Items related to Reflections of a Whale-Watcher
Synopsis
The author recounts her experiences observing grey and blue whales in the Gulf of California, off Baja California
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author
Michelle A. Gilders is an environmental scientist and avid whale-watcher.
From Publishers Weekly
There be whales here, all right, but you have to weather a heavy sea of prose to get to them. Gilders made four trips to the Sea of Cortez in Baja California between 1989 and 1992 to observe gray whales, blue whales, humpbacks and others. She proclaims early on that "the amateur whale-watcher need make no apology for emotional enthrallment and wide-eyed wonder." Unfortunately, the author parlays her wonder into an overlong discourse that zigzags from travelogue to zoology text to personal diary in a disorganized fashion that does the whale and the reader no favors. For every interesting nugget?and there are plenty, such as Gilders's speculation about why whales breach ("the biology of energetics tells us that the event must 'mean' something to the animal"), there are many more instances of vagueness ("My images of Baja are an amalgam of thoughts during and after the event, of changing perceptions, and of relating past histories and future potential to what we have in the present."). The pity is that Gilders doesn't seem to trust her material. During a narrative account of two male humpbacks clashing over a female, the reader is convinced. What need, then, for so many Zoology 101 and New Age detours ("you feel as though the dream continues, that the world around you is part of you and apart from you")? Perhaps there is a clue later on in the book, when Gilders writes, self-consciously, "There is an arrogance in the written word." One wishes at moments like this that there were less reflecting and more whale-watching.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherIndiana University Press
- Publication date1995
- ISBN 10 0253325722
- ISBN 13 9780253325723
- BindingHardcover
- Number of pages269
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Reflections of a Whale-Watcher
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ISBN 10: 0253325722
ISBN 13: 9780253325723
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Reflections of a Whale-Watcher
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Reflections of a Whale-watcher
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Reflections of a Whale-Watcher
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Reflections of a Whale-Watcher
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Reflections of a Whale-Watcher
Published by
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ISBN 10: 0253325722
ISBN 13: 9780253325723
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