The Boilerplate Rhino: Nature in the Eye of the Beholder

by David Quammen

In 1981 David Quammen began what might be every freelance writer's dream: a monthly column for Outside magazine in which he was given free rein to write about anything that interested him in the natural world. His column was called "Natural Acts," and for the next fifteen years he delighted Outside's readers with his fascinating ruminations on the world around us. The Boilerplate Rhino brings together twenty-six of Quammen's most thoughtful and engaging essays from that column, none previously printed in any of his earlier books.

In lucid, penetrating, and often quirkily idiosyncratic prose, David Quammen takes his readers with him as he explores the world. His travels lead him to rattlesnake handlers in Texas; a lizard specialist in Baja; the dinosaur museum in Jordan, Montana; and halfway across Indonesia in search of the perfect Durian fruit. He ponders the history of nutmeg in the southern Moluccas, meditates on bioluminescent beetles while soaking in the waters of the Amazon, and delivers "The Dope on Eggs" from a chicken ranch near his hometown in Montana.

Quammen's travels are always jumping-off points to explore the rich and sometimes horrifying tension between humankind and the natural world, in all its complexity and ambivalence. The result is another irrepressible assortment of ideas to explore, conundrums to contemplate, and wondrous creatures to behold.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Nature, Essays, Natural History, Biology, Animals

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

David Quammen (born February 1948) is an award-winning science, nature and travel writer whose work has appeared in publications such as National Geographic, Outside, Harper's, Rolling Stone, and The New York Times Book Review; he has also written fiction. He wrote a column called "Natural Acts" for Outside magazine for fifteen years. Quammen lives in Bozeman, Montana.

Reviews

[Petra X · Rating 5 out of 5]

**Update** I have the answer to the question! T Rex had a 12' penis with no bone in it. That must mean he had an amazing blood pumping system. Position, in the article I read, is assumed to be Downward Dino with the female swishing her tail to one side. Some palaentologists believe that the female was larger than the male, so presumably he had either good powers of persuasion or she was on heat and gagging for it, like cats. So now I wonder if they had orgasms and if so, if the earth really shook?
__________

Something reminded me of this book today. There is one question I've always wanted answered: What size penis did Tyrannosaurus Rex have? What about a Diplodocus? How did they mate? How on earth could a male Diplo get up on a female one if that's what they did, wouldn't he have crushed her to death? In fact what were the mating rituals of dinosaurs in general and did they come into season or just have sex whenever they felt like it? What did the males do to get the females in the mood if so?

Tortoises are descendants of dinosaurs. I was in Ankara, Turkey, once, at the mausoleum of Ataturk, (one of my heroes) and saw a male tortoise pursuing a female one. She was running at hare-like speed but every now and again would look over her shoulder to make sure he was quite close. Then she would allow herself to be caught and they would go at it with the male having his head extended and panting. Until she would slide from under and run away again. We watched this for more than half an hour. I had never realised that tortoises had such enjoyable sex lives until then. But dinosaurs were too big and heavy for that model too.

So how did dinosaurs do it?

[Peter Tillman · Rating 3 out of 5]

My 2010 booklog notes these were "old magazine columns, most good". But I would refer prospective readers to Radiantflux's later, more complete and more critical review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... He gives the collection just 2 stars.

[Radiantflux · Rating 2 out of 5]

6th book for 2016.

I have heard great things about Quammen over the years. I have had The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions on my to-do reading list for at least ten years now so was excited to read this (third) collection of Quammen's writings for Outside magazine.

Unfortunately, the book is disappointing for a number of reasons. There is no strong thematic thread tying the short essays together, apart from the (somewhat) dubious framing that they are to do with human's interaction/reactions to the natural world. So we have essays for anything from phobias of spiders and snakes, to eating durian or flying foxes (two separate essays) to sitting in the garden looking for dark matter. As all of the essays are by nature shallow/quick magazine pieces, we are left with a lot of quick, seemingly random, jumping around over a wide range of topics.

The stories from this collection date from the late 1980s and early 1990s, and are showing their age. Many of the essays give short introductions to what would have been interesting new ideas. However, the better ideas in this volume (life around volcanic vents; dark matter; birds as surviving dinosaurs etc) have all been developed and enriched over the years to the point that there is little of value in reading this short magazine pieces from a quarter century ago.

On top of this I found Quammen's style annoying. His attempts to be cute and personable with his writing just ended up annoying me after a while. But once you remove his style from the equation you are left only with relatively shallow, outdated stories, with much of the science either wrong or better told elsewhere.

It's hard to avoid the impression that even when the book was originally published that this was largely a money making exercise; with Quammen and the publisher cashing in on previous successes.

[Marla · Rating 4 out of 5]

We have friends whom we don't see often, but I always leave their house after a dinner together with something interesting to read. When I thanked them for being so generous with good books and recommendations they answered, "We like lending books to you because you always return them--unlike many people we know." Well, under that kind of pressure to uphold my sterling reputation, I read this book immediately rather than adding it to the stack so that I wouldn't forget I had it.

This book is a compilation of "Nature Matters" essays by David Quammen which previously appeared in "Outside" magazine. When he took the job as monthly columnist, his editor's only requirement was "that each essay, no matter how abberant, should contain at least passing mention of an animal, a scientist or a tree". Needless to say, this left an amazingly wide range of topics from which to choose--and to say that these essays cover an amazingly wide range of topics is an egregious understatement. He waxes eloquent on everything from timing lizard races, to eating fruit bats, to poets (who write about birds, thus meeting the aforementioned requirement) to slime mold, to Thoreau, to tuna fishing, to homosexual octopuses (pi?), to suburban lawns and a myriad of fascinating scientists, places, creatures and phenomena in between.

Reading these essays is a bit like surfing the Internet. One interesting fact links to something else until one wonders, "How did I get *here* from *there*? This is not exactly "light" reading although the author is quite witty and sometimes laugh-out-loud funny. He brings up many thought provoking--even moral--issues particularly concerning our relationship to and exploitation of animals and natural resources. But it's not as though he has an agenda to prosthelytize but rather to fairly present both sides of an issue and let the reader decide.

These essays offer an intellectual pursuit that is well worth the effort.

[Jason Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quammen's writing always calls the word 'muscular' to my mind: he wrestles and bends every topic into a well-formed story, full of research but delivering its information in a way that is entertaining and purposeful. His essays, meticulously but unobtrusively structured, don't just stop, they CULMINATE, ending at the exact moment when they have made their point.

This volume is one of several collections of his natural history essays for the 'Outsider' magazine. The subtitle indicates a subliminal theme in this selection, of how humans view nature; but basically it's more Quammen, which is all it needs to be. Some topics covered in the 25 essays here: Thoreau, rattlesnake roundups, penis size, tropical diseases, top speeds of lizards, Durer's depiction of the rhinocerous and the stinkiest fruit in the world. If you wonder how the author managed to pull one of these fascinating stories out of the hat each month, his essay "The Dope On Eggs" spoofs his own working methods, depicting him desperately trying to find a story in a welter of eggy facts, and of course making a story out of the search.

This points to one of the great pleasures of his writing, the humour. Fruitbats are a native delicacy in Guam, explains the grocer:

He told me that outsiders sometimes set up a bat stand just down the road from his place, beside the fish stands. Couple of sawhorses and a big umbrella, they were in business. I refrained from asking him, Sort of a fly-by-night operation?

In an essay on the terminal velocity of cats:

What were the mortal limits of Felis catus in free fall? To explore that question experimentally would be moronic as well as heartless - and scientists hate to seem moronic.

These articles are colourful, fact-packed, pointed, funny and incredibly engaging. What's not to like?

[Sasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love David Quammen. One of our best nature writers. This is a collection of his essays from Outside magazine; it makes a good break between other books.

[Elentarri · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lots of waffling, lack of substance. Ok, some of it was amusing, but ultimately I found it a rather boring collection of articles.

[J.C. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think the best way to describe Quammen's writing is to say it's kind of like reading Hunter S Thompson, if Thompson was sober and scientifically inclined.

Things I learned while reading this book.

Lawn care on the East Coast of the United States accounts for 30% of all water usage in the area. For the West coast the number is 60%. Lawns are overrated. Just pave it and get a basketball hoop.

The egg came first.

Albrecht Dürer was a real good artist.

If you're ever in Guam, you gotta try the fruit bat??

Henry David Thoreau once started a forest fire that burned 300 acres.

There's a modern day use for Latin! Become a taxonomist and give Latin names to all the remaining unclassified animals on the Earth. There's still a lot to name. Mostly beetles.

[Zena Casteel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quammen is an uncommon author, combining a fiendish attention to detail and dedication to accuracy with a knack for storytelling. This book is a collection of articles from Quammen’s time as a columnist for Outside magazine, and I give the editor at the time credit, because they are eccentric, self-conscious, rambly, unexpected, and, occasionally, profound. The sheer breadth of topics covered is impressive and somewhat unfocused — we find essays focused on cancer and poetry interspersed with those on martians and beetles. If anything, the collection demonstrates how science and nature can touch any aspect of our lives.

[Rossdavidh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Subtitle: Nature in the Eye of the Beholder.

Nature writers can be divided into two groups. The first is the type who came at it from the science angle, and then learns to adapt to slogging through the wilderness in search of a story. The second is the type who came at it from the nature angle, and then learns to adapt to slogging through the science in search of a story. In either case, how good they are at their job depends in large part on how well they adapt to the part they learned second (well, that and how well they can actually write). Quammen appears to be one of the second type. If I were a nature writer, I would be of the first type. Nonetheless, Quammen has become my favorite science and nature writer, and the essays in this book are a good example of why.

Quammen had a monthly column for Outside magazine, and this book has essays going back to 1981, but sampled from the fifteen year period during which he wrote that column. Quammen is not above beginning an essay with a line like "No doubt you've often asked yourself, over the years, why it is that owls don't have penises." He is also capable of tracking down the world's academic expert on whatever topic is at hand, and following him (or occasionally her) into the lab, or the heart of the jungle or the tundra, and finding a way to explain the essence of their work more cogently than they can themselves.

Which, it should be noted, is why we need more people like Quammen. We need the expertise that specialists can bring us, but the very immersion that is required to be an expert also makes it difficult for them to know how to explain their work to us. We also need writers like Quammen to grant us the perspective on the history of science that tells us about the rhinoceros that arrived in Lisbon, Portugal in 1515, a gift from a Sultan in India. The Portugese King sent it to the Pope, but it died en route, and was eventually made (post mortem) into a subject of an ink drawing, and eventually a woodcut, by Albrecht Duerer.

Quammen helps us to imagine the rhino, bewildered by the last year of its life in a way we cannot help but sympathize with. He not only tells us about how Duerer's description of the rhino ("fast, cunning, and daring") seemed pretty far from the truth, but he puts himself (and us) into Duerer's shoes to think why it might have been that way (hint: woodcuts were the best media at the time for mass marketing). Then he helps us draw what lessons we can for evaluating our own century's nature writing.

This is, really, the challenge of our age. We have plenty of information, with an army of experts unearthing more all the time. What we have a shortage of is the ability to make some sense of it, neither ignoring the detail nor drowning in it. Quammen is a writer who can do this, and we are lucky to have him.

[Ashley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm a science junkie myself and have always heard wonderful things about Quammen, especially from my father, whose opinion I value greatly. I admire authors who can make science coherent and comprehensible to the average reader but who do not simplify that science. It's a difficult task, one few writers handle successfully. And Quammen certainly is one of those writers. However, I was disappointed by this collection because it felt so haphazard, like an author trying to please an overeager acquiring editor by saying, 'Hey, lump some of my columns together and sell them as a book.' It was, therefore, a disappointing read to me, as it had no coherent narrative and, frankly, some of the essays were clunkers, at least for Quammen.

[g-na · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read a couple of Quammen's nonfiction books and enjoyed them, so I thought I'd give this a shot. It's a collection of essays about various science- (mostly biology-) related topics originally written for Outside Magazine. Knowing where the essays came from helps to make sense of the variety of subjects he ponders, as they vary from beetles to cats landing on their feet to his thought provoking comparison of humans and chimpanzees. I found it to be enjoyable while still being a fairly quick and light read.

[Ken · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a disjointed compendium of unrelated and outdated essays. It’s essentially Quammen going through his files and trying to make a few bucks off his old stuff.

I don’t blame Quammen for this by any means. The essays were all new to me, and Quammen’s warmed-over repeats are better than most writers’ latest and greatest. However, I couldn’t help but feel that the essays lose something by being collected here, all in one place, with nothing to hold them together.

[Brittany · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quammen is an extremely entertaining author, and this is one of his finest books. In fact, it might be my very favorite of his, if only for the inclusion of the "spatula" essay. For those of you who haven't read it, it's about sexual evolution and "spatula" is used in place of another word. Hint: Male snakes have two spatulas. Male birds have none at all. Fun and educational.

[Luis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Totalmente must read para cualquier amante de la naturaleza y la historia de las ciencias naturales, un libro ameno y fácil de leer, lleno de historias apasionantes sobre las personas que moldearon nuestro conocimiento del mundo, sus hallazgos y de la conservación de los ecosistemas en un mundo cada vez mas marcado por la presencia humana.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

David Quammen is a nature writer. Sometimes the thinks he writes about are fascinating and sometimes they are, excuse, less exciting than watching grass grow. Boilerplate Rhino, which is a collection of essays written for his monthly during his time at Outside magazine, has some of each. His account of the perfect durian fruit is fascinating, for example, as is his essay on the original boilerplate rhino. On the other hand, if I'm being perfectly honest (always my goal), I didn't even manage to read time-and-motion study in its entirety (and these are not especially long essays). From bat watching on Guam to speculating on the owl's absence of a penis (all owls, not a particular owl) to luminescent beetles the size of a human finger the essays run the gamut in terms of topics.

Even when the subject seems less than entirely interesting, though, Quammen can always be counted on for his beautiful prose. He describes military jets as "smearing the sky with carbon" during take-off and notes succinctly in an essay about Henry Thoreau that "the human reality is always more complicated than anything that can be put down on paper." Quammen is a writer's writer, a man whose every word seems to be carefully considered before appearing in print.

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy cats! This book has glorious sentences. I never thought a book of science and nature essays would make me laugh out loud in public. I also never thought I would read a book of science and nature essays. To the probable annoyance of those around me, I also couldn’t help reading portions of it aloud to those who happened to be nearby when I stumbled upon a particularly good bit. To clarify, I don’t usually read science or nature anything. I don’t read nonfiction. Usually, if it doesn’t have a plot then I’m out. But the writing in this book is phenomenal. There are plot twists of word choice and thought. It’s science explained through the eyes of a poet. This book was a delight from beginning to end, and somehow along the way I gained a better understand of the world around me. I’m going to read more by this author and would recommend it to anyone who loves nature, science, learning, the English language, good writing, and/or having something sensational to read on the plane.

[Carl Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of the author's columns from Outside magazine, spanning a variety of natural topics from the sought-after durian fruit to the dizzying variety of male genitalia to those who farm rattlesnakes and everything in between. These essays typically show the interface between mankind and nature, such as the imperial repercussions of the nutmeg trade in the Pacific or Jordan, Montana's reaction to their town standing as the epicenter of Tyrannosaurus rex fossils. Essays are short and breezy, and written in engaging prose designed for the casual layman rather than the scientific expert. As befits the magazine column origins, the essays are devoid of much superfluous material; his careful writing keeps the readability and engagement high even when the subject is not one that immediately appeals to me. I enjoyed both the collection and his writing.

[Breanna Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quammen is one of the greats when it comes to scientific writing for the everyday reader. Even with a degree in ecology I love reading his essays and books. They are for every level, for every person, for every interest. Essays in Boilerplate Rhino range from the title to beetles to dark matter to fellow nature writers throughout history. They are thought provoking, knowledge producing, and never fail to deliver on perfectly timed wit. A perfect read I will no doubt return to again as I have his other works.

[Megr · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars bc my opinion is very ambivalent. There were about as many stories that I liked as stories that I disliked and couldn't get through. The ones I enjoyed, I laughed out loud (something I rarely do when reading). They were entertaining and insightful. The others were dry and bore the pants off me. I found it extremely interesting that I never felt middle of the road.
All nature writings from flora and fauna to Dawkins, Goodall and Thoreau. This is one of the reasons I enjoy compilations. I would read another of Quammen's essay collections should I come across it.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderfully entertaining book of essays about musings on the natural world. Quammen is one of my favorite writers and this did not disappoint. I loved being along for the ride as his curious mind romped from one topic to another and I laughed out loud or smirked deliciously more times than I can say, as I lost count. As usual, it left me wanting more!

[Patsye · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have loved Quammen’s essays for a long time. Not only does he tell me really fascinating scientific facts, he makes it funny and personal. The stories are not really connected by theme, but are just interesting in their own right. Not a fast read, but a really fun one for science lovers.

[N · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ich fand das Buch überwiegend unterhaltsam und die unkonventionelle Themenauswahl sehr gelungen. Leider kann man nicht alles perfekt machen, also gibt es einzelne Kapitel, die sich in die Länge ziehen (.... na ja, bei diesem Umfang vertretbar).
Dennoch für zwischendurch absolut lesenswert.

[Carrie Jensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting nature essays. I love the quirky, fun facts and subjects David Quammen dives into. I especially loved the essay on bumble bees, and the one about the ludicrous obsession with lawns is also fantastic!

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my all time fave non fiction writers. It’s likely down to four stars because I’m more of a fan of a whole book on one subject rather than shorter excerpts on a variety of topics (like in fiction I prefer novels go short stories).

[indi · Rating 3 out of 5]

lovely little book of essays lent to me by my study abroad academic director. some were kind of meandering or abrupt, but many were thought-provoking, and they were all short enough that even the less interesting ones couldn’t drag on too long. and decent inspo for essay-writing :)

[Jim D'Ambrosia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Columns from some magazine. Decent stuff. Not great, but entertaining enough.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

I lost interest about 20% of the way though. It just seemed like there was more focus on word count that any particular point.

[aaadula · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read it a while ago. Such a whimsical book for animal lovers.

[Yvonne Baker · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. I stopped often to look up the things he wrote about. To find more information or just to connect deeper with the subject.