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Dinomania. Perché amiamo, temiamo e siamo incantati dai dinosauri
Rettili e volatili a un tempo, i dinosauri ci consentono di immaginare un mondo che va decisamente oltre gli usuali confini temporali, culturali e psicologici. Li abbiamo concepiti e rappresentati in modi diversi e contraddittori, che riflettono in parte la mutevole concezione di noi stessi. La loro scoperta, attorno all'inizio del XIX secolo, fu intimamente connessa alla nostra consapevolezza di un tempo geologico. La loro enorme stazza e la forza smisurata richiamavano alla mente ferrovie, navi da guerra e fabbriche, facendo paradossalmente dei dinosauri i nuovi emblemi della modernità. "Dinomania" racconta l'evolversi del nostro rapporto d'amore con i titanici sauri, a partire dalle prime storie ispirate dal rinvenimento delle loro ossa fino agli odierni parchi tematici dedicati a loro. Venendo a concludere che, nella nostra immaginazione, i dinosauri sono - e sono sempre stati - essenzialmente dei draghi, e che la loro attuale rappresentazione attinge agli stessi miti e leggende da cui emerse un immaginario all'inizio dell'era odierna.
248 pages, Paperback
Published April 2, 2019
About the author
Boria Sax
36 books101 followersA person is not a list of accomplishments, and so I prefer not to introduce myself in that way. It is more accurate to say each of us is a collection of stories. Like others, I have more stories than I could ever tell or even know. I have been, among other things, a human rights activist, an impoverished poet, a manual worker, an expert on online education, and a pioneer in Animal Studies.
I was raised on Communism, the grandest of grand narratives. it sought to explain everything but didn’t explain anything very well. I have always missed its dramatic sweep. I wanted big answers for the big questions. I wouldn’t accept the little ones and kept getting in trouble with my teachers.
My father had been a Soviet spy, passing atomic secrets, and the initial years of my life were spent with my nearly destitute family trying to shake the FBI by moving many times a year. My father, a Russian Jew, was impulsive, brilliant, loving, abusive, and seriously mentally ill. My mother, coming from a rather puritanical British background, saw him as a romantic rebel. She was drawn to the Civil Rights movement and was a co-founder of CORE (the Congress on Racial Equality), but the difficulties of survival overwhelmed her idealism. She held our family together with a sort of everyday heroism, and my parents divorced after 18 tempestuous years.
Rather than focusing exclusively on any specialty, I like to draw analogies between domains that appear very far apart. In the 1980s, when I began to write about literature, I was disappointed to discover that I had to spend far more time sorting through commentaries than with poems and stories. The topic of animals in literature and folklore was, however, relatively new. Browsing in used bookshops, I came across eighteenth and nineteenth century encyclopedias of animals, which were an uncharted world of comedy and romance, filled with turkeys that speak Arabic, beavers that build like architects, and dogs that solve murders. They revealed every bit as much about human society as about birds and beasts.
I started writing mostly about human-animal relations and never stopped. Indulging my fondness for paradoxes, I addressed subjects like Nazi animal protection, the modernity of the ravens in the Tower of London, and the Thanksgiving turkey as a sacrificial offering. As for trees, I think of them as just a kind of animal. By now, I have published roughly twenty books, which have been translated into many languages. I often violate academic protocols, not only by addressing broad themes but also by inserting humor and lyricism into my texts. I teach in the college program of the Sing Sing Correctional Facility and the graduate literature program of Mercy University.
There have been two constants in my somewhat untidy life. One is the support of my wife Linda, who has been with me over half a century and whom I cannot thank enough. The other is my writing, which I have worked on continually but am unable to judge. Thanks, reader, for reading this, and I hope you are inspired to read more.
I was raised on Communism, the grandest of grand narratives. it sought to explain everything but didn’t explain anything very well. I have always missed its dramatic sweep. I wanted big answers for the big questions. I wouldn’t accept the little ones and kept getting in trouble with my teachers.
My father had been a Soviet spy, passing atomic secrets, and the initial years of my life were spent with my nearly destitute family trying to shake the FBI by moving many times a year. My father, a Russian Jew, was impulsive, brilliant, loving, abusive, and seriously mentally ill. My mother, coming from a rather puritanical British background, saw him as a romantic rebel. She was drawn to the Civil Rights movement and was a co-founder of CORE (the Congress on Racial Equality), but the difficulties of survival overwhelmed her idealism. She held our family together with a sort of everyday heroism, and my parents divorced after 18 tempestuous years.
Rather than focusing exclusively on any specialty, I like to draw analogies between domains that appear very far apart. In the 1980s, when I began to write about literature, I was disappointed to discover that I had to spend far more time sorting through commentaries than with poems and stories. The topic of animals in literature and folklore was, however, relatively new. Browsing in used bookshops, I came across eighteenth and nineteenth century encyclopedias of animals, which were an uncharted world of comedy and romance, filled with turkeys that speak Arabic, beavers that build like architects, and dogs that solve murders. They revealed every bit as much about human society as about birds and beasts.
I started writing mostly about human-animal relations and never stopped. Indulging my fondness for paradoxes, I addressed subjects like Nazi animal protection, the modernity of the ravens in the Tower of London, and the Thanksgiving turkey as a sacrificial offering. As for trees, I think of them as just a kind of animal. By now, I have published roughly twenty books, which have been translated into many languages. I often violate academic protocols, not only by addressing broad themes but also by inserting humor and lyricism into my texts. I teach in the college program of the Sing Sing Correctional Facility and the graduate literature program of Mercy University.
There have been two constants in my somewhat untidy life. One is the support of my wife Linda, who has been with me over half a century and whom I cannot thank enough. The other is my writing, which I have worked on continually but am unable to judge. Thanks, reader, for reading this, and I hope you are inspired to read more.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
November 15, 2024
Upon finishing this book, the impression I'm left with is that there are one or two good extended essays here trying to escape a collection of interesting talking points that don't quite cohere. In particular, Sax seems to really look down on dinosaur "kitsch," but he probably should have accepted that as reality and focused on writing a history of the representation of dinosaurs. Sax's thoughts on the nature of modernity, and human existentialism, seemed to be the weakest part of the book. It might have worked out better for Sax if this book had been organized more explicitly on a thematic basis.
January 1, 2019
There were some interesting elements, but it suffered from an identity crisis. I think it tried to be too many things at once. Sometimes it read like a textbook, other times like a keynote address. It over-thought a lot of concepts and applied intentions and sweeping generalizations a bit heavy-handedly. There were some good elements, but overall it was hard to follow.
The pictures throughout the book really bothered me. Most of them didn't fit with the content where they were placed and there were places I would like images and there were none.
The pictures throughout the book really bothered me. Most of them didn't fit with the content where they were placed and there were places I would like images and there were none.
May 20, 2019
An interesting read that tries to unearth our fascination with dinosaurs. Sax covers a variety of different ideas, from the way we see dinos as a mirror of humans and our corporations to their sublime otherworldly qualities. A bit too philosophical in some parts (but still quite interesting) for me, and just not exactly what I was expecting in the end. Great photos and posters though, especially the engravings from the 1800s. Made me realize that might be a reason I never grew out of my dinosaur phase.
December 31, 2018
A little heavy on philosophy for my taste, so I skimmed some parts but other parts were thoroughly interesting. The author ends the book stating that he’s not a fan of dinosaur kitsch... but without that would anyone read his book? I love dinosaur kitsch... I dress my toddler in head to toe dino clothes in the hopes that someday he’ll be as interested in the beasts as I am.
February 19, 2019
I enjoyed the concepts which the author tried to present here, but I'm not certain that I can agree with the full fleshing out of the theories he used in the latter stages of the book, especially concerning whether dinosaurs could be considered "human" in terms of their dominance of the world in their era. He does raise a good point about the anthropocentric views of evolution and how dinosaurs stand out like a rather sore thumb, and how we ignore/show less interest in the actual mammalian ancestors of that era, as well as the more recent megafauna like mammoths and sabre-toothed tigers.
The quick history of palaeontology was genuinely fascinating, and I enjoyed learning about the rival bonehunters in late 19th century America. Being British, I wasn't really aware of how dominant dinosaurs became in US advertising/marketing during the first half of the 20th century, so that was interesting too.
Maybe the author was a little too quick to dismiss what he calls "dino-kitsch", which is his term for the more recent upsurge in interest in dinosaurs, primarily driven by Jurassic Park (the novel and the film). The fact that a whole new generation is having their interest piqued, particularly as actual palaeontology is developing newer theories about dinosaurs, shouldn't be belittled.
The quick history of palaeontology was genuinely fascinating, and I enjoyed learning about the rival bonehunters in late 19th century America. Being British, I wasn't really aware of how dominant dinosaurs became in US advertising/marketing during the first half of the 20th century, so that was interesting too.
Maybe the author was a little too quick to dismiss what he calls "dino-kitsch", which is his term for the more recent upsurge in interest in dinosaurs, primarily driven by Jurassic Park (the novel and the film). The fact that a whole new generation is having their interest piqued, particularly as actual palaeontology is developing newer theories about dinosaurs, shouldn't be belittled.
November 3, 2018
My books, as you may have noticed, are never just about their subjects. This one uses dinosaurs to talk about, among other things, transience, the nature of time, totems, extinction, science, art, modernity and the unhuman destiny of humankind.
I hope to write several more books before I'm done, but, at almost 70, I am more acutely aware that the time allotted, whether long or short, is not endless, for us any more than for the dinosaurs. Note the dedication: "To the little boy I used to be, in the hope that he may yet grow up to be a dinosaur." Is this autobiographical, then? Well, in a way. If you like the book, he will be unabashedly pleased and so will I.
Boria Sax
I hope to write several more books before I'm done, but, at almost 70, I am more acutely aware that the time allotted, whether long or short, is not endless, for us any more than for the dinosaurs. Note the dedication: "To the little boy I used to be, in the hope that he may yet grow up to be a dinosaur." Is this autobiographical, then? Well, in a way. If you like the book, he will be unabashedly pleased and so will I.
Boria Sax
November 27, 2020
“We still stylize the dinosaur world in many contradictory ways, all of which are partial images of ourselves.”
While Boria Sax’s “Dinomania” is overflowing with insights into Dinosaurs, it is primarily about how we feel about them and are shaped by them. It is a delightful read, and I recommend it to anyone who has interest in paleontology or anthropology. It is beautifully illustrated and insightful.
While Boria Sax’s “Dinomania” is overflowing with insights into Dinosaurs, it is primarily about how we feel about them and are shaped by them. It is a delightful read, and I recommend it to anyone who has interest in paleontology or anthropology. It is beautifully illustrated and insightful.
May 30, 2019
For a variety of reasons, most books about dinosaurs spent a lot of time talking about evolution (something this book does) but spend little time talking about the history of views about dinosaurs. This author, on the other hand, is immensely interested (if not always approving of) the way that dinosaurs have been viewed in public culture from ancient times to contemporary times. One can see ancient imaginary creatures that appear in some way inspired by dinosaurs, including the widespread historical interest in dragons. The author is certainly free with his criticism about much portrayal of dinosaurs, which he calls kitsch, and he at least struggles to wrestle with the reason why the evolutionary worldview has done such a poor job at countering the native (and proper) human tendency to anthropomorphize other beings as a way of showing approval of and understanding of something. It would appear, whatever that says about us, that in order for us to empathize with something and understand something that we must view it in our own image and likeness, which is one of the more unsettling and obvious demonstrations of imago dei that the author is disinclined to wrestle with.
This particular book is about 250 pages and contains eight chapters that are full of odd material, including a great dela of material about dinosaurs in advertising as well as sculpture parks that have dinosaur statues. The first part of the book looks at the discovery of dragon bones all over the world and the way that dinosaurs entered into the public consciousness before dinosaurs were viewed as creatures of deep time (1). After that the author views how dragons became dinosaurs over the course of the 19th century (2). He looks at the earliest dinosaurs and the way that they were portrayed in Victorian art and sculpture as a way of better understanding the popular conception of dinosaurs (3) and also discusses the shift in how dinosaurs have been viewed from the Crystal Palace in the 1850's to their appearance in Jurassic Park (4). The author talks about the dinosaur renaissance (5), the way that dinosaurs are a totem of modernity and its fears and anxieties (6), the way that dinosaurs and their fate have led to the expression of a great deal of fears about extinction (7), and the way that our conception of the past is a dinocentric world in the same sort of way that our contemporary world is portrayed as anthrocentric.
In reading this book, it is pretty easy to understand why it is that we are so fond of dinosaurs. In many ways, we view them as being creatures like ourselves, cute, somewhat intelligent, occasionally predatory, and deeply interested in questions of power. The fact that there is no chance, outside of some particularly harrowing attempts at genetic engineering, that we will ever encounter dinosaurs makes it easier to project our own sense of dominance and our own fears of self-destruction onto them. None of this is exactly new, but this book does at least manage to address the importance of dinosaurs in popular culture and the way that unlearned people who are interested in dinosaurs generally are at least as up-to-date if they want to be with the cutting edge research in the field. The author is also interested in the question of scientific revolutions and the fragmentary nature of understanding about dinosaurs, and though the author isn't the most sympathetic of people when it comes to popular conceptions of dinosaurs, by at least addressing popular culture and religious past, the author does a better job than most regarding the subject.
This particular book is about 250 pages and contains eight chapters that are full of odd material, including a great dela of material about dinosaurs in advertising as well as sculpture parks that have dinosaur statues. The first part of the book looks at the discovery of dragon bones all over the world and the way that dinosaurs entered into the public consciousness before dinosaurs were viewed as creatures of deep time (1). After that the author views how dragons became dinosaurs over the course of the 19th century (2). He looks at the earliest dinosaurs and the way that they were portrayed in Victorian art and sculpture as a way of better understanding the popular conception of dinosaurs (3) and also discusses the shift in how dinosaurs have been viewed from the Crystal Palace in the 1850's to their appearance in Jurassic Park (4). The author talks about the dinosaur renaissance (5), the way that dinosaurs are a totem of modernity and its fears and anxieties (6), the way that dinosaurs and their fate have led to the expression of a great deal of fears about extinction (7), and the way that our conception of the past is a dinocentric world in the same sort of way that our contemporary world is portrayed as anthrocentric.
In reading this book, it is pretty easy to understand why it is that we are so fond of dinosaurs. In many ways, we view them as being creatures like ourselves, cute, somewhat intelligent, occasionally predatory, and deeply interested in questions of power. The fact that there is no chance, outside of some particularly harrowing attempts at genetic engineering, that we will ever encounter dinosaurs makes it easier to project our own sense of dominance and our own fears of self-destruction onto them. None of this is exactly new, but this book does at least manage to address the importance of dinosaurs in popular culture and the way that unlearned people who are interested in dinosaurs generally are at least as up-to-date if they want to be with the cutting edge research in the field. The author is also interested in the question of scientific revolutions and the fragmentary nature of understanding about dinosaurs, and though the author isn't the most sympathetic of people when it comes to popular conceptions of dinosaurs, by at least addressing popular culture and religious past, the author does a better job than most regarding the subject.
July 31, 2026
The premise of this book is an immediately interesting one: the question of how, when, and why dinosaurs became inextricably woven into modern culture is one I've brushed up against in my other reading and was excited to dive into more deeply. Unfortunately, Sax's obvious disdain for all things popular culture bleeds through not just in shallow engagement with much of his subject material, but in references that seem to be more half-remembered opinions than actual citations.
The early chapters are filled with attempts to link any and every great monster of human mythology to a cultural conception of dinosaurs through tenuous supposition that every last one of them could have been inspired by uneducated encounters with the fossil record. I'll admit that those chapters are outside the scope of my own knowledge base, so I reserved judgment on first pass. It's when Sax progressed to twentieth century examples from film that I was in my own wheelhouse and began to recognize a pattern of Sax making a claim and then incorrectly summarizing texts so they would neatly support that claim.
The first example seemed innocuous enough that I could let it go: a reference to a battle between a triceratops and a tyrannosaurus in Disney's Fantasia as an example of the two creatures as a predator/prey pair inextricably linked in the public imagination (in fact, the tyrannosaurus in that film fought a notably anachronistic stegosaurus). Later, though, after providing an incorrect plot summary, he derides the first two entries in the Jurassic Park franchise as having plots that "are no more than an excuse to string together a series of fast-paced chase scenes" only to present three pages later, as though it were an original thought, the supposition that "One might even interpret the ravages of tyrannosaurus in places like San Diego as a punishment for, or warning against, the hubris of mankind." Yes, one might indeed conclude that the Jurassic park novels and films are about mankind's hubris, given that said theme is so clearly telegraphed and repeated that I myself had picked up on it at the ripe old age of nine--but Sax would have it seem that he's very clever indeed for having spotted that theme in a text he'd preemptively decided was devoid of any intentional meaning.
It was at that point that I put the book down in disgust, not because I disagreed with Sax's analysis of the texts referenced but because it had become clear to me that I could not trust that any part of this book was based on serious engagement with the source materials. It's a shame, because I thought his earlier premise that dinosaurs had supplanted angels and devils in the popular imagination and inherited some of our attitudes toward them was very interesting--but if he couldn't even be bothered to check whether he remembered a movie sequence correctly before putting it down as fact, what else was he citing incorrectly that I wouldn't have the knowledge base to catch?
What a deeply disappointing book.
The early chapters are filled with attempts to link any and every great monster of human mythology to a cultural conception of dinosaurs through tenuous supposition that every last one of them could have been inspired by uneducated encounters with the fossil record. I'll admit that those chapters are outside the scope of my own knowledge base, so I reserved judgment on first pass. It's when Sax progressed to twentieth century examples from film that I was in my own wheelhouse and began to recognize a pattern of Sax making a claim and then incorrectly summarizing texts so they would neatly support that claim.
The first example seemed innocuous enough that I could let it go: a reference to a battle between a triceratops and a tyrannosaurus in Disney's Fantasia as an example of the two creatures as a predator/prey pair inextricably linked in the public imagination (in fact, the tyrannosaurus in that film fought a notably anachronistic stegosaurus). Later, though, after providing an incorrect plot summary, he derides the first two entries in the Jurassic Park franchise as having plots that "are no more than an excuse to string together a series of fast-paced chase scenes" only to present three pages later, as though it were an original thought, the supposition that "One might even interpret the ravages of tyrannosaurus in places like San Diego as a punishment for, or warning against, the hubris of mankind." Yes, one might indeed conclude that the Jurassic park novels and films are about mankind's hubris, given that said theme is so clearly telegraphed and repeated that I myself had picked up on it at the ripe old age of nine--but Sax would have it seem that he's very clever indeed for having spotted that theme in a text he'd preemptively decided was devoid of any intentional meaning.
It was at that point that I put the book down in disgust, not because I disagreed with Sax's analysis of the texts referenced but because it had become clear to me that I could not trust that any part of this book was based on serious engagement with the source materials. It's a shame, because I thought his earlier premise that dinosaurs had supplanted angels and devils in the popular imagination and inherited some of our attitudes toward them was very interesting--but if he couldn't even be bothered to check whether he remembered a movie sequence correctly before putting it down as fact, what else was he citing incorrectly that I wouldn't have the knowledge base to catch?
What a deeply disappointing book.
February 13, 2019
Lightweight and free form, the effect of this book is like listening to a favorite professor muse over a topic close to his heart. It makes a good companion to the big Taschen volume Paleoart that I read last month. Essentially a meditation on the "meaning" of dinosaurs, Sax traces the cultural impressions of the great beasts from their discovery through approximately the heyday of the Jurassic Park craze, stopping along the way to discuss emergent theories of paleontology and the reflections of dinosaurs in the tropes and metaphors of human, especially American, existence. The illustrations are adequate to the task, though in many cases, they are only smaller versions of the masterful pages of Paleoart, which makes this book's unofficial role as a companion even more evident. There have been a handful of other books that have covered similar ground, but this one is more personal and a touch more eccentric than some.
January 10, 2024
i loved learning all about the discovery of dinosaurs and how people have related to them throughout time. there were a lot of interesting things to think about, especially at the end wrt taxonomy- that's what brought the book from a 2.5 to a 3 imo. however, the author made a lot of tenuous claims about what dinosaurs have represented in different eras that just seem very shaky and unconvincing to me. a lot of that sort of commentary fell flat.
July 9, 2024
I really wanted to like Dinomania, being the sucker that I am for culture-meets-natural-history and pop science books. Unfortunately, I couldn't get past the first few chapters because of how bloated the writing felt. Almost every sentence is passive voice and you'd be hard-pressed to find a stronger verb than "to be." It's hard to enjoy a fascinating topic when the writing is so weak.
DNF, but not for lack of trying. :/
DNF, but not for lack of trying. :/
January 13, 2025
1/10 weirdly religious and so much philosophical and sociological reaches I think Sax may have sprained a muscle
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 13, 2026
Fuck, I love dinosaurs
June 22, 2026
Много воды, но интересные мысли тоже встречаются.
May 3, 2019
A great resource for our dinosaur unit!
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews