Monster of God

Book, 1969

Status

Available

Call number

591.65

Genres

Collection

Your library

Publication

Publisher Unknown (1969)

Description

Publisher's description: For millennia, lions, tigers, and their man-eating kin have kept our dark, scary forests dark and scary, and their predatory majesty has been the stuff of folklore. But by the year 2150 big predators may only exist on the other side of glass barriers and chain-link fences. Their gradual disappearance is changing the very nature of our existence. We no longer occupy an intermediate position on the food chain; instead we survey it invulnerably from above--so far above that we are in danger of forgetting that we even belong to an ecosystem. Casting his expert eye over the rapidly diminishing areas of wilderness where predators still reign, the award-winning author of The Song of the Dodo examines the fate of lions in India's Gir forest, of saltwater crocodiles in northern Australia, of brown bears in the mountains of Romania, and of Siberian tigers in the Russian Far East. In the poignant and troublesome ferocity of these embattled creatures, we recognize something primeval deep within us, something in danger of vanishing forever.… (more)

Media reviews

The New York Times

''In wildness is the preservation of the world,'' Henry David Thoreau famously said, not knowing the half of it. David Quammen's splendid book ''Monster of God'' constitutes an expansion and gloss on Thoreau's prophetic contention, achieved through an artful, focused account of contemporary efforts

to secure preservation, in the wild, of some of the most magnificently fearsome creatures on earth -- the large-bodied carnivores, man-eaters (lions, tigers, Carpathian brown bears, giant crocodiles), a group Quammen designates ''alpha predators.'' The stories he presents contain rich detail and vivid anecdotes of adventure, and they provide skillful capsulizations of the politics, economics, cultural history and ecological dynamics bearing on the fate of each of these cornered populations.

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The New York Times

As the science writer and naturalist David Quammen observes in his absorbing new book, ''Monster of God,'' alpha predators -- among whom he counts lions and tigers and bears, as well as crocodiles, leopards and the Komodo dragon -- have ''played a crucial role in shaping the way we humans construe

our place in the natural world.'' They remind us of our limitations and our place in the great chain of being; they are symbols of our vulnerability, our susceptibility to random death and disaster, our primal awareness, in Mr. Quammen's words, ''of being meat.''

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User reviews

LibraryThing member pbjwelch

For a start, an excellent bibliography for anyone interested in the subject.

My interest was in Amur tigers but I couldn't help but continue reading about the other alpha predators Quammen chronicles--brown bears, Komodo dragons, lions, great white sharks….

I enjoyed the combination of myth,

history and first-person adventure, and found the author's insights and musings very thought-provoking--for example, his idea that perhaps the eradication of these alpha predators is a predictable part of the colonization process (where newcomers to a geography feel the need to exterminate those elements they find fearful).

In short, the book is thoughtful and while some biological details are included, offers a wider scope of information than one usually finds in works on man-eaters. It's not just Jim Corbett-type tales (which I grew up on and still love to read), but Quammen's ruminations on why, for example, Beowulf "hits harder" than other tales--a chapter I wish I had read back in college while reading this Old English poem--that turned this book into a page-turner for me (which frankly I did not expect it to be beyond the chapter on tigers). Well done!

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LibraryThing member jlelliott

This book reads like an obituary, providing us one last chance to marvel at the animals that top the food chain before they disappear forever. It is engaging and colorful, but ultimately very sad; Quammen certainly does not seem optimistic that any of the great predators can be saved. It is even

questionable that they should be, for how can we compare the intangible value of the existence of predators with the lives of those people that they will occasionally kill? Shouldn’t we be glad that we are no longer prey? Or are we losing something that makes us human when we lose these species? With sections about many predators, including lions, crocodiles, and bears (oh my) Quammen outlines the history of human interaction with these animals and the current sad state of affairs. The book is beautifully written, easy to read, and very personal. I enjoyed it, but was left depressed at the human impact on this planet. Thank goodness Quammen has recorded these stories before they cease to exist.

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LibraryThing member BeaverMeyer

Here is another book I bought because there is a cool tiger on the cover. The subject looked halfway interesting so I said what the hell. I was absolutely blown away by this book and have since bought all of Quammen's books and collections of essays. If you are intrested at all in animals,

especially the big predators, you will fall in love with this book.

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LibraryThing member varielle

This is an overview of the history, biology, man's psychology in relation to and the current state of maneaters today. It's suitable for laymen to grasp the finer points of what co-existing with animals that might eat you has meant for mankind and unfortunately for the animals involved. The finer

points of tagging and wildlife management are likely to be tedious to the non-specialist, but Quammen does keep those sections short. The mythology that mankind has developed over many millenia in relation to our co-existance with these monsters of god was particularly compelling. This book may turn the reader into an environmentalist, if not one already.

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LibraryThing member Knicke

I like this book but I'm giving it up for now - too much other stuff to read.

LibraryThing member 2wonderY

Possibly a very important book addressing the loss of species; but I found the author's emphasis on his personal saga not at all interesting.

LibraryThing member Mark-S

I did not find the book to live up to the page 3 declaration “Among the earliest forms of human self-awareness was the awareness of being meat” until the stories of monster-slaying in human stories [pp. 254 et seq.]. The book proves to be a collection of the author’s eclectic travels –

interesting, but less philosophic generally than I had anticipated (save for the role of Economics on pp. 166 – 67.

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LibraryThing member whitewavedarling

Quammen's exploration of predators and our relation to them is a study in history, observation, nature writing, travel, and conservation. His discussions move effortlessly between our contemporary relationships with predators and their habitats on to history, biology, ecology, and even sociology.

With an eye toward bringing these creatures as well as their habitats to life for readers, he blends his understanding of science with a flare for travel writing, and the effect is a brilliant discussion of predators. From the back cover: "As he journeys into their habitats and confronts them where they live, Quammen reflects on the enduring significance of these predators to us and imagines a future without them." It seems clear, though, that a future without them is one of the things this book is desperately fighting against.

Whether discussing bears, lions, tigers, or crocodiles, the work here is impressive. It is not an easy read, certainly--there's research packed into every page, and many of the subjects are serious (potentially nightmare-inducing for animal lovers, too, in some cases), but this is a worthwhile and beautifully written book that honors some of Earth's greatest creatures in a way that deserves notice.

Absolutely recommended.

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LibraryThing member OccassionalRead

David Quammen's Monster of God is unlike any other non-fiction book I have read, making it a bit hard to classify. It's a deeply researched book probing mankind's relationship with four specific animals: crocodiles, bears, lions, and tigers, all of which are united as being alpha predators, or more

specifically man-eaters. Quammen gets at this subject through widespread travel, to remote corners of Australia, India, Romania, and Siberia on the easternmost edge of Russia near China. So the book seems, in part, a travelogue. He hires a slew of guides and translators and trackers and scientists who help him interview and understand the local populations that have interacted with and been eaten by these animals for generations. So the book is also to some extent an anthropological study. Then too, he dwells on and analyzes some mythic folktales like the Epic of Gilgamesh, Beowolf, Odysseus, Oedipus, etc. making parts of the book a literary critique. He also throws in a lot of scientific literature reviews so the reader comes to learn about trophic levels and cascades and other lovely dynamic aspects of ecology. Quammen also deftly inserts himself into his narrative and often displays a dry sense of humor. The writing is always first-rate. Sadly, Quammen, who wrote this book shortly after the turn of the twenty-first century, is not optimistic that these and other flesh-eating beasts will survive in the wild beyond his prediction of 2150. He was not the first observer to conclude that the pace of modernization and population growth would cause mass animal extinctions. These predictions had been made as early as the 1970s. But in 2004 when this book came out, the topic was not as broached as it is today. Quammen neither romanticizes these animals nor downplays the toll they have had on indigenous populations. But I believe he is correct when he observes that the loss of these animals in their natural habitats will signify an irreplaceable and permanent psychic loss for human beings.

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