"Sapiens": One page at a time

I’ve been co-teaching a course for several years in which we read Sapiens. I think I’ve read it eight times, now. That explains the gumband holding it together. The heavy waxy pages are separating from the spine. Whether I’ll teach the course again is currently a mystery but, if I do, Sapiens won’t be part of it, which means that I can finally air my thoughts about the book here on The Mermaid’s Tale. 

In the photos to come, you’ll see that the pages are defiled with moody and often contradictory commentary. Despite this book igniting lots of writerly feelings, I stayed mostly quiet in public. Though the odds would be so low that my students would see any of it, I didn’t want to impose my thinking on them. But now that I’m done teaching with this book, I can spew my thinking all over the internet without a care in the world. There are about eight years of it inside of me, but with this newfound freedom to blow, I choose to ooze rather than erupt.

My plan is to review Sapiens one page at a time, over as many posts as I want. I’m not promising anyone or myself that I’ll get through the entire book. The further into the book Harari goes, the further away from my areas of expertise we get. But we’ll not cross any bridges when we get to them. For now, let’s just begin at the beginning…

Page 1

Part One

The Cognitive Revolution

Harari’s caption of this stenciled hand in Chauvet Cave from some 30,000 years ago reads, “Somebody tried to say, ‘I was here!’” 

And, okay. Maybe, sure. Why not. But that’s, like, well, you know, that’s just like, uh, your opinion, man. An assertion based purely on imagination is an interesting way to start a history book.  I could think of a lot of other things it could have meant to somebody, and I also cannot think of them, given I’m not a human-handed person 30,000 years ago any more than I am my mother and she makes pictures all the time and they always mean something and it’s not always what I’d guess, that’s for sure. Whew.

Of course I’m not offended by the caption. It’s not offensive, and it’s fun. C’mon, have a little fun Holly! This is your thing! You love human evolution! 

But it’s also setting a tone or an expectation right off the bat, isn’t it? Maybe it’s meant to be meta? Like, maybe it’s meant to enact the amazing human imagination that he’s about to exalt and lament throughout the entire book? Maybe I’m in on the joke, then. But, what if I’m not. Or, what if there is no joke. 

Maybe we’ll find out. Maybe we won’t. See you next time on page 3. Lots of facts to check right off the bat and a big claim, as well, about there being three revolutions in human evolutionary history and history: cognitive, agricultural and scientific.

To be continued…