Ill Nature: Rants and Reflections on Humanity and Other Animals

Average customer rating:

Magnificent!

"Beautiful, menacing and slightly out of control."

Uncompromising look at human idiocy . . . . . .

"Think differently, behave differently."

JOY WILLIAMS IS FANTASTIC!

Ill Nature: Rants and Reflections on Humanity and Other Animals
Joy Williams
Manufacturer: The Lyons Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Conservation | Environment | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1585741876

Amazon.com

Best known as a novelist, but also an accomplished journalist, Joy Williams has a great gift for inducing guilt trips. No one is safe: in the opening pages of Ill Nature, she implicates every First Worlder in creation for causing the death of the natural world, the victim of our material urges. She writes that the thousands of new digital television towers being erected today, for example, are responsible for the deaths of millions of songbirds that unwittingly slam into them or their guylines in midflight; by extension, anyone who owns a digital TV set is partly to blame for this unforeseen episode in the larger ecological crisis, no matter how well-intentioned those viewers may be.

Turning a sharp eye on ecotourists, zoogoers, hunters, politicians, developers, expectant mothers, carnivores, conservatives, liberals, and just about anyone else who crosses her path, Williams decries the rapid loss of the wild, which in her eyes is no mere abstraction. Sometimes hyperbolic, but more often right on target, she argues that it will take more than a few cosmetic fixes to mend all the wounds that the environment has sustained. Dystopian to the last (as she writes, "You are increasingly looking at and living in proxy environments created by substitution and simulation," and not the real world at all), Williams brings plenty of heat to the page--and plenty of light, too. --Gregory McNamee

Book Description

Williams tackles a host of controversial subjects in this collection of nineteen impassioned essays dealing mostly with humanity's abuses of the natural world.

Customer Reviews:

Magnificent!.......2003-10-19

Williams is the greatest writer we have in America at this moment!

"Beautiful, menacing and slightly out of control.".......2002-07-15

Death and suffering are a big part of writing. A big part. (To paraphrase and turn upon the gifted Joy Williams; see page 49.) And you can't waste satire or pure hardcore ridicule on targets unworthy of the name. You've got to go after the people who kill animals, and you can't spare anybody. Sure it's duck soup to take aim at the National Rifle Association and the few Big Game Machos left in the world. Duck soup. And the sickie scientists who lobotomize chimps and torture rabbits just to see how long they can take it, their white coats starched and pressed, their nimble fingers taking copious notes. These targets are too easy. In the final analysis you gotta get the burger eaters, every one of them, not just the Super-Sized that waddle into the Burger King or the suburban Mommas sneaking out of the Krispy Kreme, bags of donuts like warm puppies under both arms, mouths stuffed. No, you've got to get the photo safari people who kill merely with their privileged, ignorant, dilettante PRESENCE in jungleland, a lily-livered affront to nature, over-tipping the guides and spilling martinis and overexposed film onto the purity of the veldt.

At any rate, this is the Joy Williams rant, and what I say is rant on, Voltaire!

This collection of magazine essays begins with "Save the Whales, Screw the Shrimp" in which Williams goes after the wishy-washy, faux lovers of nature, addressing them (in effect) as hey "you" with the "Big Gulp cups." Next is a short-short about rhesus monkeys being raised for laboratory research on an island charmingly called "Key Lois" (Laboratory Observing Island Simians). Williams follows this with "Safariland" in which she makes fun of the photo safari experience, reducing it to a kind of Disneyland with mosquito netting.

So far Joy Williams is just satirizing. Next comes a particularly brutal short-short on wildebeests, how they can't migrate to water during the dry season as they have for millions of years because there's a cattle fence that keeps them from the water they can smell. Williams is particularly vivid as she describes thousands of them up against the fence dying of thirst. But she's only warming up. In the next piece, "The Killing Game" and in a later piece, "The Animal People" we experience the full monty of Joy Williams unleashed. Now her writing becomes (as she describes it in the final essay entitled "Why I Write") "unelusive and strident and brashly one-sided." Her words are "meant to annoy and trouble and polarize, and they made readers...half nuts with rage and disdain." (pp. 209-210)

I believe it. I too love the animals, but I'd bet protozoa to primates that she'd find my efforts sadly lacking and my attitude wimpishly laissez faire.

I guess the best way to demonstrate the intent and style of this remarkable book is to just quote Joy Williams. Here's the opening lines of "The Case against Babies":

BABIES, BABIES, BABIES. There's a plague of babies. Too many rabbits or elephants or mustangs or swans brings out the myxomatosis, the culling guns, the sterility drugs, the scientific brigade of egg smashers. Other species can "strain their environments" or "overrun their range" or clash with their human "neighbors," but human babies are always welcome at life's banquet. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome--Live Long and Consume!

Joy Williams really is a kind of earthy Voltaire, a kind of meat cleaver (as opposed to rapier) Voltaire, a kind of take no prisoners master of satire, burlesque, ridicule and just plain old verbal assassination.

But she raises a profound and demoralizing question: what IS going to happen to all the animals that we claim to love so much? Both Joy Williams and I know. Only those fully compatible with humans (dogs, cats, aquarium fish) or those we can't do anything about (rats, mice, crows, sea gulls, sparrows) will survive. Joy knows this and she's angry. Her anger shows. But she's also resigned and that shows too. I know this not merely because of her tone but because of what she writes on page 209: "Nothing the writer can do is ever enough."

The denouement of the book (strangely it has one; Joy Williams is an artist) comes in the penultimate essay, "Hawk." Here we are stunned to learn that "Hawk," her German shepherd dog, whom she referred to as "my sweetie pie, my honey, my handsome boy, my love," whom she would kiss fondly on the nose, turned on her one day as she was leaving him at the vet and savagely bit into and ripped at her breast and then gnawed her arms, and had to be not destroyed, but given euthanasia and cremated.

I don't know what to say about this benumbing turn. Really I think Joy Williams is an artist whose inner artistic nature rises over and above her normal consciousness and tells us the truth in a way ordinary consciousness never could; and even here in a collection of non-fictional essays she has consciously or unconsciously employed the techniques of the master story teller that she is, and left us with a queasy sense of the madness of life while demonstrating that there is so much beyond our understanding.

This extraordinary book should be read not so much for the overpowering arguments against our misuse of animals, or for the undeniable demonstration of our "ill nature," but for the perfect power of her words. Anyone with any pretension toward mastery of language ought to read Joy Williams. In doing so we too might learn to write, as she does, in a manner that is "beautiful and menacing and slightly out of control." (p. 210)

Uncompromising look at human idiocy . . . . . ........2001-11-07

Joy Williams takes a clear-eyed look at the greedy, short-sighted and uncompassionate ways of humans, particularly the gluttonous, over-consuming American horde, and what small-brained humanoids have done to the natural world and the creatures who share this water planet.

The truth may set you free, but first it will make you miserable --- if your heart has not been sanitized, plasticized, and chemicalized into stuporous numbness. Williams outlines the enormity of the forces arrayed against those who would preserve some of this beleaguered planet for the plants and animals and natural lifeforms.

With ironical humor, razor wit and passionate uncommon sense, Williams takes aim at industrial agriculture, federal Wildlife Services (which "manages" wildlife by killing it), fertility clinics which allows infertile women to birth litters of babies on this overtaxed planet, hunters and the whole panoply of unbridled growth-is-good ideologues.(Unbridled growth, Edward Abbey wrote, is the ideology of the cancer cell.)

What gourmands call veal and seafood are, in reality, the corpses of slaughtered animals. Williams opens the blinders to reveal the reality behind the modern consumerist lifestyle and while it is not pretty, there is a dark and twisted humor to it.

Williams puts her money where her mouth is. When she had to sell some land she owned in Florida, she insisted, over the bellowing of the realtors, on deed restrictions that would preserve the land's natural character. Eventually, a nature-loving buyer appeared. Good show. I have had similar thoughts about preserving the trees on my little land; thanks to this author for giving me hope that I can protect them. Keep writing, Joy Williams, words can make a difference.

Buy this book, take it to heart, hear the clarion call, get sane, change your life!

"Think differently, behave differently.".......2001-05-10

I discovered Tucson writer Joy Williams through her essay, "Hawk." About her "big black German shepherd" (p.184) she writes, Hawk "was my sweetie pie, my honey, my handsome boy, my love. On the following day he would attack me as though he wanted to kill me" (p.185).

Williams' collection of 19 no-nonsense "rants and reflections" is a confrontational wake-up call. Each year three million migratory songbirds slam into towers and their guy wires (p.20). Seven thousand acres are lost each day in this country to land developers.(p.129) We are overpopulating the planet with "babies, babies, babies," Williams observes, "those heirs, those hopes, those products of our species' selfishness, sentimentality and global death wish"(p. 105). Neither hunters nor animal rights' activists escape the rant that becomes a roar in these pages. "Honor non-human life," Williams writes. "Control yourself, become more authentic, live lightly upon the earth and treat it with respect. Redefine the word progress and dismiss the managers and masters. Grow inwardly and with knowledge become truly wiser. Think differently, behave differently"(p.21). I couldn't put this book of eye-opening essays down. And for another rant you'll remember, try Ferenc Mate's A REASONABLE LIFE (2000).

G. Merritt

JOY WILLIAMS IS FANTASTIC!.......2001-04-10

I've been waiting for someone to speak my mind about the abuse of nature, the lip service of politicians regarding the environment, development run amok and other issues that seem beyond our control; Joy Williams does this with gusto, and one senses, a deeply passionate anger. "The Killing Game" especially runs true as I live in hunting country and hear the heart-sickening comments of hunters who can barely name a handful of the flora and fauna that surrounds them on their killing expeditions. "Wildebeest" is a poignant and sad tribute to that wonderful animal driven to survive and "The Case Against Babies" reminds us just out of control the human population is. You don't have to be a "liberal tree hugger" or nature mysticist to appreciate these essays: Ms. Williams speaks as a realist and she hits hard where it should hurt, which is to make us see our hypocritical ways. This is a fast-paced read and enjoyably sarcastic but beneath that lies a plea to speak out against man's selfish, selfish existence. She is also a fine writer. I will eagerly await her next book and hope more writers like her emerge into mainstream publishing.

Ill Natura: Rants and Reflections on Humanity and Other Animals : An article from: The Ecologist

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Ill Natura: Rants and Reflections on Humanity and Other Animals : An article from: The Ecologist
Gard Binney
Manufacturer: Ecosystems Limited
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Customer Reviews:

Read this book!.......2004-08-19

This book helped me incredibly understand the odds and help beat the casino at their games. I recommend it.

Very good simple summary book.......1996-12-21

Having read a lot of gambling books, it is good to see one that is statistically significant as to various issues. A handy little reference that would help increase your odds in the casino

Book Description

At last, a guide that explains points of French grammar and structure simply, then clarifies each with concrete examples. The examples use the language of real-life situations. This new edition also makes difficult topics, like the difference between mood and tense, even easier to understand. Numerous fill-in-the-blank and other exercises with delayed answers help cut down the time it takes readers to gain proficiency and confidence communicating in French.

Customer Reviews:

Good review book.......2007-10-07

This book is a good, comprehensive review of grammar for intermediate and advanced French speakers; without prior knowledge of French, it might be a little hard to understand.

Excellent book for learning French grammar.......2007-01-29

Schaum's Outline is an excellent resource for learning grammar, one of the best I've used by far. I'd definitely recommend this as a resource to someone with at least a basic knowledge of French who wants to learn/improve their grammar.

I study French at university and use this book alongside my classes even though it isn't a set text. It's in-depth, and there are plenty of exercises with answers at the back of the book to hammer the new concepts in with. It is less of a reference book and more of a 'learning' book. I particularly liked the fact that I was learning vocabulary while completing the exercises in the book, as translations to example sentences are included.

Five stars for good layout, easy to understand explanations, and plenty of exercises with answers!

Well Organized.......2003-01-31

French grammar is hard to learn because although there are rules there are more exceptions than rules. This book does a great job of organizing things in a way to deal with all the expections. I especially like the way it presents the verbs. I own quite a few books on French grammar but the way this book groups the verbs is really much better. In terms of reviewing for a test (or for real life if you live in France) a book like this is essential, since most normal French text book are just too disorganized to find what you are looking for. Also it helps me to see all the rules about a certain topic in one place at one time. There are lots of exercises and the answers are in the back of the book to check yourself. Learning French grammar isn't ever going to be easy, but if you use this book it will be a lot easier than if you don't. Highly recommended.

Must have French learning companion.......2003-01-10

I don't have to describe the content in detail as the self-explanatory nature of the title. I studied French in L'Alliance Francais for some time. Their communicative approach almost makes me paralysed until I have this book. I can't imagine how a middle age person can learn a new language by merely listening and imitating the sound of teachers. On the contrary the grammatical approach in this book systematically illustrate every single bit of grammar detail for beginner (and intermediate level student). By reading and reviewing the explanation as well as practising the exercise, I can make a lot sense in French now. And I am not just fantizing it. The most exciting piece of news is that my progress is noticed by both my French teacher and my classmates. The mastering of basic is so satisfying and giving me advancement and enjoyment.

good for brushing up skills.......2002-09-05

I've worked through this book a couple of times now to brush up my French skills. It's excellent as a companion to a course, or just to practise. I would recommend it from the beginner, to the more advanced speaker who would like to refine their knowledge of the language.

Average customer rating:

Very useful book...
Schaum's Outlines of French Vocabulary
Perfect for the intermediate learner
I think it's good
Fantastic, an art to itself

Schaum's Outline of French Vocabulary
Mary Coffman Crocker
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0070138869

Book Description

Master French vocabulary and ace your exams with Schaum's, the easy-to-follow guide that pumps up your language skills and reduces study time. The answered exercises will sharpen your test skills and result in a larger vocabulary, faster learning curves, and higher grades. Divided into units that are organized by themeÑtravel, services, and entertainment, to name a fewÑthis outline puts the information you really need at your fingertips. Schaum's Outline of French Vocabulary is a comprehensive study guide that can be used with any textbook... but itÕs so complete itÕs ideal for independent study!

Download Description

In this helpful guide, you will find: New sections that will update your vocabulary of technological-, sports-, and lifestyle-related phrases; English/French and rench/English glossaries and key word lists; Clear definitions of everyday words and phrases;

Customer Reviews:

Very useful book..........2007-08-26

I studied French for many years. I can tell you much of the vocabulary in this book is very, very useful. I would fancy that an American student of French would benefit from this than a Canadian one, since they would be less likely to cover these terms in French courses on the high school in the U.S., and they wouldn't cover these everyday words in Canadian French university courses or American ones. You are dealing with terms related to cars, sports, travelling, hotel reservations etc.. I think that is useful, and you can't feel fluent without knowing these terms. I have a very old version of this book (1985), and I eventually want to get this newer one and compare.

Schaum's Outlines of French Vocabulary.......2007-03-17

I have given this product a hundred per cent rating because:
1)it is easy to understand and
2)it is comprehensive; it contains some topics, such as "L'enseignment" and "Au travail" that are rarely found in other books of its category.
I recommend this product to anyone who wants to learn French fast and easily.

Perfect for the intermediate learner.......2000-04-14

The first time I saw the book in a book shop, I didn't buy it because it looked like it was meant to be used by students cramming for exams. Maybe this is indeed the purpose of the book. I am an adult learner trying to learn French on my own. Since I don't have to pass any exams, I didn't think the book would be of any use to me. The second time I saw the book, I bought it anyway because it wasn't so expensive and I thought maybe I would pick up some useful vocabulary anyway. The book is surprisingly good. In fact, this is the best book I've found on vocabulary building. Its 46 chapters and the appendixes cover the words and phrases needed in a wide variety of situations. Maybe advanced students may find the book easy, but the level of difficulty is just about right for an intermediate learner like me.

I think it's good.......2000-01-23

I borrowed this book from a library but I think I need to spend a bit more time on it so I have decided to purchase my own copy. Basically it's different from the other vocab. books which it has exercises for you to do for each unit, and the materials are not very condensed, as with other vocab. books where they just categorize and throw a bunch of vocabs at you. Learning vocab needs drill and exercises, not pure memorization and I think this book does well in this area. I think if you really follow the book and work on all the exercises you will learn a lot. The only thing which made me take a star out of my rating is that the pictures and perhaps the layout of the book is a bit boring...ZZzzzz and outdated but actually the book wasn't very old at all.

I am also going to try out the grammar book and I hope that works well for me.

Fantastic, an art to itself.......1999-09-15

The book is a very good collection of French Words and is properly indexed with word lists. A must for any student learning french at any level.

Schaum's Easy Outline of German (Schaum's Easy Outline)

Average customer rating:

Great quick reference

Schaum's Easy Outline of German (Schaum's Easy Outline)
Elke Gschossmann-Hendershot
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0070527172

Book Description

Boiled-down essentials of the top-selling Schaum's Outline series for the student with limited time

What could be better than the bestselling Schaum's Outline series? For students looking for a quick nuts-and-bolts overview, it would have to be Schaum's Easy Outline series. Every book in this series is a pared-down, simplified, and tightly focused version of its predecessor. With an emphasis on clarity and brevity, each new title features a streamlined and updated format and the absolute essence of the subject, presented in a concise and readily understandable form.

Graphic elements such as sidebars, reader-alert icons, and boxed highlights stress selected points from the text, illuminate keys to learning, and give students quick pointers to the essentials.

Designed to appeal to underprepared students and readers turned off by dense text
Cartoons, sidebars, icons, and other graphic pointers get the material across fast
Concise text focuses on the essence of the subject
Delivers expert help from teachers who are authorities in their fields
Perfect for last-minute test preparation
So small and light that they fit in a backpack!

Customer Reviews:

Great quick reference.......2001-05-03

I have studied German for almost six months, and I can tell you that this little book allows me to comprehend the material that I am learning in class much more quickly. This book is perfect for beginners because a more complex grammar guide can confuse the first time learner. As I advance in my studies, I plan to upgrade to the complete editions.

Average customer rating:

Great for review or beginners
Perfect for quick review of the essentials!

Schaum's Easy Outline: French
Mary Coffman Crocker
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0070527156

Book Description

Authoritative. Concise. Easy-to-Use.

Schaum's Easy Outlines are streamlined versions of best-selling Schaum's titles. We've shortened the text, broadened the visual appeal, and introduced study techniques to make mastering any subject easier. The results are reader-friendly study guides with all the impressive academic authority of the originals.

Schaum's Easy Outlines feature:

Concise text that focuses on the essentials of the course
Quick-study sidebars, icons, and other instructional aids
Sample problems and exercises for review
Expert advice from authorities in the field

Customer Reviews:

Great for review or beginners.......2002-03-13

This book is helpful no matter what your intentions are toward learning the language. Dr. Pickens was a professor of mine and his teaching methods are quite good.

Perfect for quick review of the essentials!.......2000-05-19

I was so pleased with Schaum's Easy Outline for Spanish that I purchased the Easy Outline for French to review for an upcoming exam. I was not disappointed. Once again I found the same reader-friendly overview of all the absolute essentials of grammar explained in a straightforward manner. Gone are the days of thumbing through pages and pages of detailed explanations of key grammatical structures. The book was actually pleasant to read and, as expected, easy to study from.

I especially recommend this book for beginners (keeps you focused and avoids frustration)and those who have not used their French in awhile and want to brush up their skills.

Average customer rating:
Schaum's Outline of French Grammar
Mary E. Coffman
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OFVUPA

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Schaum's Outline of French Grammar, 5ed (Schaum's Outlines)
Mary Coffman Crocker
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0071546057

Book Description

Schaum's Outline of French Grammar delivers a comprehensive and efficient review of French grammar, with exercises, quick drills, and helpful verb charts. The fifth edition includes the latest usages and carefully explains challenging grammatical topics.

SCHAUM'S OUTLINE SERIES - FRENCH GRAMMAR

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SCHAUM'S OUTLINE SERIES - FRENCH GRAMMAR

Manufacturer: MCGRAW HILL
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000HDSOOO

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Schaums Outline of French Grammar
Schaums
Manufacturer: Trafalgar Square
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0701155248

French Grammar, Including 394 Answered Exercises (3000 Items) (Schaum's Outline Series)

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French Grammar, Including 394 Answered Exercises (3000 Items) (Schaum's Outline Series)

Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000HUCM7M

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Schaum's Outline of French Grammar
Mary E. Coffman
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Education
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OFVV54

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