Customer Reviews

The Star Thrower

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Loren Eisley has been described as the 20th century's answer to Henry David Thoreau, and when reading this book it's hard to doubt the description. Eisley writes in a thought-provoking, almost mystical style unlike few authors I've ever read...he has a gift for seeing both the heights and limits of science like no other scientist I have known of. He is a naturalist, poet, realist, existentialist, haunted mystic, evolutionary anthropologist, environmental advocate, historian, and human being, 200 proof. Few have lived their lives so fully; few have left us such a legacy of poetry and prose. This book is an anthology of his best work, selected from several past publications including "The Immense Journey" and others, as well as including a few rare gems like his poetry. His reflections upon humankind, time, evolution, the Earth, the natural world, the unknown, and even the very nature of existence itself are more powerful than the most dense scientific formulae or the most sacred tomes of Scripture. He looks at our mysterious universe with the eyes of a human being, and he looks at his own soul in the process...and along the way, he helps us to find our own. Make no mistake; this is not the work of a theologian or a secularist; if one is looking for affirmations of either God's glory or dry theses of a devout Darwinist, look elsewhere. These are the stories of a complex human being who, first to himself and then to the rest of us, admits that there is far more in heaven and earth than is dreamed of in our philosophy.

I was sitting in a coffeeshop, when a guy I had been talking to earlier placed Loren Eiseley's "The Star Thrower" in front of me. "Read it," he said.

And so I did.

The title initially intrigued me, but my interest was held by the poetic quality to Eiseley's stories. Seeing the natural world through his eyes is a departure into another realm. His words cast new light onto seemingly simple ideas in nature. He sees a moth pass by while watching an outdoor opera and wonders, "whose is the real play?" Eiseley's writings capture the sheer beauty and innocence of nature. Only he can turn a chance encounter in the woods with a fox into a spiritual event. Only he can gain confidence by coming across a web-spinning spider: "the mind, it came to me as I slowly descended the ladder, is a very remarkable thing; it has gotten a kind of courage by looking at a spider in a street lamp."

So I shall give the simple advice I have been given: read it.

I first encountered this book when I was looking for an author to do a high school english project on, and I was immediately drawn to this little-known author through the expressive style of his writing and the deeply unique philosophy inherent in every piece of work. Eiseley was not just a talented writer but a deeply emotional naturalist and his profound respect for all things living is apparent throughout his works. As he walks us through his close brushes with nature we are allowed a glimpse of the vast poetic world that we so often ignore.

Eiseley writes intimately of his natural encounters, and we get a feeling that he is a rare man who felt somewhat out of place in the busy, fallible human world, and dwelled more along the indistinct boundary whose edges blur first into the natural world and then into the world we have made our own. An old adage has often gone "Every minute is precious" and Eiseley holds to this with an energy that turns every second, be it spent on a balcony bathed in early morning sunlight, or watching the jeweled webs of a spider into an infinitely precious memory never to be forgotten.

This is without a doubt one of the most lyrical and insightful works on nature that you will ever read. If you are an avid naturalist you will be even more appreciative of all things that grow when you have finished reading this book. With a flourish of his pen, Eiseley reminds us that there is another life we may live, one where money, which has come to be central to our societies, and the essential human weakness, has no place beside the whisper of leaves drifting to the forest floor and the silken flow of crystal waters.

Loren Eiseley can take a moment in time, analyze it, and explain it from a perspective of deep knowlege, understanding, and an intimate connection with the essence of nature, and this earth on which we all reside. His writings will take you away from this hectic lifestyle we lead, and help you to appreciate the little things in life all around you that you usually ignore, and will let you see a new dimension of this world. He transcends the normal thought process that most of us have of categorizing experiences, immediately judging what we see, then forgetting whatever is not immediately beneficial to us. He sees the miracles that occur all around us each and every day, and understands that the complexity of life comes from millions and millions of years of slow change on this earth. He appreciates what nature has created in animals, plants, and the earth's ecosystem, and how nature has created the human mind. He was truly a revolutionary thinker, a poet, and a voice of reason.

Contrary to some people's reviews that I have read, I believe the Star Thrower is a magical book. It can only be enjoyed by those who wish to open their minds to new ways of thinking. If you do not start the book open-minded, I guarantee that you will not enjoy the book to its full potential. Loren Eisley is genious in his way of thinking. This book can change lives, but only if you let it!

I rank "The Star Thrower" as one of the most beautiful books I have read. I have read it three times now at different periods in my life. Loren Eiseley was very unique. He was a poet and a scientist. He combines several stories about science that are interesting in and of themselves but then he pulls out an inner meaning from the science that points to spiritual truths. If you find science interesting - or spirituality - Loren Eiseley is one of a kind and this book represents "his greatest hits."

The Star Thrower is the most wonderful essay I have ever read. In his despair and personal grief Eiseley finds hope on a stormy beach in Spain. This is a profound story that my words cannot convey how powerful and precious Eiseley's words are. Read it and then become a star thrower in your life.

Eiseley's prose is pure poetry. His message ageless. I wish I had discovered him sooner.

This was the third or fourth or ... copy of this book that I've purchased for special friends over the years. I'm proud to be sharing him with a grandson now.

Eiseley can draw incredible pictures with words. If you're at all interested in the world of nature then here is your poet.

I give this book a 5-star review because Eiseley is indeed the 20th Century's greatest nature/science/religious-naturalist essayist. Stephen Jay Gould may have taught and even moved many a mind, but Eiseley embedded us in our universe, inviting us all to savor a scientific worldview for the intimacy it provides with even commonplace surrounds: the bejeweled carapaces of insects dangling on spider threads, a frozen fish resurrected in a bucket, a Cenozoic set of eye sockets staring into one's own, merging with the continent by free-floating the Platte.

As a subset of Eiseley's collection of books and essays, however, I would give this compendium volume a rating of only three stars. Yes, it includes "The Judgment of Birds," "The Innocent Fox," and the title essay, "Starthrower." But it lacks "The Slit," "The Flow of the River," and "The Snout." For those gems you will need to consult Eiseley's first volume, his 1957 The Immense Journey: An Imaginative Naturalist Explores the Mysteries of Man and Nature.

This anthology also lacks the chapter that provides a window into the scientific mindset that undergirds Eiseley's fascination with the creative role played by death in an evolutionary world. That chapter is "How Death Became Natural," and it appears in his slim 1962 masterpiece, The Firmament of Time. Contemplate how that chapter begins, and thereby grasp the measure of this man:

"It is necessary in surveying the human quest for certainty to consider death before life. Man, even primitive man, has tended to take life for granted. Death was the unnatural thing, the result of malice or mistake, the after-thought of the gods, or, in the Christian world, the result of the Fall from the Garden. . . In the development of a scientific approach to life on this planet, therefore, the recognition of death -- species death, phylogenetic death -- had to precede the rise of serious evolutionary thought. For without the knowledge of extinction in the past, it is impossible to entertain ideas of drastic organic change going on in the present or future."

Nonetheless, the title essay of this volume does contain my single favorite Eiseley quotation (I have substituted "human" for the archaic term "men"): "We are rag dolls made out of many ages and skins, changelings who have slept in wood nests, and hissed in the uncouth guise of waddling amphibians. We have played such roles for infinitely longer ages than we have been human."

[NOTE: This review was written by Michael Dowd's wife, science writer Connie Barlow.]