The Star Thrower
From SkepticWiki
- Author: Loren Eiseley
- ISBN 0156849097
[edit] Synopsis
A collection of essays about naturalism, biology, and evolution.
[edit] Reviews
The Star Thrower is a collection of some of the best essays by Loren Eiseley. Eiseley's writing hearkens back to a day when popular science writing was beautiful, poetic, lyrical, and inspiring. In the title essay, Eiseley describes himself as walking, dejected, on a remote beach, seeing himself as an eye within a skull (a metaphor derived from Buddhism). There he meets a man who has the habit of picking up beached starfish and throwing them into the sea. "These little stars," the man says, "you can do something for them." Eisely then proceeds on a long digression on the evolution of creatures, and finally comes back to the commonplace, realizing that he, too, is a kind of star-thrower. Eiseley uses this pattern of a personal anectode leading to a digression which finally leads back consistently and to good effect.
The book is somewhat marred by an introduction by the poet W. H. Auden that attempts to force-fit Eiseley's lyricism in traditional religious terms. It also omits one of Eiseley's finest essays, involving his pet dog grabbing a fossil bone, leading to a digression of the connection between dogs and humans. Nevertheless, it is an excellent introduction to Eiseley's essays.
