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The Naked Man by Desmond Morris (view source)
Revision as of 08:46, 11 May 2018
, 08:46, 11 May 2018no edit summary
In addition to ''The Naked Man'' I have a copy of Desmond Morris' most famous book, ''The Naked Ape'' in front of me. That one cost 65p in 1977 and the contrast between the two is phenomenal. This new book is bigger, arguably better, and most importantly looks brilliant on a coffee table with its glossy pages, full colour photographs and hot piece of naked eye candy on the front. I know you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but its hard not to when it looks like this.
I'd not actually read ''The Naked Ape'' before I got this new one, but when I realised there was a whole series going on ( [[''The Naked Woman]] '' came out in paperback a few years ago) I did wonder whether these two new ones were just a re-hashing of the old, neatly split up to make a book for each sex. They're not, though, because while ''The Naked Ape'' concentrated on origins and rituals for the species as a whole, the new titles are much more body specific.
''The Naked Man'' starts at the top and works down, literally. Each chapter takes a different part of the body - ears, eyes, neck, shoulders, right down to legs and then feet - and looks in detail at how these parts have evolved in the human male, and the cultural, biological and sociological reasons behind little oddities such as moustache clubs and the ubiquitous question of why men have nipples.