The Emperor's Embrace
Reflections on Animal Families and Fatherhood
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson's "marvelous" (Jane Goodall) New York Times bestseller, When Elephants Weep, made us re-evaluate the emotional lives of animals. And in his follow-up New York Times bestseller, Dogs Never Lie About Love, Masson reflected with "intelligence and originality" (Los Angeles Times Sunday Book Review) on the emotional world of dogs. Now, in The Emperor's Embrace, Masson offers a remarkable look at one of the most fulfilling roles in the animal world: fatherhood.
With fascinating insight, impeccable research, and captivating writing, controversial psychoanalyst Jeffrey Masson, a new father himself, introduces us to the world's best dads. He takes us to such places as Antarctica, as he explores how emperor penguin fathers incubate the eggs of their young by carrying them around on their feet for two months, nestled beneath a special brood pouch. And he tells us how, once the babies hatch, the fathers snuggle the babies on their feet until the mother returns from her time at sea, feeding them a special milk-like substance until her arrival. Masson, a superb storyteller, showcases the extraordinary behavior of outstanding fathers, heroes among animals, including:
*the wolf -- and why wolves make good fathers and dogs don't
*the beaver, who encourages his young to cling to his tail as he navigates through ponds
*the sea horse, the only male animal that gives birth to its young
*the marmoset, the South American monkey who carries his babies for the first two years of their lives wherever he goes.
Masson also examines nature's worst fathers: lions, langurs, bears -- and humans. He shows that when a father does care for his young, as with the beaver, we immediately look for a biological and not an emotional explanation. But Masson demonstrates that for these animals, as with humans, fatherhood is a profound, all-encompassing experience.
Groundbreaking, compelling, inspirational, Masson's unique look at one of nature's most venerable institutions takes us to animal habitats around the world, yet always returns to the heart. For animal lovers, fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters everywhere, The Emperor's Embrace is a book that will forever change our perceptions of parenthood and family love.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Why do wolves make better dads than dogs, and what can they teach us about our own fathers and sons? Following up on his earlier bestsellers (When Elephants Weep; Dogs Never Lie About Love), Masson investigates the varied, sometimes inspiring roles of male parents across the animal kingdom, summarizing published research on (among others) penguins, lions, bears, prairie dogs, orcas, gray whales, frogs and sheep. Most of the book consists of such natural histories, many of them memorable. Male emperor penguins may huddle together for warmth through the bulk of the Antarctic winter, unable to eat, each balancing a single egg on its feet to prevent it from freezing on the ice. Tiny marmoset dads carry their children all day while their mothers forage for food. Like Diane Ackerman, Masson writes natural history in the tradition of a humanist, not a working scientist. Though he invokes such trailblazing ethologists (animal behavior experts) as Niko Tinbergen, Masson differs from most professionals in insisting, even assuming, that all animals have emotions comparable to humans: "is it not possible," he asks, "that even a fish can develop affection for another fish... ?" Wise readers will bypass such insistences, or treat the wildest as metaphors, and then absorb the well-told array of stories about (mostly) admirable animals. Scientifically literate perusers may get distracted by minor mistakes ("neoteny" doesn't mean what Masson thinks it means; street pigeons aren't descended from passenger pigeons). But the same readers may enjoy watching Masson's evidence crush would-be sociobiologists' ideas of intrinsic, cross-species meanings of maleness. If penguins, wolves and pairs of male black swans routinely make involved and coequal fathers, deadbeat dads seem to have little excuse to blame their genes.