Honors Book Review: Wild Trees #2

1. The author’s credibility and background

Do you think this author has the authority or experience to speak about this issue?

What are the author's credentials? What might bias the author's argument?

“Humans are the only primates that do not spend time in trees. All other primates’ are arboreal or partially arboreal creatures. They live and move in the canopy forest…

Humans are the only primates I know of that have an inborn fear of heights. Other primates, when frighten, instinctively run up a tree, where they feel safe and at home.  Hominids who felt insecure in trees, more afraid of heights, and perhaps more willing (in their behavior) to move out across the open ground have a better chance of surviving and producing offspring. Open ground would have seemed as terrifying to many primates as heights do to humans.”

Chapter: Rumors of a Lost Continent. Wild Trees By: Richard Preston, Page 50.

Background:

Richard Preston is writing this book as Michael Taylor hikes his way around the redwoods of northern California.

Commentary:

            I believe Richard Preston has the experience to talk about this subject. Richard Preston was writing this book at the same time Michael Taylor was on his quest to find the tallest tree. Preston has took it upon himself to learn how to climb the redwoods before he wrote the book to give an accurate detail account on what goes through the mind of a climber while climbing the massive redwoods. He took this experience and climbed the tallest tree on Earth, Hyperion. He climbed this tree to build a since of life in his characters. Preston has also visited the Redwoods; because of this he is able to paint the picture of what it is like to see towering redwoods for the first time. I have personally visited the trees and I got the same vibe reading the account as I did when I saw it in person. 

            Preston took his first hand experience of exploring the redwoods and climbing Hyperion to build a perfect description of what it is like to be in Northern California and seeing the trees for yourself. He is able to build a vivid account on what it is alike to climb 300 feet tall tree. Preston has been able to cause the reader to have a gut wrenching while reading the book. He is able to portray what it is like watching your best friend and brother free climb a 300 foot tall tree with no harness. He is able to cause the reader a sense of panic and helplessness.

Preston graduated from Princeton with a Ph.D in English, writing his dissertation on nineteenth-century American narrative nonfiction writing. He also graduated from Pomona with a summa cum laude.

Preston’s stories might be biased because he is a eco-friendly, Because of this he might paint a negative picture of logging. But I do not believe that his stories are biased because he as immersed himself within the environment and has written first hand accounts of what eh saw.