Andrew Darby
Auteur de Harpoon: Into the Heart of Whaling
A propos de l'auteur
Crédit image: Courtesy of Allen and Unwin
Œuvres de Andrew Darby
Étiqueté
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Membres
Critiques
Harpoon is an interesting account of the anti-whaling movement and the evolution of the International Whaling Commission. Told from an anti-whaling, Australian perspective, Darby describes the dark history of global whaling and its affect on the stocks of select species across the high seas. More broadly, the book presents a critical view of international approaches towards sustainability and the challenges that are presented by cultures with differing needs and ideologies.
Era il 1855 quando nel nord dell'Atlantico si cominciò la caccia alle balene. In questo volume si ripercorre la storia di questo sterminio che dura da quasi due secoli e che ha portato la specie verso l'estinzione. Perchè si continuano ad uccidere le balene?
Prix et récompenses
Statistiques
- Œuvres
- 2
- Membres
- 67
- Popularité
- #256,179
- Évaluation
- 3.8
- Critiques
- 4
- ISBN
- 10
- Langues
- 1
I found this book rather meandering. I do read a lot of natural history and natural science books, which might be a part of the reason. I don't need to hear twenty descriptions of how the people who are attracted to shore birds are like, eclectic, strange and highly educated interesting people. It feels kind of self-congratulatory, and it's extremely repetitive. Time that could have been given to more to science (of which there could have been much more of it, given the breadth of the end-text references) is generally spent explaining to us, once again, how eccentric and amazing the people who like shorewaders really are. (They didn't seem that amazing, the Bangladesh story highlighted how neglected for spouses they can certainly be, a story which might be hilarious to guys, but is honestly a sign of how men will happily use a hobby to abandon their wives and leave no way to be contacted).
Darby's prose is beautiful at times, but at others it's meandering and takes a long time to get to the point. Some of the early chapters I literally did not understand the point of, except that it seemed to be one more 'wow these people are amazing, wow grey plovers are REALLY NONDESCRIPT HUH' and it's like well, you established that in the first chapter, so why...is this still happening?
The content gets meatier in the middle, looking at how hunting and environmentalism impacts, and continues to impact birds that fly supermarathons. I feel like the book would have been much stronger with this not being saved up like a 'tantalising storyline' and it being front and centre from the beginning of the book. By the time we got to the crux of the book, I was bored, and frankly, beginning to count the times I'd be told how unique the people who love these birds are.
Really wanted to love this, since it's right up my alley in terms of content and subject, but just didn't. Would recommend it to anyone who loves shorewaders obsessively, because boy and howdy, you are just going to be praised for 200 pages about how much better you are than average people, lol.… (plus d'informations)