I've read plenty of amazing science pieces where the writers don't hang out in labs. I just have fun doing it. And I get rewarded for it; I get gushy, especially when kids tell me they expected to be bored by my books, but weren't.
Mary RoachRead
I think by and large, humans prefer to think of themselves as minds from the neck up. We don't really like to think of ourselves as another animal, another digesting, excreting, mating, snoring, sleeping kind of sack of guts. I don't think we like that. I think we'd rather not be reminded of it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Humans often prefer to see themselves as intellectual beings rather than as physical animals with basic biological functions.
In this quote, Mary Roach reflects on the human tendency to distance themselves from their physical nature and biological needs. She suggests that people often prefer to identify with their intellect and thoughts rather than acknowledging their animalistic and corporeal realities, which can be uncomfortable and unappealing to confront. This insight highlights the complexity of human self-perception and the inner conflict between mind and body.
Themes
Human NatureIdentityMind And BodySelf-Perception
In practice
Example use cases
In a philosophical debate about the nature of consciousness.
More from Mary Roach
All quotes →Follow your instincts. Do the kind of writing you love to do and do best. 'Stiff' was an oddball book - I mean, a funny book about cadavers? - and I worried that it would be too unconventional. In the end, that's what has made it a success, I think.
Mary RoachRead
I don't fear death so much as I fear its prologues: loneliness, decrepitude, pain, debilitation, depression, senility. After a few years of those, I imagine death presents like a holiday at the beach.
Mary RoachRead
I'm drawn to the taboos that surround the human body. I find it fascinating that we are repelled by many of the acts and processes that keep us alive.
Mary RoachRead
I began thinking about my skeleton, this solid, beautiful thing inside me that I would never see.
Mary RoachRead
I walk up and down the rows. The heads look like rubber halloween masks. They also look like human heads, but my brain has no precedent for human heads on tables or in roasting pans or anywhere other than on top of a human bodies, and so I think it has chosen to interpret the sight in a more comforting manner. - Here we are at the rubber mask factory. Look at the nice men and woman working on the masks.
Mary RoachRead
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