Customer Reviews

Flight Maps: Adventures With Nature In Modern America

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It's not often that a book can challenge some ideas you hold near and dear while at the same time leaving you in stiches. A friend of mine insisted I read "Flight Maps"--I'm a confirmed environmentalist/tree-hugger etc., but Price has held up an ideological mirror to me and exposed some of my most treasured assumptions about "pristine nature" along with the contradiction of my consumerist lifestyle (yes, I own an SUV--to drive to the mountains!) coupled with my ecological sensibility. Maybe all that humor made it easier to swallow. In any event, I'm glad I read it. One of those books that really changes your perspective on life.

If you think The Nature Company is an oxymoron, Price articulates exactly why that is. If you feel a sense of discomfort in today's society, yet feel vaguely guilty about that discomfort, Price explains that as well. This truly is a fabulous book that will have you thinking (and perhaps even shopping) differently immediately.

Price's book (also her dissertation) starts strong, with a formidably researched essay on the extinction of the passenger pigeon that does none of the usual things: it doesn't dwell on man's brutality, it doesn't eulogize the pigeon. Instead, she very thoughtfully considers the ways in which people USE nature, and why, and explores the mystery (it remains a mystery) of exactly why the passenger pigeons disappeared.

Human uses of (and, maybe more importantly, imitations of) nature are the focus of the book. The plastic pink flamingo becomes Price's symbol for our strangely consumerist attitude toward nature. WHY do we have plastic pink flamingos? To Price, they're the most obvious example of "artificial" nature, and they've gone through an amazing range of cultural significance -- from bourgeois lawn ornament to embarrassingly loud "low-income" decoration to hipster accessory.

Price dwells on the symbolism of the flamingo more than is strictly necessary. The themes are a little worn by the time we get to her analysis of the the "nature store" phenomenon, all the Natural Wonders and Nature Companies that sprang up in the nineties. Very interesting, but again, her questions have been asked and answered so thoroughly by this time that I, for one, was TOO aware, by the time I finished, that this was a doctoral dissertation and not a book.

Jennifer Price writes about nature and conservation movements, and she does such a wonderful job of opening up new points of view and presenting little-known facts that it's almost like reading a mystery novel. Especially interesting: her descriptions of the beginnings of the women's club movement, women's activism, and women's opposition to use of bird feathers (and whole birds!) on women's hats. The book is written with that spark that engages the reader.

I found this book on a closeout table at a local bookstore. When I went back to buy more copies for friends, they were all gone! It's really great...Look at some of the chapter headings:"When Women were Women, Men Were Men, and Birds Were Hats", "A Brief Natural History of the Pink Flamingo". "Roadrunners Can't Read". Scoff this up ASAP or you'll regret it! P.Smith, Texas.