A World for Butterflies and The Spirit of Butterflies

Reviewed by Kurt Johnson

A World for Butterflies: Their Lives, Habitats and Future
Phillip J. Schappert
Firefly Books, 2000
320 pp.
ISBN 1552095509

The Spirit of Butterflies: Myth, Magic, and Art
Maraleen Manos-Jones
Harry N Abrams, 2000
144 pp.
ISBN 0810941155

The ethical view that the natural world has inherent value which should imbue in mankind a sensitivity to its protection and preservation gains recognition in these two books. Schappert's "World..." portrays the dazzling beauty of butterflies and their multifaceted place in nature; Manos-Jones' "Spirit..." elaborates these alluring creatures' symbolic heritage for mankind-- beginning with fertility and transcendence but ranging to much much more. The pages of both books paint butterflies with implications that go far beyond their beauty. Both texts leave the reader thinking deeply about beauty-- its meaning as well as its fragility.

Schappert, an entomologist at the University of Texas and editor of the News of the international Lepidopterists' Society, and Manos-Jones, an artist and environmentalist as well (associated with the Monarch Butterfly-saving Michoacan Reforestation Fund in Mexico) bring rich backgrounds and formal expertise to their subjects. They have both done excellent research.

Dr. Schappert's book, A World for Butterflies, extends its title as both statement and question. After elaborating, with intricacy, what butterflies are and their incredible variety in kind, adaptation and habitat worldwide, Schappert then asks whether our planet's rapidly decaying ecosystems will much longer be able to sustain them. His colorful book, with over 300 well-chosen photographs and diagrams, serves well both as a primer on biological science (using butterflies as the teaching tool) and an eloquent plea for environmental stewardship-- with butterflies cast as a potential "flagship"-victim of man's often blind irresponsibility and overall lack of vision.

Schappert's text carries the reader easily through a panoply of well-digested subjects, including basic butterfly classification and distribution, accounts of their lives, behavior and reproduction, and case studies of worldwide conservation dilemmas. The book serves many audiences well. The lay reader is not lost, by any means, and the book is also one of the best teaching tools available for young readers who may develop serious interests in environmental or taxonomic science.

After solidly grounding the reader in basic science, Schappert moves on to elaborate the variety of butterflies worldwide-- a mesmerizing display of kinds, colors, and adaptations including intricate phenomena like protective camouflage, object resemblance, mimicry, and chemical communication. He then exposes his readers to some "high-end" topics, like continental drift, island biogeography, forest refuge theory, and population biology. Again, the lay reader is never left behind.

The masterful design of the book culminates in the asking of serious questions about conservation and extinction. Indeed, by the time the reader has reached the end of this book, the very idea of threatening these beautiful and intricate creatures may make him just "damned angry." And, for the justly angry, Schappert then offers a host of good advice concerning what the individual citizen can actually do to help make sure that butterflies continue to survive.

Ms. Manos-Jones' book The Spirit of Butterflies follows well on Schappert's "World..." because her subject is to explain why butterflies have been so historically significant to mankind. There has been a real need for a book that would tell this vast story all in one place. Manos-Jones takes up the question with gusto-- the human species appears to have been fascinated by butterfly's beauty and transcendent life cycle from early on.

Although wrapped in a production design that might betray it as a "coffee-table" book, "Spirit..." immediately belies this notion and stands out as a serious treatment of its subject. Exceeding the breadth of book title, Manos-Jones actually treats the cultural significance of butterflies throughout history. It is a story larger than most readers imagine.

Butterflies not only have been, for millennia, cultural symbols of hope, rebirth, transformation and transcendence, their motif has invaded a startling array of cultural niches, many we might not at first not summon up. A partial list, to whet the appetite, includes sacred symbols (from mandalas, mystic dancing, and tarot cards to birth, wedding and funeral paraphernalia), inculcations of magic (from demigods and fairies to teleporting spirits), decorative art (from pottery, kites, costumes, masks and tattoos to crystal, furniture, lamps, jewelry, fabric, and the colorful if not sometimes twisted world of modern advertising). Throughout discussions of these topics, accompanied by many resplendent (and often exotic) illustrations, Ms. Manos-Jones never loses sight of her central thread- the symbolic nature of butterflies as transcendent creatures.

"Spirit..." then goes on to depict famous people associated with butterflies, some of the most familiar being lepidopterists of the Russian aristocracy, Andrey Avinoff, Nicholas Shoumatoff and, of course, the most well known, Vladimir Nabokov - now also a superstar in the world of literature. But Manos-Jones also pulls out some less obvious, but equally fascinating, examples of writers and painters who also prominently inculcated butterflies into their creations. These include writers Walt Whitman and Herman Hesse, painters Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, and Andy Warhol, and William Blake who more-than-dabbled in both media. It is the sheer variety of this subject matter, tightly woven around the subject of butterflies and transcendence, that makes this book so engrossing.

Finally, taking up her environmentalist cloak, Manos-Jones concludes by examining the modern, conservation-friendly, pursuits of butterfly watching, butterfly gardening and today's popular live-butterfly houses and conservatories. In a summary note she comments "The effects of a butterfly's wing can be felt around the world" and this brings us back squarely to Schappert's title.

These two books help us understand butterflies in light of science and conservation on one hand, human spirituality on the other, and how these two seemingly very different aspects of human existence are both intertwined not only in man's destiny but the fate creatures man threatens direly by his own expansion and "success". It is indeed this last enigma that sums up the ethical message in these two books.

One might depict the heart of these books quite simply-- by harkening back to a now-famous line from the "Cowboy movies", perhaps best inculcated in the voice of John Wayne, stepping out into the street and announcing, with plenty of swagger on behalf of mankind, "There's not room enough in this town for both of us". It is a simple challenge but precisely the question that arises for man and the butterflies portrayed in A World for Butterflies and The Spirit of Butterflies. It is imperative that room be made for all.

Kurt Johnson, Environment Affairs, The Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture.
Co-author of Nabokov's Blues: The Scientific Odyssey of a Literary Genius (Zoland Books, 1999; McGraw-Hill Professional Books, 2001)

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