The Language of Butterflies


I don't know what I was expecting when I first started this book but whatever I was expecting this wasn't it. Honestly, I'm not a big fan of butterflies. I know they're colorful, but actually seeing them up close gives me the creeps. Most of the conclusions of this book are somewhat obvious, even to someone like myself who doesn't know a lot about butterflies. I think I was expecting more of a scientific explanation as to why butterflies are different colors or how butterflies actually communicate with each other, but this is more of an essay on the butterflyness of butterflies. There are some scientific facts thrown in there like for example the fact that butterflies seem to remember what happened to them in their caterpillar stage, and we don't know we do not know yet how that happens. But this is the second book in a row that I have read where it's presented as being a scientific look at an animal but devolves into a sort of personal narrative about someone's relationship with that animal. I'm thinking of another book I read called the science of working dogs - most of the book is about one woman's relationship with one dog. I don't mind that because the woman clearly has a relationship with her dog. In this book, it is somewhat obvious that the subject was chosen, and then the author developed a little bit of passion for it. It would have been better if the author had chosen a subject she was genuinely passionate about, and in that way a more personal narrative would be appropriate. But in this case, it feels like someone is really trying to make herself and me enthusiastic about little colorful creepy crawlies. I don't even mind beetles, beetles are more interesting than butterflies, and they are not creepy at all but for some reason I think butterflies are really creepy, even more creepy than moths because moths makes sense, a moth is a practical insect butterflies they just flop around and look pretty all day.

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