Reviews for La fin annoncée d'homo sapiens sapiens

The average rating for La fin annoncée d'homo sapiens sapiens based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-04-16 00:00:00 Alan Holmes I was very disappointed with this book. "Kinship and Mastery" is the work of Yale Environment professor Stephen Kellert, and one would think that a Yale professor would write a book of profound ideas and intellectual rigor. But you find none of that in this book. This book is about a concept called "biophilia", which is a fancy term for the love of living things. As Kellert describes it, this new term may very well be a synonym for the ancient concept of pantheism, which is the belief that God is nature and nature is God. If this were a book about pantheism, it would be a lot more interesting than "Kinship and Mastery". "Kinship and Mastery" lacks any semblance to a scientific work. Kellert's main thesis in this book are the following three points 1) that human beings love nature, 2) that natural products make a huge contribution to the human economy, and 3) that the welfare of human beings depends largely on nature. The problem that I have with his theory is that it is a case of expounding on the obvious. It is like writing a book about how water is wet or fire is hot. I have never come across anyone who thinks that people hate nature, or that natural resources do not benefit manking economically, or that people are not affected by nature. Seriously, if any of you know of an author who disagrees with Kellert, please let me know because I would love to read that book. So, basically this is a book that expounds on a tautology, and expresses ideas that are obvious to everyone. Kellert embellishes his narrative with references to scientific articles, and he includes short stories to illustrate his points. Kellert uses lots of technical scientific language to disguise the silliness of his points. If one were to strip away the scientific jargon and the technical references, this book could very well have been a 5th grade essay on how the outdoors are really cool and people should take care of the environment. The level of Kellert's reasoning is about the level of a 10 year old even if he throws in Graduate level jargon. The last couple of chapters of this book contain the obligatory warnings that every environmentalist loves to tell us - that the earth is becoming a festering toxic waste dump and soon all wildlife will die an ugly death. Such warnings were de rigeur in the 70s, but by the time this book was written in 1996, most of those warnings had been disproven. Still, Kellert feel compelled to repeat them to the reader. I would be annoyed by this, except that this is the only part of the book that shows any kind of propensity to make a point. From that perspective, the tired warnings are downright refreshing. "Kinship and Mastery" is an intellectual scam, and you would do well to avoid it. It is a waste of your time and attention. Fortunately, as I see from the number of people who have reviewed this book, very few people have wasted their time with this thing.

Review # 2 was written on 2019-01-02 00:00:00 Thomas Hedley This made tears come to my eyes as I read it in the public library. A lovely story told from the perspective of a young (8 year-old?) Codie waiting for the arrival of her first cousin. Codie rushes to complete a blanket for the newest family member, staying up all night to sew it. She is anxious about her place in her aunt's family when the baby, newly named Lavender, arrives home, and her aunt reassures her that there will always be room for Codie. It is a perfect independent read for ages 7-9.