Book Buzz

WADE DAVIS

The essays in this wonderful collection were written for the celebrated Massy Series for CBC.  Davis looks to the San tribe who live in the Kalahari desert, as how our ancestors lived before they migrated out of Africa and spread out over the world. The Kahari is one of the most hostile environments in the world. “In English we have 31 sounds. The San have 141, a cacaphony of clicks and cadence that many linguists believe echos the very birth of our language.”

In Australia: “Knowing the extraordinary reach of the Aboriginal mind, the sublets of their thoughts and philosophy and the evocative power of their rituals it is chilling to think of this reservoir of human potential, wisdom, intuition, and insight that very nearly ran dry during those terrible days of death and conflagration.”

“Genocide, the physical extermination of a people, is universally condemned. Ethnocide, the destruction of a people’s way of life, is sanctioned and endorsed as appropriate development policy.” In Borneo, “Penan explicitly perceive wealth as the strength of social relations among people.”

“Canada is leading the way, not only as a model of a successful multicultural country, but a s nation-state prepared to acknowledge past mistakes and seek appropriate means of restitution in a pluralistic society. I am reminded of this every time I travel in Nunavut which is now under the administration of the Inuit people.”

Wade Davis points out that ancient peoples lived on Earth for millennia without destroying it. So why can’t we? “By their very existence, the diverse cultures of the world bear witness to the folly of those who say we cannot change, as we all know we must, the fundamental manner in which we inhabit this planet.”

A wonderful book. A must read!

CANDACE SAVAGE

Bees truly are incredible creatures. Their society and communication have much to teach us. Bees come from wasps. There are 16,000 species of bees most of which are not social creatures like the honeybee and bumblebee. Savage gives us interesting facts about bees in a well written natural history. “Bees and flowers are made for each other. Scientist call this coevolution. The adaptive interplay among species that could not survive alone. Many flowering plants rely on animal helpers to reproduce, employing them as animated dildos or sexual go-betweens, to transfer pollen from the ripe anthers of one flower to the reproductive stigma of the next.” Among the facts about bee biology Savage has poems and stories from the ages.

End Notes for a Small History
by Betty Lies

When the last bee died,
nobody noticed. Nobody put on black
or made a dirge for the death
of honey. Nobody wrote an elegy
to apricots, no one mourned for cherries.

When the last bee died,
everyone was busy. They had things to do,
drove straight to work each morning,
straight back home each night. The roads
all seriously hummed. Besides,

the pantries were still packed
with cans of fruit cocktail in heavy srup,
deep deep freezers full
of concentrated grape and orange juice,
stores stocked with artificial flavoring.

When the last bee died, nobody saw
the poppies winking out, nobody cried
for burdock, yarrow, wild delphinium.
Now and again a child would ask for
dandelions, quickly shushed: That pest!

And everyone is fine. The children healthy,
radish-cheeked. They play she love me/not
with Savoy cabbage leaves, enjoy the telling
of the great myths, peach and peony.
No one believes in apples any more.

Bees is a thin book, quick to read. And it is worth the time.

ALLEN CASEY

This beautifully written natural history is also part memoir. The combination works. “I knew,” he writes, “that Canada’s lake-greatness stemmed not from the sheer size of five titans, but from the great sprawl and density of its three million other lakes.”  Sixty per cent of the world’s lakes are found in just one country – Canada.  And if you add every bog, swamp, kettle hole, and seasonal prairie slough, there is nothing so uniquely Canadian as a lake. How many of us go to “the lake” on summer weekend? Casey’s “the lake” was Emma Lake north of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. And that is where he starts his musings and explorations. Emma is a symbol for what is happening with many inland lakes.  Divided and subdivided, it is being spoiled by gargantuan  cottages until there is no more room and environmental problems arise. Lake Winnipeg is almost a dead lake. So many acres of farm land and feed lots drain into this lake carrying fertilizers that boost algae growth that takes all the lakes oxygen. Casey describes the degradation of Lake Okanagan in its battle with wineries for water and land for housing.

Definately a must read.