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Animal Series
Spider
Both fascinating and frightening, the spider has a rich symbolic presence in the imagination. At once a representative of death, due to its fangs and dangerous poison, the spider can also represent life and creation, because of its intricate web and females who carry sacs of thousands of tiny eggs. In this wide-ranging book, Katarzyna and Sergiusz Michalski investigate the natural history and cultural significance of the spider. From ancient Greek myth to Dostoyevsky, the authors explore the appearance of spiders in literature and their depictions in art, paying particular attention to the sculptures of Louise Bourgeois. Horror stories, science fiction, folklore, and children’s tales are also investigated, as well as the affliction of arachnophobia and the procedures used to cure it. The association of the spider with women or mothers is explored alongside the role of the spider metaphor in Freudian and Jungian psychoanalysis, and the Michalskis’ in-depth account concludes with a look at the unfavorable portrayal of the sinister spider in film. A thorough and engaging look at the natural and cultural history of the spider, this book will appeal to anybody who admires or fears this delicate yet dangerous creature.
224 pages, Paperback
First published October 15, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 17, 2015
It's a beautiful and relatively engaging book, with some major minor (minor major?) issues, like referring to spiders as insects, describing their bite as a sting, and overlooking wide swaths of contemporary and historical culture (ignoring more recent depictions of spidery femme fatales, ignoring the overwhelmingly positive depictions of spiders in Islam aside from one mention of a negative sura).
I felt the strongest chapter was on late 19th to mid 20th century European depictions of spiders in caricature and political drawing. The images, of course, are gorgeous, and some of them are even printed in color. This alone might make it worth buying.
I felt the strongest chapter was on late 19th to mid 20th century European depictions of spiders in caricature and political drawing. The images, of course, are gorgeous, and some of them are even printed in color. This alone might make it worth buying.
December 4, 2010
An interesting book about the cultural history of the spider. It focuses mainly on the Western tradition but with some cross-cultural references.
Chapters include the spider's place in European intellectual tradition, the femme fatale, myth, folklore and urban legend and in literature and film.
I dropped a star on my rating because the opening section on spider zoology is too anthropomorphic for a supposedly scientific description and the authors keep referring to spiders as insects, rather than arachnids. There are other errors of language and awkwardness of phrase in other chapters, but not too many to spoil the read.
Overall, an engaging, if flawed, book.
Chapters include the spider's place in European intellectual tradition, the femme fatale, myth, folklore and urban legend and in literature and film.
I dropped a star on my rating because the opening section on spider zoology is too anthropomorphic for a supposedly scientific description and the authors keep referring to spiders as insects, rather than arachnids. There are other errors of language and awkwardness of phrase in other chapters, but not too many to spoil the read.
Overall, an engaging, if flawed, book.
October 4, 2013
This is the book that sent me off to read the short story and novella already reviewed.
It is in the Reaktion animal series which takes a species, order, family etc and primarily looks at the way that they have been used in culture. This in itself is interesting, but the books are also beautifully produced with a large number of excellent colour illustrations, so that (except for their size) they could almost be described as coffee table books. In this respect Spider is no different (unlike eel which focuses much more on the biology, as it would seem there is little representation of eels in culture).
Spiders have featured in culture from the earliest times. There are creation myths in Africa, Americas and Asia that involve spiders in part of the creation myth. This was an aspect that I thought could usefully have been explored in much more details as they were little more than mentioned, and could perhaps have been used as a way of introducing the spider in a positive light. Also missing was any description of the biology, and little more than a passing reference to the amazing properties of spider silk.
There is much that is fascinating in the book, either as reminders of things that we have encountered or new ways of looking at the use of spiders in art, literature and film with the odd diversion into sculpture (think Louise Bourgeois). What I found particularly interesting was the different ways that spiders have been used and the different tropes that they have represented from the femme fatale to the creator of the world. From the evil presence at the centre of a web to Anansi. Of course, spiders have a long domestic association being found in all houses (and presumably caves before that). They are ubiquitous, small, surprisingly swift and silent and so different from humans with their ability to spin webs out of themselves.
Given the strength of arachnophobia it is surprising just how much of the imagery associated with spiders portrays them in a positive light, and less surprising that they have many negative ideas associated with them - especially their poisonousness given that so few are poisonous (to humans), and none that are native to Europe.
I thought webs were rather underplayed, with for instance a discussion of a cartoon of Napoleon at the centre of a web focusing on the spider and barely mentioning the imagery behind the web with which he trapped the rest of Europe.
My main complaints however are firstly that it was too short for the ideas in the book. Too many things are simply mentioned and passed over - the chapter on myth and folklore was particularly disappointing in this respect. Should it have been a longer book (it is, I think, one of the longer books in the series already) or should they have tried to cover rather less in a bit more depth? Secondly, and especially annoying given that they actually discuss it in the introduction, they keep referring to spiders as "insects" which jars every time. This is an animal series, so I would have thought that they could get something as basic as that right.
It is in the Reaktion animal series which takes a species, order, family etc and primarily looks at the way that they have been used in culture. This in itself is interesting, but the books are also beautifully produced with a large number of excellent colour illustrations, so that (except for their size) they could almost be described as coffee table books. In this respect Spider is no different (unlike eel which focuses much more on the biology, as it would seem there is little representation of eels in culture).
Spiders have featured in culture from the earliest times. There are creation myths in Africa, Americas and Asia that involve spiders in part of the creation myth. This was an aspect that I thought could usefully have been explored in much more details as they were little more than mentioned, and could perhaps have been used as a way of introducing the spider in a positive light. Also missing was any description of the biology, and little more than a passing reference to the amazing properties of spider silk.
There is much that is fascinating in the book, either as reminders of things that we have encountered or new ways of looking at the use of spiders in art, literature and film with the odd diversion into sculpture (think Louise Bourgeois). What I found particularly interesting was the different ways that spiders have been used and the different tropes that they have represented from the femme fatale to the creator of the world. From the evil presence at the centre of a web to Anansi. Of course, spiders have a long domestic association being found in all houses (and presumably caves before that). They are ubiquitous, small, surprisingly swift and silent and so different from humans with their ability to spin webs out of themselves.
Given the strength of arachnophobia it is surprising just how much of the imagery associated with spiders portrays them in a positive light, and less surprising that they have many negative ideas associated with them - especially their poisonousness given that so few are poisonous (to humans), and none that are native to Europe.
I thought webs were rather underplayed, with for instance a discussion of a cartoon of Napoleon at the centre of a web focusing on the spider and barely mentioning the imagery behind the web with which he trapped the rest of Europe.
My main complaints however are firstly that it was too short for the ideas in the book. Too many things are simply mentioned and passed over - the chapter on myth and folklore was particularly disappointing in this respect. Should it have been a longer book (it is, I think, one of the longer books in the series already) or should they have tried to cover rather less in a bit more depth? Secondly, and especially annoying given that they actually discuss it in the introduction, they keep referring to spiders as "insects" which jars every time. This is an animal series, so I would have thought that they could get something as basic as that right.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews