GoatMan: How I Took a Holiday from Being Human

by Thomas Thwaites

The dazzling success of The Toaster Project , including TV appearances and an international book tour, leaves Thomas Thwaites in a slump. His friends increasingly behave like adults, while Thwaites still lives at home, "stuck in a big, dark hole." Luckily, a research grant offers the perfect out: a chance to take a holiday from the complications of being human—by transforming himself into a goat. What ensues is a hilarious and surreal journey through engineering, design, and psychology, as Thwaites interviews neuroscientists, animal behaviorists, prosthetists, goat sanctuary workers, and goatherds.

From this, he builds a goat exoskeleton—artificial legs, helmet, chest protector, raincoat from his mum, and a prosthetic goat stomach to digest grass (with help from a pressure cooker and campfire)—before setting off across the Alps on four legs with a herd of his fellow creatures. Will he make it? Do Thwaites and his readers discover what it truly means to be human?

GoatMan tells all in Thwaites's inimitable style, which NPR extols as "a laugh-out- loud-funny but thoughtful guide through his own adventures."

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Animals, Memoir, Humor, Biography, Nature

208 pages, Paperback

First published April 12, 2016

Reviews

[Ed Erwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title and images look a bit insane, but this is quite interesting and entertaining. It should appeal to fans, like me, of pop-science books by Mary Roach.

Basically, an artist gets a bit tired of modern life and wonders if he can escape it all. Can he find a way to live in the moment the way a wild animal does? Since he's an artist, he applies for a grant to try to turn himself into an elephant and cross the alps. When he wins the grant, he has to actually try to do it.

He quickly switches plans from elephant to goat, then sets out to meet scientists and others to help him. This is the most interesting part because we learn (along with him) many amusing facts, and watch him try multiple systems of prosthesis to let him walk as a quadruped. (But sadly, not to gallop. Humans aren't built to gallop.) He event tries to figure out how to eat grass and uses trans-cranial magnetic stimulation to try to turn off language areas of his brain. (Also psychedelic plants, though he doesn't enjoy that.) The reactions he gets from people he tells about his plan are fun in themselves.

It is short and has many pictures so is a quick read, and worth the time.

Some pictures in this article.

Content warning: pictures of goat autopsy.

ORIGINAL COMMENT:
I'm not sure which is most crazy:

1. Writing a novel about a man who wants to become a goat and then printing and giving out for free hundreds of thousands of copies over many years. (See Wild Animus)

2. Actually trying to become a goat and writing this book.

3. Wanting to read Reading both of them.

[Anjan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well thought out and honest attempt at being a goat. Learned a lot while following his research and prep.


I feel a bit foolish for being demanding towards someone willing to take on such an arduous task, but I would've liked a bit more detail about how it felt to be a goat in lieu of a few of the jokes. Perhaps a night in the pen or a few more days as a goat beyond the migration?

[Josh · Rating 2 out of 5]

His writing style is decent, and the story of getting to the point where he could be a goat was interesting, but the whole premise of this project was to take time off from being human. Not only was this barely attempted, it was barely written about and not at all reflected upon at completion. I expected at least a little acknowledgement of what he had set out to do and whether he had indeed managed to forget his human worries, content that is almost explicitly promised in the subtitle! But the book abruptly ends after the author traipses halfway up a mountain. A very lacklustre ending made me cross enough to downgrade this from a weak three to two stars.

[Christina Mott · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading just the introduction I was pulled into Thomas' story of becoming GoatMan. He is absolutely hilarious and entertaining and I've already recommended this to multiple friends. There are some chapters that might make you squirm a bit, like the chapter on goat "guts" but I did find it all really fascinating! Goats are much more complex than I knew and Thomas helped give them some more street cred. Thomas is down to Earth and a real person trying to unplug a little from our daily stresses. I know it sounds a little fair-fetched to read about a guy who wants to be a goat but I enjoyed each page!

[Mycala · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wow. Well, as I mentioned when I first started reading this book, where do I start?

We start with our unemployed friend, who seems to have an affinity for Victorian literature. I assume this because he uses "gentle reader" quite a lot. Perhaps a bit too much. No, definitely too much. Twenty years ago, I read a book by Erica Jong -- Fear of Flying. Erica uses "Gentle Reader" once, in a sentence that made such an impact I can still recite it verbatim today. This guys tosses it around I am assuming in an attempt at humor, but it is way overdone and loses whatever effect I guess he was hoping for. Our friend has somehow landed a grant to become an elephant. But wait, no. It's no good.

He goes to a shaman and is led in the direction of something more... logical? A goat. With this newfound mission, he goes with unbridled enthusiasm to a number of institutions with hopes of becoming as much of a goat as he possibly can. I read this book in a 24-hour period and have discussed it with a number of people -- co-workers, family members, the like. As I described the man's quest I was met with all manner of reactions:

"Oh, you mean it's not a novel!? He really did this?"

"But WHY?"

"Do you think... Hmm. Does it seem to you like he may be trying to take this a little far?"

"What is wrong with this guy?"

My personal reaction when I saw this on the library shelf was to burst into the sort of laughter that is frowned upon in a library. My shoulders shook despite my efforts to control myself. I might even have snorted once or twice. I had tears streaming down my cheeks. It didn't help that I was sharing the photo on the back cover with my mother and pointing to the words on the inside cover because my voice was too tremulous to speak quietly: prosthetic goat stomach to digest grass.

As I read the book, though, I have to say I found it both fascinating (in the sense of scientific curiosity) and a bit scary (in the sense of the psychological health of our goat wannabe friend.) The guy actually asked a doctor of neuroscience if it would be possible to turn off the thinking part of his brain. I love what the doctor said. He had honestly never thought about using TMS to make someone feel more like a goat.

I find it interesting that the author's girlfriend brought him to the department of neuroscience. I found it interesting that he had a girlfriend, but that she is the sort to help him cavort about England in search of a sort of goat memory lapse... wow. I can think of a few people that I would encourage to have part of their brains turned off but interestingly enough, none of them are people I love. Funny, that.

Then he's building various goat exoskeletons. It's worth it to get the book just to see the photos. There is some interesting stuff in here, such as the goat beauty contests that they apparently have in the Middle East and I have to admit the goat standing on the red carpet and being photographed is pretty attractive as far as goats go. I think I can speak with some authority on this, as I grew up with goats and none of them were as beautiful as the red carpet goat. Still. It's a goat.

So after all the travel to the department of neuroscience, a bio-mechanics lab, a goat farm, and purchasing some sort of elixir that is not for human consumption in hopes that he could digest the cellulose in grass, he's ready for the big-time: the Swiss Alps. Except! Wups, there's the matter of not having informed the folks giving him the grant money that he is no longer an elephant but a goat. (Who does this?) That gets ironed out and he goes to the Alps for... three days! To say that I'm disappointed is a bit of an understatement. I mean at the beginning of the book he's working out how he can avoid the rut season. You know, just in case he might be so good at being a goat that he might suddenly be attracted to them or vice versa. The way he made it sound, he was going to spend a month out there. He's made himself a prosthetic goat stomach, for crying out loud. Really? Dude. Pack three days' worth of Luna bars and you're good to go. It's three days. Also, it wasn't just him and the goats. He brought two friends, and the owner of the goats was never far off. In fact, they even fed him goat his first night after being out to pasture.

Good heavens! I almost forgot the best part of the book! Where he commits the goat faux pas!

...I find I've wandered into the middle of things and become nearly the highest goat on the hillside. I happen to look up from grazing, and I realise that the entire herd is looking at me. It's suddenly gotten very quiet. Everyone's stopped chewing. It's like the part in a Western when the entire saloon suddenly falls silent because the newcomer has done something provocative, something that threatens to upset the established scheme. And I'm looking, and all the other goats are looking back, and I'm starting to feel a little bit uneasy because those horns are actually quite pointy, and some of these goats are about as big as I am, and I become very much aware that they're far stronger and more agile, too.

I did enjoy the book, though. I have to say, the guy is funny when he's not "gentle reader"ing me. This is definitely one of the strangest books I've ever read. I'm sure I'll never forget it. I wish him well and hope that he finds the peace of mind he's looking for.

[Alina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am weirded out by this reading experience. I opened the book expecting that I’d just have a taste, it’d be silly, and I’d put it away. I ended up reading the whole thing in one go, over a couple of hours. I’m not sure what about the book put me in this spell. As I read through the first chapter, I could tell that the author is funny (but not remarkably so) and has interesting philosophical/psychological thought (but not all that interesting—pretty standard.) For example, the author’s sense of humor involved juxtaposing a photo of a cat and of the queen, and both of them are captioned as examples of anxious facial expressions. Also, the main philosophical thought of the author is his existential angst regarding being a human for which anxiety is a necessary condition—humans have minds that must think about the future, and thinking about the future always will involve some anxiety. Thwaites’s experience of this angst does not go beyond depictions of it in popular culture.

And yet, somehow I couldn’t put the book down. Now, after reading it, I can’t stop thinking about it. I find it strange how much I care about Thwaites and his shenanigans, when I know it is humorous and meant to be so.

The “moral” seems like it can’t be anything but straightforward/familiar, and yet something is bugging me. Thwaites’ story seems to straightforwardly be a matter of the value of perseverance: he had a goal and faced significant obstacles, which would make many others back away. But he found solutions or adjusted his plans, and achieved his goal in the end. In more detail, Thwaites had the goal of becoming an elephant, motivated by his desire to “take a vacation” from being human. He sees a shaman for advice on how to do this, and she convinces him his spirit animal is a goat instead. He tries to become a goat and first looks into brain-modification technology, so see if his brain can become more like that of a goat. The professors and researchers he contacts for this show him that this is not possible at this time. So he adjusts his goals again and looks into prosthetics, which could get him into the bodily posture and walking/galloping capacities of a goat. I will not spoil what other obstacles and solutions fill his journey. By the end of the book, however, I have grown to quite love Thwaites (and my judgments about his mediocre sense of humor and philosophical sensitivities are changed; I find him remarkable on both fronts now.)

I have inklings after being bothered for a day about what is going on here, which defies the straightforward “perseverance is good” interpretation of the “moral.” First, it’s striking how Thwaites’ vision of what he needs in order to properly “take a vacation from being human” changes. It is spiritual and epic at the beginning. He wants to become an elephant. Then, this gets knocked down to the humble animal of goat. From there, actually becoming a goat psychically gets knocked down to having one’s body conform to a handful of constraints that define a goat’s body. In spite of this lowering in spiritual grandeur, it turns out in the end, Thwaites finds himself in a place that is thoroughly spiritual, and I dare even say beyond it. Without spoiling it, I can mention this has to do with all the travails he has gone through to do something that has no utility for society at large, that is for nobody and nothing. I definitely didn’t cry at the end, but I was moved.

It is also interesting to see how every time Thwaites had to lower his expectations, this was for the same reason: he is a human. None of us can escape that. But the lengths he goes to pursue his goal lets him escape something very close to being human. He defies not just social expectations and responsibilities, but common sense. Moreover, at the end, he is freed of the angst and anxiety that had spurred him into this project at the outset. He does not need to stop being human to achieve this.

While it was the desire to escape the condition of being anxious that brought all of this into his life, we can see that Thwaites brings many intensely anxiety inducing situations onto himself, voluntarily, as the means for escaping anxiety. This may seem paradoxical. It looks like when the anxiety he faces is chosen and part of a greater hope or project, it is not so bad. This may seem to fit the familiar narrative that meaningfulness comes from pursuit of projects, and so genuine anxiety becomes meaningful suffering once it is contextualized under a project of which one is certain. This is another neat narrative that seems fitting, in addition to the one about perseverance. I also feel like this narrative might be missing the point. I guess Thwaites does not straightforwardly commit himself to a project. He has chosen something absurd, and perhaps it is the absurdity (i.e., uselessness in the face of societal values) that gives him the leg up so that he can constantly revise his goals. Maybe there’s something to that when we take ourselves too seriously, or our project we’ve chosen is too well-understood or socially integrated, this tends to go hand-in-hand with unwillingness to change our project itself in the face of obstacles. Too many people see what we’re up to and expect things of us. We understand exactly what needs to be done, for it has been done before. But when the project is absurd, like becoming a non-human animal, one is freed from these constraints.

[Andy Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful, quick read exploring what it means to be human and what it means to be a goat. Told with a fun, witty voice

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this quite a lot. There was enough humor mixed in to stop it from being totally bizarre, and also a lot of really interesting research, history, and science. The actual part of "being" a goat was really brief, and I think by that stage he probably just wanted the project over with. As someone who has an animal shelter myself I thought the before and after photos of Venus were tasteless and incorrect to include. I also hope by this time that her bones have been returned to the shelter that she came from.

[Tamara · Rating 3 out of 5]

**SPOILERS AHEAD** (although this book is actually quite hard to track down so your likelihood of reading it - and thus finding out whether Thwaites succeeds in his bid to become a goat - is probably low)



Thomas Thwaites, a self-confessed privileged designer who finds himself tired of humanity, decides he wants to be an elephant and cross the Alps to see if he can recreate the experience of being an animal far removed from the worries of the world. Amazingly (perhaps based on his toaster-related track record of pulling off single-minded and bizarre stunts with some artistic value) Thwaites secures a grant from The Wellcome Trust to fund the fulfilment of this strange ambition. Then, as part of his research, he sees a shaman who suggests he's more likely to find spiritual alignment in goathood as opposed to elephanthood. This suits him, especially as goats appear to worry and experience troubling emotions and thoughts outside of the moment they're in far less than elephants, known for their empathy, intelligence and ability to grieve. This whole question of what animals think and feel, and what constitutes humanity - along with Thwaites' protracted attempts to figure out how to make himself as goat-like as possible - represents much of the meat of the book. Thwaites plumbs both philosophy and science to try to answer these questions, fielding (as no doubt he'd hoped, for he is playing for comedic effect, too) a series of goggle-eyed WTF reactions from spiritual practitioners, serious scientists, animal rescue specialists, clinicians and goatherders alike as he awkwardly reveals his mission. A warning for the squeamish or tender-hearted: there is a section involving the dissection of a goat (after having been euthanased due to a terminal illness) as well as discussion of the dissection of other animals. The section includes graphic images.

Along the way, Thwaites forgets to tell The Wellcome Trust of the not insignificant alteration to his plans, thus their discovery some time into the project that he's planning to trip-trap his way across the Alps with the aid of light prosthetic hooves, rather than lumber his way in a car-sized contraption, almost scuttles the whole thing. Some fast talking/bleating saves his hide and on he trots.

Against all odds he eventually does find himself on a mountain-side in Switzerland communing with a herd of excitable goats who appear to take him to their furry bosoms. But...and here's where the book falls down...having finally reached the pinnacle of the whole thing, Thwaites disappointingly closes out his account abruptly and without any of the kind of thoughtful reflection which drove the conception of the project in the first place, or indeed most of the stages up to this point. It is an odd omission. He also leaves open to doubt the question of whether he technically succeeded in his goal of 'crossing the Alps'. As my old Mum always used to say: don't come home with half a story!

But for this cop-out - so frustrating given the fascinating ideas explored earlier on, the odd LOL, and the sheer novelty of the project - GoatMan likely would have been a 4 star read for me.

[David Hilton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Look, this book and the Mr. Thwaites who wrote it are uber-weird. How to follow up his should-have-been-a-sensation, The Toaster Project, in which the author smelts his own metal in attempting to make a working toaster from scratch? Why not strive to live less anxiously by actually trying to become a goat? If this sounds crazy, it is. But, you know I don't like non-fiction and you may know I'm not at all into science. This book is both and I still love it. If you aren't a bit off like I am, cruise on by.

[☆ Mira ✷]

As a child, you think your parents are right about everything and have good judgement. But when your mom fangirls about a memoir she dragged out of a sewer checked out from the library about a man who took a vacation from human life by prosthetically turning himself into a goat on a research grant for #science, you really question your entire upbringing.

(but my upbringing was based on libraries, even whichever ones carry this nonsense, so I still appreciate it)

[Kendell Timmers · Rating 4 out of 5]

More like a very long feature article than a book - but very much in the style of Mary Roach and I learned some stuff about goats!

[Jake Goretzki · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5. Self-evidently daft, but infectiously likeable and good humoured; measured enough to strike 'funny' without being annoying (my favourite line was about the investigation revealing that the deceased final meal was: grass).

The innocence of the method makes it deceptively simple, I think: it's actually more philosophical and polymath than meets the eye.

You know who would gain from this sort of approach? Jaded young adults and science-phobes like my (younger) self. If mitosis and meiosis had been pitched to me like this, I might have paid attention.

[Lia Hunt · Rating 4 out of 5]

A truly wonderful and unusual book that asks the question of what it is to be human by becoming as goat-like as possible in a quest to get out from under our worries about the meaning and purpose of our existence. Thomas Thwaites covers a broad range of topics in his 'experiment', from shamanism to science to philosophy to design -- with just the right amount of self-deferential humor amidst the Big Question to make this a thoroughly engaging book.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quirky designer Thomas Thwaites has written an interesting book about how he tried to live as a goat for a brief spell to get away from the stresses and strains of being a human. There's plenty about the build-up to the main 'event' - fascinating stuff about the physical and cognitive differences between man and goat - but little about the actual time he spent with his four-legged friends. Nevertheless, a very readable, amusing and curious book.

[Jo O'Donnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bizarre yet charming. A British design artist submits a project to 'get away from human care' and live as an animal. His first choice, the elephant, falling through, he decides upon living for some time as a domesticated goat and then crossing the Alps. As a goat.

Thwaites takes the reader through the intricacies of goat behavior and anatomy with a surprising amount of fun and an array of highly accomplished (and bemused) scientists, physicians, and designers helping him along his way.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'll admit, I picked up this book because it seemed absurd and hilarious and I was not disappointed! While being really genuinely funny, it was incredibly informational and I know a lot more about the lives of goats than ever before. It's a quick read and I would recommend picking it up.

Warning: some of the pictures are a bit graphic, so bear that in mind if you're squeamish.

[Kathy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Engaging but lacking revelatory details

I first found out about this goat man project from a science blog and was curious to learn more about the endeavor. While I was pleasantly surprised by some of the details about the prepatory process, I think I was hoping for a bit more discussion on the scientific, emotional, and philosophical implications of this undertaking

[Belle · Rating 3 out of 5]

The start of this book was really good. It made me laugh a lot. The majority of it was a bit dry, but it still had occasional laughs. The ending was terrible. It felt like a chunk of the book was missing, because it just stopped. I almost gave it 2 stars because of the terrible—missing—ending, but I went with a weak 3 stars instead.

[Red · Rating 2 out of 5]

Considering that he spent less than 2 days in his goat guise, I think the title is very misleading. 90% of the book is about the lengths he went to, to devise his goat gear. It was entertains enough, but I definitely felt mislead. And yet I finished the whole book.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was greaaaaaaaaaaaaaat.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually really enjoyed this book but I was pretty dissapointed that the "Goatlife" chapter was mostly just pictures. That is the main event!

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five stars for the ending and the goat pictures.

[Ettie Edens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Over een kunstenaar die zijn best doet om in een geit te veranderen. Voor mij was de kracht van het boek dat de schrijver dom (en ontzettend nieuwsgierig) durfde te zijn.

[Ethan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I LOVE GOATMAN! Ideo promotes the idea of a T-shaped designer. That's a person with deep knowledge in one or more areas and a little bit of knowledge about everything. Goatman delivers T-shaped knowledge. If you want to know something about everything, learn everything about how to become a goat!

Putting aside the fact that Thwaites is incredibly relatable and funny, the sheer bredth of fascinating information he explores and the depth to which he explores it is really rewarding. He could easily have told us that he chose goats because a shaman told him to, but he decided to tell us the history (precedent) of people becoming animals on a spiritual level and it's fascinating. The same goes for every aspect of his work, from mind to brain, to eyes, and all of the rest. I was totally thrilled to learn about all of the mundane factoids a goat can provide, because of the context.

spoiler alert, though, the ending is wildly disappointing and is the only reason I am grading this down one star. It would have been much easier for me to swallow this bitter pill if he had given me some warning about the weak execution of his final experiment.

[Andreea Iliescu · Rating 4 out of 5]

At first I was reluctant to reading this book, found it a bit bonkers as an idea. I also couldn’t grasp the fact that this research was funded by the Wellcome Collection. However, as I opened up to it I got to grow really fond of it. Particularly, Mr. Twaithe’s writing style is very enjoyable, funny and non-pretentious for an academic and research heavy project. I think I started to understand what speculative design is and how one can critically engage with it - the research was thorough and the author consulted a wide spectrum of people (from a shaman to prosthetics technicians and PhD researchers). I thought it was a joyful insight into bridging the gap between man, human and machine, thus opening up exciting avenues on developing empathy with the natural world. Also, the study on prosthetics and their mechanics was done in a very clever way. Highly recommend this to artists, designers and researchers alike!

[Abbie Simons · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was curious, okay?

This was a fun, though at times bland, short read. With pictures!

I was expecting it to describe the actual experience of being a goat, the goat-trek itself, more than just the experiments and preparations leading up to the trek, but I was satisfied nonetheless. I learned a lot about goats and animals and design, more so than I expected. I actually didn't even realize that this book would be a sort of project summary about the attempt to design a "GoatMan" apparatus, I just wanted to read it because of the title, to be completely honest.

Anyways, the writing style is casual--kind of bloggy--which made it digestible and fun to read, and the author's passion and spunk kind of lit a creative spark in me where I began to crave the wild curiosity of this kind of experience. I WANT TO BE A GOATMAN.

Seriously. What an experience.

[Zach Lansbury · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book Bingo Category: I would never read that!
Pages: 207

Summary: GoatMan: How I Took a Holiday from Being Human, is a funny and interesting book. When I saw this book, I originally thought that it was a joke. Surely no one actually wants to become a goat. Well I was wrong. The book is about Thomas Thwaites and his adventures designing, building, and living in a goat suit. The book explains why he wants to do what hes doing, and actually makes it understandable. It also goes in depth in how his contraption works and how it simulates what a goats body is like. Be cautions, however, because there are some graphic pictures of goat autopsies.

Explanation: I give this book a 4/5 simply because it ends right as he becomes a goat. He does not add very much about his experiences. This book easily would have been a 5/5 from me if he added more about what happened.

[Stephen Sagarin · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's not really a book about becoming a goat, folks. It's a book about what it means to be human. To consider thinking (or not thinking), perceiving, eating, moving like a goat means reflecting on the gulf between humans and goats when it comes to thinking, perceiving, eating, moving... That said, it's not as successful as The Toaster Project because 1.) It's a lot harder to consider and play with the things that distinguish humans from (other) animals than it is (hard as this was) to consider what it takes to make a toaster "from scratch" and what this tells us about ourselves and our economy and 2.) Thwaites's writing just seems a bit forced in this second book. Still hugely entertaining and provocative. Highly recommend.

[Laura Hoffman Brauman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is definitely one of the quirkiest books I've ever read. When the bookseller recommended it to me, I was fairly skeptical -- but I liked all of his other recommendations, so I gave it a try. This is one of the funniest books I have read in a long time. Thwaites has decided it would nice to escape the pressures of being a human and the best way to do that would be to experience life as an elephant. Elephants turn out to be rather complicated, so after consulting a shaman, he decides a goat is the way to go. He builds an exoskeleton, figures out how to handle eating grass, and heads out to experience life as a goat in the Alps. The mix of humor and science in here is just delightful. Such a fun read.