically with one entry for each letter, weaving together brief vignettes, meditations, and extended essays, Hugh Raffles embarks on a mesmerizing exploration of history and science, anthropology and travel, economics, philosophy, and popular culture to show us how insects have triggered our obsessions, stirred our passions, and beguiled our imaginations. Raffles offers us a glimpse into the high-stakes world of Chinese cricket fighting, the deceptive courtship rites of the dance fly, the intriguing possibilities of queer insect sex, the vital and vicious role locusts play in the famines of west Africa, how beetles deformed by Chernobyl inspired art, and how our desire and disgust for insects has prompted our own aberrant behavior. Deftly fusing the literary and the scientific, Hugh Raffles has given us an essential book of reference that is also a fascination of the highest order. http: //insectopedia.org/"""

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9780375423864

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Reviews

Beautifully lyrical. &ndash; The Boston Globe <br> Unique beyond imagination. Bizarre. Endlessly interesting, a book that cannot be categorized. This book insists you learn its unexpected facts because you cannot put it down&hellip;You will never forget having read this book. You will never forget where you put it either, since you have dog-eared it for displays of another astounding fact when your friends come to visit. &ndash; Decatur Daily <br> As Raffles shows our nearby neighbors to be at once dangerous and beautiful, common and incomprehensible, he refracts a world that is newly fascinating. &ndash;Audubonmagazine.com <br> Compulsively readable, equal parts anthropology, travel, philosophy, history and science&hellip; Insectopedia will stir your imagination. &ndash;valeaston.com, Plant Talk <br> As inventive and wide ranging and full of astonishing surprises as the vast insect world itself.&#160;Raffles&#160;takes us on a delirious journey, zooming in and out from the m

Beautifully lyrical. - The Boston Globe <br> Unique beyond imagination. Bizarre. Endlessly interesting, a book that cannot be categorized. This book insists you learn its unexpected facts because you cannot put it down...You will never forget having read this book. You will never forget where you put it either, since you have dog-eared it for displays of another astounding fact when your friends come to visit. - Decatur Daily <br> As Raffles shows our nearby neighbors to be at once dangerous and beautiful, common and incomprehensible, he refracts a world that is newly fascinating. -Audubonmagazine.com <br> Compulsively readable, equal parts anthropology, travel, philosophy, history and science... Insectopedia will stir your imagination. -valeaston.com, Plant Talk <br> As inventive and wide ranging and full of astonishing surprises as the vast insect world itself. Raffles takes us on a delirious journey, zooming in and out from the microscopic to the global, fromn

Author Information

"HUGH RAFFLES teaches anthropology at The New School. He is the author of ""In Amazonia: A Natural History, "" which received the Victor Turner Prize in Ethnographic Writing. His essays have been published in ""Best American Essays, Granta, ""and ""Orion."" He received a Whiting Writers Award in 2009. He lives in New York City. http: //insectopedia.org/"""

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