2. A Natural History of the Senses

Diane Ackerman's A Natural History of the Senses is a guided tour of the range of human experiences as perceived through our five senses. Ackerman proceeds through each sense in its turn, discussing the biology of perception and giving examples or anecdotes. It is meant to open the reader's senses and encourage the reader to experience the world more vividly and in a sense, it succeeds. However, the narrative is so laden with Ackerman's own point of view that it is more of an exploration of her senses and experiences than anything else. Her worldview and morals intrude and impinge on her message, as do some prolonged, almost rambling, navel-gazing passages.

My main complaint with the book, however, is its superficiality. There are paragraphs full of unconnected sentences - for example, speaking of hair, Ackerman goes from lockets, to courtly love, to the etymology of kaiser and tsar, to Samson and Gilgamesh, to World War II, to orthodox Jews and Rastafarians, to modern hair styles and the changes in hair styles through the decades - all in a two page, thirty sentence paragraph. Ironically, she uses footnotes to share "unrelated" pieces of information, such as the etymology of a "lock" of hair ... but in fact, most of this book is more suited to be footnotes. If you want a cocktail party conversation starter, or if you just want the thrill of reading a book that discusses topics as diverse as the Empress Josephine's perfume, Christ's foreskin, and Stradivarius violins ... this is the perfect book to read. If you want a book that gives more than simple, cursory explanations and factoids ... this is not the book for you. Ackerman breezes past everything too quickly to do anything justice.

Her facile treatment of subjects shows especially when it comes to the science she discusses. For example, she points out that milk protein reacts with the tannins in tea, blocking their absorption by the body, and then goes on to say that esophageal cancer is higher in Japan than in England, where milk is added to tea. Milk may in fact be the key factor in the lower cancer rates, but it is by no means the only possible explanation. Ackerman doesn't discuss the differences in environment and heredity or any other factors that could have an effect - in this, and in other instances, she presents the obvious answer and that is apparently the end of the story, as far as she is concerned.

The science of the book is not necessarily worth reading, either. Ackerman shows a cursory understanding of evolution, and in many cases, the information she presents is overly simplified or outdated. Moreover, while she cites the authors and historians that she quotes, she very rarely gives credit to the scientists who performed the research that she cites. She occasionally does cite names, but for the most part, it's "researchers in Japan" or "a neurologist at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine." The implicit bias against scientists is disturbing, and makes it more difficult to easily check her claims or do more research into the topic.

By and large, A Natural History of the Senses is a throw-away book. While the idea of exploring the world to its limits and truly appreciating the information given to us by our senses is appealing, Ackerman's treatment of it is not. She oversimplifies complex topics, rushes through subjects with hysterical, overwrought prose, and indulges in more navel-gazing than is palatable.