Book Review: The Disordered Cosmos

 

Image: The cover of the book is a cream colored background with the profile of a dark skinned person looking downward, shown facing to the right from the neck up. The photo itself is greyscale that is mostly transparent and replaced with an image of the milky way shown in a clear night sky. There are countless stars of varying brightness and the strip of the milky way stretching down through the center, composed of oranges, whites, purples, and blues. In large white letters is the title of the book and in the lower right corner outside of the profile, is the author's name.

As a layperson interested in astrophysics and cosmology, I generally get interested in any newer books coming out that cater at least somewhat to my demographic. But, just like the fields themselves, the pool of writers tends to be fairly one-dimensional in terms of gender and usually race. I also often wish scientists would expand their discussions of the specifics of their field to how social aspects fit into it and their personal experiences. As a result, I was anticipating the release of Chanda Prescod-Weinstein's "The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred" as soon as I found out about it. It took me a minute to get to, but I am glad I finally did. The author breaks many molds with this book and I think the field is better for it.

I will admit that I expected a bit more of the specifics of astrophysics and Prescod-Weinstein's focus and work in this book. It was a little disappointing that that only made up a smaller section in the beginning, and a large section of that was based on overview. I left knowing more about the author's life and views on social justice (which I also enjoyed) than I did her work in astrophysics and cosmology. So, I consider this to be more of a scientist's memoir with a science writing bend than I do a strictly pop-science book. Nonetheless, I think it is a valuable contribution to all of those genres. I actually think it could be good that the title "tricks" some readers into a book that spans all of these genres because Prescod-Weinstein touches on so many issues that have plagued the sciences for centuries.

The author captures well what it is like to straddle multiple positions and identities within and outside her profession. She is the first Black woman to receive positions and acknowledgement for many things and that is a shame. I recall that before this book existed, I searched for texts by Black women and struggled to find them. As Prescod-Weinstein shows though, that is not because they didn't exist. She takes us far back to Harriet Tubman using the North Star as a guide during her liberations of/with enslaved Africans. She discusses all of the things that go into making science happen outside of just the experiments themselves. We not only rely on principal investigators and statisticians, but also on those who take out the trash and maintain the buildings in which sciences take place. Covid-19 did wake many people up to the reality of how "essential workers" are "heroes" that hold things together. But, those people have been holding things together outside of the pandemic for as long as they've existed. What would the world look like without people working grocery stores, sanitation, etc? In places where garbage collectors have gone on strike, we can see how quickly streets can turn into a toxic wasteland without them. Furthermore, there is literal science methods and math involved in many of these professions. So, the author talking about all of these people "doing science" is a welcome addition to the long history of highlighting only a select few with the most privilege and publications.

Prescod-Weinstein talks about her childhood love of cosmology and how hard her mother worked in order to make sure she had access to learning materials and opportunities- things many people who are interested in similar topics never get to have. She discusses how even folks who make it to university can still struggle to break though any ceilings if their university is less wealthy and does not give them access to journals and materials to excel. She talks about how efforts towards "diversity and inclusion" focus far too much on adding a little color to their photos rather than actually support and understanding marginalized scientists. She discusses hardships and abuses she has dealt with more personally throughout the book in classic style of memoir. These include experiences of assault and harassment by people she chooses not to name publicly for fear of backlash and of what would happen to those she would be outing.  

The only thing that made me bristle was her discussion of transgender issues, including her own gender labels. I know that we all need to be careful with "gatekeeping" as people are often questioning and trying to figure things out. I know that any questioning of anyone will always lead to some people being pissed off about it, and I am fine with that being fired in my direction. Many of us who now ID as trans and have transitioned in many or all ways possible went through this phases of experimentation and shifting labels for ourselves- this is generally a good thing. All people- including cis people- playing with gender norms will likely result in a better world. My issue is how she is speaking as an authority with a very wide reach while coming from a place where she doesn't seem to understand what terms mean or what her personal relationship to gender is. I won't dissect every bit, but I will say that her description of herself is the definition of being a cisgender woman. Talking about being agender and marginally transgender is adding to the increasing phenomenon of LGBTQ+ terms ceasing to have any meaning whatsoever. I think that she- and she is certainly not the first- should spend more time exploring and understanding themselves before writing book sections on these topics. When questions of gender nonconformity and being trans become dominated by gender conforming, comfortable with everything associated with their AGAB/ASAB, cis/heteronormatively presenting, etc people, we get to the point where pronouns are given more space than violence, healthcare access, etc, which is precisely what Prescod-Weinstein does (though she does touch on some of the latter.) I will stop there for now because this is already dominating to much of this review as I worry failure to explain myself is going to be used as ammo against her or me- which I do not want.

Overall, this book is a great memoir and essay collection that creates many bridges with science writing. It starts many valuable conversations that I hope people will be brave enough to explore in their own lives and laboratories. I think that Chanda Prescod-Weinstein took many big risks in putting this book out there and in her public discussion of struggles with oppression in STEM fields. For that she should be commended. The book is also well written and interesting in general, so I can't recommend it enough.

This was also posted to my goodreads.

Book Review: Ornitherapy

Image: The cover of the book has the background of an orange and red sunset. The landscape in black is silhouetted close to the bottom with the sky taking up the rest of the page. A large sun sits close to the bottom, cut through with clouds. In the foreground are illustrated/copy-pasted silhouettes of a flying hummingbird, a flying swallow, and a perched kingfisher on a small twig cutting through the center. On the left side is a large lighthouse silhouette with the title of the book sideways in large white letters. Below that in small white letters is "changing your heart mind soul." In the bottom right corner are the names of the authors.
 

Ornitherapy is a creative and interesting text with the goal of combining self-help style psychology, meditation, and birding into practice. Holly Merker, who is the author of most of the book, briefly discusses at the end of the text how being a breast cancer survivor led her to seeing birding as medicine. She even used her hair lost in treatment as donated nesting material for birds- a really cool way to turn a struggle into a form of participation with nature and other species.

The book is hardcover with high quality, thick paper. The first half is the book, practices, and images on high gloss and the second half is for the reader's participation and journaling on appropriate matte paper. Thus, it works as both an informative book and a workbook.

Something that stands out with this book is the great appreciation for "common" birds and a strong desire to make the practices in the book accessible to people regardless of whether or not they can afford expensive equipment and fancy vacations. She teaches the reader how to meditate on birds one may find in their yard if they have one or walking down a city street. I have page flags on quite a few practices I plan to implement next time I am out birding. The journaling section also has examples at the top of the authors contributions which I found very interesting and had not seen before. I think that's a great idea to help the reader get the ball rolling.

Some species of birds are featured specifically, most all of them common birds the reader is more likely to encounter. My absolute favorite section was on scavenger birds such as vultures. Anyone who knows me knows that scavenger animals hold a very special place in my heart (and tattooed on my arm.) Merker refers to them as the "MVPs" of the bird world, appreciating how critical they are for the ecosystem and pathogen control. She also discusses the importance and beauty in the "ugly" features of vultures like their bald heads. It's not often that I see appreciation for vultures and pigeons in these ways. I really appreciated that.

There was some language I could do without such as regularly referring to birds as "it." This is very common in discussions of birding unfortunately. But, in the case of this book where the reader is encouraged to connect in such intimate ways with birds, I wish they were referred to with different pronouns than one would use with a toaster. The reader is also asked what bird is their "spirit animal" which is also a very common thing for people to say in the sphere of appreciating animals, but has been criticized for how its use has harmed indigenous people. This only happens once, so please don't take this paragraph to mean that this book is full of harmful language. 

The only thing I really did not like about this book was how most of the images were tampered with. I am sure the designer meant well, and perhaps it's a taste issue for me, but it really downgraded the book. I don't know what inspired the design choices, but the photoshopping was not only distracting, it went counter to everything taught in the texts and meditations of the book. I thought that while reading the book, the images would be sort of a meditation in and of themselves. But, all that most of them did was frustrate and irritate me. There would be a beautiful landscape sunset with a flock of birds and the designer would then copy/paste some other birds crammed together that don't fit the image or the setting. There are many instances where the way the images were designed are ways in which one would never see birds in the wild. Meditations on viewing birds in the sky are accompanied by images of 20+ birds copy/pasted into a 3 foot section of the sky that would never be there in those numbers. An image of a single common house sparrow in flight would have been more engaging. Sometimes the same bird is copy/pasted right next to another copy. I noticed a marked difference when I was reading a page with a gorgeous close up image of bird feathers or a gorgeous landscape with a single bird in their natural habitat. There were even images that already included a ton of birds, and still, more birds from another image were pasted on top of them. I was constantly wondering what the original images looked like as they all looked gorgeous underneath it all. The poor design choices made me think of why harmful and exploitative facilities like zoos and animal circuses exist- humans want to see everyone packed together for entertainment, not in their natural habitats. The text in this book is the absolute opposite of that- teaching us how to appreciate every moment in nature. So, there's just a huge clash here.

Even though I was distracted by the graphic design sometimes, this book was still very enjoyable and informative. Birding has truly changed my life and I definitely consider it to be medicine and a critical part of my healthcare. I love the idea of combining an appreciation for birds with exercises outside of merely trying to identify or "collect" as many sightings as we can (though that can be fun, too!) I will be implementing these skills for sure and anticipate much richer and more mindful experiences to come. I recommend this book to pretty much anyone who could use a break from many of our tech heavy lives as well as anyone generally interested in birding- new and veteran alike. This book opens the door for people who don't know where to start and encourages the experienced to stop and appreciate all of the birds who we have become accustomed to.

This was also posted to my goodreads.