Reviews for Illumination in the Flatwoods: A Season with the Wild Turkey

The average rating for Illumination in the Flatwoods: A Season with the Wild Turkey based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-11-27 00:00:00 Jenna Addamsly This is an unexpectedly beautiful book. I noticed that a show based on the book was to be aired on PBS the day before Thanksgiving and decided to read the book before watching. (Here is something about the PBS show: ) The book began as a sort of journal or field notes of the author's experience in raising wild turkeys as their 'mother' , from imprinting on them as they hatched, through their first year or so until they moved on into their adult lives. One of the male birds stuck around and an epilogue tells of the author's further experiences with him. As the book progresses, it becomes more of a meditation on life and nature. The author is a sensitive,skilled writer. Although his story is focused on the turkeys, his writing and beautifully executed sketches of the creatures he observed will go right to your heart. I felt as though I were living the year with him, vicariously. He really positions himself as one of the turkeys, writing as though he moves through the world at their level, as much as he is able. He freely admits that he is not always capable of being in the moment in the way they are, and he bemoans this human defect. He speaks of the turkey's ancient heritage, saying, " 'Antiquity' does not necessarily imply that which is primitive. To the contrary, biological systems tend to become more sophisticated and well tuned over time." (pg. 130) In noting how the human development of language affects our consciousness, he says, "...science appears to be describing an existential consciousness, an awareness of self that can ultimately alienate one entirely from the rest of the universe, creating a sense of isolation, vulnerability, and mortality---the existential human dilemma. This could be uniquely human, a result of highly developed language-based brain function. Human existential alienation seems to be in opposition to a fully conscious and nonverbal experience...Perhaps in our whirlwind evolutionary journey we have misplaced a vital aspect of our being that we would do well to recover." (p. 131) Besides his larger themes, it was just interesting to learn a bit about turkeys. I didn't know they were sensitive to color. (He generally wore faded blue, which they liked.) I also didn't know that they are quite intelligent, perhaps more so than crows. The author always speaks as though he is a turkey too, saying things like 'we are foraging..' I thought this observation was amusing: " I feel a little like an anthropologist who, after attempting to be an impartial observer of an exotic culture, finds himself instead becoming acculturated and confused about his own social identity. I haven't started eating grasshoppers yet, but the smooth green ones, I notice, are beginning to look attractive." (p. 187) Reading this book is like taking a journey on the wild side with Mr. Hutto as your able guide.

Review # 2 was written on 2009-02-20 00:00:00 Sean Ross I love to read nonfiction books about wild animals more than any other kind of book. Usually I choose books about dramatic or charismatic animals like wolves, snow leopards, or caribou, but I'd have to call this book about wild turkeys my favorite book I've ever encountered up to this point in my life. Illumination in the Flatwoods is the journal of a sensitive and patient man who pursued a lengthy experiment involving imprinting a flock of wild turkeys. After collecting two batches of wild turkey eggs from nests that were being destroyed by a construction project, Joe incubated the eggs, attended their hatching so that the chicks would imprint to him, and cared for the turkeys through their young lives at his acreage adjoining National Forest land in northern Florida. The experiment originated with Joe's curiosity to learn about behavior and mannerisms of wild turkeys, but grew into a much more rich and complex undertaking than he ever could have guessed. As he relates in his journal notes, the turkeys taught him not only to be acutely observant of the minute details of the surrounding world, but also to live presently with calm patience. In some ways, the turkeys reached deep inside of Joe, stirring strong sentiments and forming unexpected bonds. In other ways, they remained beyond his reach. Of course it is Joe's extraordinary patience and talent as a naturalist and writer that made all of this possible. I found this book to be totally brilliant without a single crease of dullness. In great contrast to Being Caribou, my other favorite book of the summer so far, which relies heavily on wild adventure to tell its story, here Joe takes an apparently ordinary or boring situation (foraging for seeds and bugs in the fields near his home) and brings it to life. This story is marked by the balance between a good intentional plan starting out and an opportunistic openness to unexpected turns of event. What I mean is, the very idea of imprinting wild turkeys to learn from and journal about them is a good foundation. Then, within that format, he lets the turkeys and the experiment lead him in surprising directions and he stays entirely open to new developments in his relationship with the turkeys as each day goes by. I like the structure of the book, which is divided into four sections, plus a preface and an epilogue. Each section has a date heading marking individual days from the journal notes. The book is beautifully illustrated throughout with delicate hand drawings made by Joe in charcoal. By far these are the best illustrations in any book I have recently opened. Another thing I especially enjoyed about this book is the way the turkeys carry the action of the story, but he allows them to lead him to deeper places in his writing. For example, on pages 128 and 129 he enters this riff on consciousness: "It is impossible to ignore the extraordinary state of awareness in these wild birds. As I watch them contemplate and scrutinize, it is difficult to describe much of their nature or various behaviors without resorting to the word "consciousness." They seem in some way to epitomize that word. … Consciousness is that mysterious realm in which matter becomes so organized that it may begin to contemplate itself. All of our quantitative empirical understanding tends to fall apart as we begin to observe the source of our own perception. … Consciousness is everything that science is not - abstract, subjective, and qualitative." And another favorite passage from page 197: "I am subject to the ongoing insistence and presumption by these birds that I must be an integral part of their overall experience. With continuous reinforcement from fourteen strong-willed individuals'a subtle but unrelenting coercion that amounts to a form of indoctrination by association'it seems I have been gently molded into sharing a particular point of view. My will has gradually been overcome by the sheer weight of so much expectation."