“Parasite Rex” by Carl Zimmer
Ever lie in bed at night and swear that you can feel something crawling around inside your skull?
Well it is probably paranoia or it could just be a Botfly larva devouring your brain from the inside-out. This disturbing thought is just one of the disgusting and frightening images depicted in Carl Zimmer’s “Parasite Rex”.
The front cover of “Paraste Rex” is analogous with that of a 1950’s Sci Fi comic, but on further inspection we find that this is not a story of intergalactic space aliens, but that these hideous, disturbing and grotesque organisms are actually ‘common’ human parasites.
Parasite Rex is a refreshing popular science book that neither shys away from using scientific names nor tries to patronise the reader with endless repeats of the same information like most popular science books of recent years.
The story of the human tapeworm I found particularly nauseating as we travel from mouth to gut to the intestinal tract and find that these pulsating Cestodes can grow up to 30m in length and break up into hundreds of egg sacs, ready to infect new hosts.
I would strongly advise those with weak stomachs and heart conditions to read this book at their own risk, as Carl Zimmer pulls no punches and delivers what I would call, a riveting and enlightening picture of those organisms that feed, breed and survive at our expense.
2 comments:
I'm interested by your suggestion that recent pop sci is repetitive - were you thinking about any texts in particular?
I love parasites! Long ago when I was studying biochemistry molecular parasitology was definitely my favourite module.
Your description of the book reminds me a lot of Fahnestock's analysis of the language of popular science. She describes two kinds of 'appeal': to 'the wonder' or 'the application'. From what you say it sounds like the book focusses on 'the wonder' - what also gets called the 'gee-whiz' approach to popularisation. The emphasis is on being amazed, awed, surprised, or excited; rather on the relevance of the science to the reader's life. Do you think that's the case?
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