Haskell’s own joy of discovery makes it irresistible to tune in. “The vitality of the world depends, in part, on whether we turn our ears back to the living earth.” The most powerful species on earth no longer listens to the others, is silencing the others at a devastating rate. Instead, the pilgrims walk by unaware, symbols of all we miss in a world of vanishing birdsongs, insect crescendos and frog choruses. “A monument to honor the first known earthly voice.” “There should be a shrine here,” Haskell writes. Rubbing two wings together, its ancient cricket fiddled a scratchy rasp, broadcast off the flat wing surface like a loudspeaker. An insect wing fossilized in Permian rock in the French countryside bears an unusual ridge. Animals evolved for hundreds of millions of years with nary a trill, call or peep, Haskell reveals in his exquisite new book, “Sounds Wild and Broken.” Searching for the origins of life’s song and sound, he is drawn to a revolutionary chirp.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |