Death & Sex

by Tyler Volk, Dorion Sagan

"On DEATH . . ." What is shared by spawning Pacific salmon, towering trees, and suicidal bacteria? In his lucid and concise exploration of how and why things die, Tyler Volk explains the intriguing ways creatures-including ourselves-use death to actually enhance life. Death is not simply the end of the living, though even in that aspect the Grim Reaper has long been essential to natural selection. Indeed, the exquisite schemes and styles of death that have emerged from evolution have been essential to the great story from life's beginnings in tiny bacteria nearly four thousand million years ago to ancient human rituals surrounding death and continuing to the existential concerns of human culture and consciousness today. Volk weaves together autobiography, biology, Earth history, and results of fascinating studies that show how thoughts of our own mortality affect our everyday lives, to prove how an understanding of what some have called the ultimate taboo can enrich the celebration of life.." . . and SEX"In "Sex," Dorion Sagan takes a delightful, irreverent, and informative romp through the science, philosophy, and literature of humanity's most obsessive subject. Have you ever wondered what the anatomy and promiscuous behaviors of chimpanzees and the sexual bullying of gorillas tell us about ourselves? Why we lost our hair? What amoebas have to do with desire? Linking evolutionary biology to salacious readings of the lives and thoughts of such notables as the Marquis de Sade and Simone de Beauvoir, and discussing works as varied as "The Story of O" and "Silence of the Lambs, Sex" touches on a potpourri of interrelated topics ranging from animal genitalia to sperm competition, the difference between nakedness and nudity, jealousy's status as an aphrodisiac and the origins of language, Casanova and music, ovulation and clothes, mother-in-law jokes and alpha females, love and loneliness. A brief, wonderfully entertaining, highly literate foray into the origins and evolution of sex.Two books in one cover, "Death & Sex" unravel and answer some of life's most fundamental questions.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Sexuality

224 pages, Hardcover

First published October 13, 2009

About the author

Tyler Volk is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at New York University. Volk is an active proponent of the Gaia hypothesis. A 1989 study, co-authored by Volk, published in the journal Nature asserts that without the cooling effects of living things, Earth would be 80 degrees Fahrenheit warmer.

Reviews

[Emma Sea · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was highly disappointed with this book, although some (not all) of this has to do with my expectations, rather than the book being a bad book.

On the plus side, it's one of the more physically beautiful books I own. I keep fondling it. The cover is reverse embossed, and the book is actually two books back to back: silver Death, by Tyler Volk, when approached from one end, and ruby Sex, by Dorion Sagan, when opened from the other. When I first unwrapped the parcel containing it my first thought was, "Wow!".

Sadly, the contents do not measure up.

I read the Death section first (thankfully) and this was pleasant enough, if very simplistic. I initially bought the book because I'm interested in Terror Management Theory, and yes, Death does mention it, kind of in passing. However I was expecting (hoping) for a deeper level of engagement with all the ideas in the book. I was expecting something a bit more metaphysical. This is a very light, shallow, pop science book. Even saying that, some of the science worried me a little. For example, Volk postulates that burial started from necessity when a no-longer-migratory proto-human could not leave a body unburied to "limit exposure to possible diseases in the deceased" (p. 63). As the World Health Organisation notes, a dead body does not generally transmit diseases; "the main risk for transmission is exposure to sick people — who are still alive."

However, it's the Sex section where the wheels fell of the bus for me. Sagan discusses sex in terms of evolutionary psychology. It seemes to me that Sagan wants to frame our current cultural sexual behavior as 'natural' and inevitable, and is looking for reasons to make this so.

I was taken aback by Sex on the very first page. Sagan describes body hair as "frightening" (p. ix), and describes hairiness as reminding us of a past "in which ancestors were ugly as sin - certainly no one you would want to take home to Mother" (p. x). As plenty of people are happy to take someone hairy home to meet their mother;

it crossed my mind that Sagan might be addressing a particular audience; a male reader seeking a hairless female as a partner. This wasn't a certainty, you understand, just a vague niggle at the back of my mind. Then, shortly, Sagan noted that "scientific stories about sex are not necessarily as pretty as Scarlett Johansson" (p. 5) and that niggle strengthened into a sense of slight unease. When discussing the difference between nakedness and nudity, Sagan managed to get in a mention of pinup girl Bettie Page (p. 7) in the process of giving us a secondary quote from John Berger (who is brilliant; just quote him for the gods' sake).

I didn't make it much further, because then Sagan started discussing chimpanzees, and linking these to our human ancestors, in an attempt to explain why "a loose woman [is called] a 'slut'". On page 29 Sagan says,

"An estrous female will attract virtually any male and mate with almost any male. When industrious chimps lead fertile females into the woods . . . upon return . . . the remaining males . . . box the 'secret lovers' about the ears as punishment for their looting of precious booty."

I want to say "I can't even . . . " because it's how I feel, but actually I can. Chimpanzee mate selection is incredibly complex, and by no means should be seen in terms of Saga's framing of the passive (yet sluttish *eyeroll*) female being led by one male after another, at his will, into the woods. In fact, of all the things that happen when chimpanzees mate, this is pretty much the only thing that doesn't. (Bonus misogyny points: note that chimp = male; the female is marked as other. In a chimpanzee! *shaking head*.)

Just to prove that I'm not talking rubbish in objecting to this framing, here's more articles than you ever wanted on chimpanzee mate selection tactics, and yet still only a tiny selection of the scholarship:


Klinkova, E., Hodges, J., Fuhrmann, K., Jong, T. & Heistermann, M. (2005). Male dominance rank, female mate choice and male mating and reproductive success in captive chimpanzees. International Journal of Primatology, 26 (2) 357-484.

Matsumoto-Oda, A. (1999). Female choice in the opportunistic mating of wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) at Mahale. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 46, 258-266.

Muller, M.N., Kahlenberg, S., Thompson, M.E. & Wrangham, R.W. (2007). Male coercion and the costs of promiscuous mating for female chimpanzees. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Biological, 274 (1612), 1009-1014.

Stumpf, R. & Boesch, C. (2006). The efficacy of female choice in chimpanzees of the Taï Forest, Côte d'Ivoire. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 60 (6), 749-765.

Stumpf, R.M., Emery Thompson, M. & Knott, C.D. (2008). A comparison of female mating strategies in
Pan troglodytes and Pongo spp. International Journal of Primatology, 29, 865–884.

Townsend, S.W., Deschner, T. & Zuberbühler, K. (2008). Female chimpanzees use copulation calls flexibly to prevent social competition. PLoS ONE 3(6), e2431. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0002431

and these ones too:
http://labs.biology.ucsd.edu/woodruff...
http://www.eva.mpg.de/primat/staff/bo...
http://www.academia.edu/398342/Sexual...

or you could read a whole book on chimp sex:

http://www.amazon.com/Real-Chimpanzee...

So . . . no. I reject your book, Dorion Sagan. I do not wish to finish it, because I have concerns it will continue to be filled with bullshit.

YMMV. But not on chimp mate selection.

1.5 stars, rounded up for being purty.

[Harriet · Rating 3 out of 5]

At times both Sagan and Volk can be quite whimsical in their musings, and end up combining the sciences with a more philosophical gait. Not entirely a bad thing, however I personally prefer a little more solid reasoning than 'It seems...' or 'It feels like...' - something with a few reliable references and so on, particularly if you're going to make some of the broader claims that Volk and Sagan allude to. Both authors tend to go on fairly dubious tangents as well which, whilst interesting, did tend to drag on a bit.

Sagan did also end up generalising a fair amount, and seemed judgemental and dismissive at times. Considering he was writing on sex and kept going on about the variety of sexual acts that occur in the animal kingdom, it seemed a little rich of him to judge other humans on their sexual preferences. In his case in particular, the unity of biology and philosophy did not end well.

Otherwise the book is fine for general interest and as an introduction into different topics on the theme of sex and death. I would recommend taking much of what's written with a pinch of salt however, as some of it can get a bit opinionated.

[Diane Kistner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Know how you always want to have a generic gift or two on hand around the holidays, just in case you forgot somebody who has just shown up with one for you? I'm not suggesting DEATH & SEX would be appropriate for children, but for adults old and young, this would be an interesting gift to have on hand. (Well, use your judgment if you are giving it to somebody else's husband or wife, just in case they might misunderstand the intention behind your gift.)

This book has a quiet elegance about it, like a small box of very fine chocolates. The embossing of the book is a delight to the touch as well as the eye. And it's interesting, and telling, to see which half of the book a person is drawn to reading first. No matter which one it is, Death or Sex, the reader is in for a thought-provoking read. I can almost guarantee you that it's not going to be quite what you expect, no matter which topic you tackle first. I quite enjoyed both of them, for different reasons, and there is a synergy between the two essays that invites ever-deeper ponderings of the meaning of it all. On the whole, this book is quite satisfying, and a keeper.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tyler Volk's 'Death' is one half of this double book with a fab cover, well designed by the people at Chelsea Green.

Volk explores the necessity of death in the service of LIFE! He begins with our microbial beginnings and investigates the 'little deaths' which occur in larger life forms (cells which die off as we grow and age) as opposed to death of the macroorganism.

More science than philosophy, I'd recommend this to anyone wanting to learn more about our world, about life, and how death and life participate in an eternal hug of love and reciprocity.

And just to note: I did not read the Kindle edition. However, to just comment on Tyler's half of the book, I've selected this one.

[Brendan Quinn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really good book exploring the biological world with regard to sex and death. It looks not just at the human element but the wider environment and others within the animal kingdom. For me I enjoyed the death part better becuase the sex part talked a lot about organisms that i have very little connection with, but the death part included a few more stories that enabled me to connect more. the last few chapters on death I really enjoyed as it referenced itself back to the human condition which i found more engaging, rather than hearing about minute organisms that sacrifice themselves for the great good of the rest.

Overall it was a good read and informative so I gave it 4 stars.

[Barbara Richardson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Volk has found his subject here! A biologist, philosopher, poet, the man weaves an interesting web of death as integral to life's patterning. For a science book, it's like reading fresh-buttered white popcorn.

[Kiryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the scientific facts put forth by the book were quite interesting, but the casual AIDS denialism and some other kooky theories put forth by Sagan put a dent in it. Not as serious of a read as the presentation might have you believe.

[Peter Kobak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun, witty, and entertaining philosophical and biological exploration of these two fundamental human functions.