Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation: The Definitive Guide to the Evolutionary Biology of Sex

By Olivia Judson

Book Overview

A sex guide for all living things and a hilarious natural history in the form of letters to and answers from the preeminent sexpert in all creation. Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation is a unique guidebook to sex. It reveals, for example, when necrophilia is acceptable and who should commit bestiality with whom. It discloses the best time to have a sex change, how to have a virgin birth, and when to eat your lover. It also advises on more mundane matters - such as male pregnancy and the joys of a detachable penis. Entertaining, funny, and marvelously illuminating, the book comprises letters from all creatures worried about their bizarre sex lives to the wise Dr. Tatiana, the only sex columnist in creation with a prodigious knowledge of evolutionary biology. Fusing natural history with advice to the lovelorn, blending wit and rigor, she is able to reassure her anxious correspondents that although the acts they describe might sound appalling and unnatural, they are all perfectly normal - so long as youare not a human. In the process, she explains the science behind it all, from Darwin's theory of sexual selection to why sexual reproduction exists at all. Applying human standards to the natural world, in the end she reveals the wonders of both.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0805063315
• ISBN13: 9780805063318
• Release Date: August 2002
• Publisher: Metropolitan Books
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.07 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.7" x 1.2" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Great Sex Education and Therapy - In One Single Dose !

Whether the reader is a newcomer or season ticket holder with regards the comparative sex behaviour literature, this volume will surely prove itself to be both tremendously entertaining and educational. Judson?s novel ?agony aunt? Q & A style of presentation makes for a clearly accessible text for a wide audience of all ages and levels of understanding. This is a great way to impart much of the bewildering array of comparative morphology and associated knowledge concerning the rich diversity of sexual behaviour across a broad swathe of species. This book will surely attract many from the younger generation to the study of evolutionary and comparative biology/psychology. Many of us will wish that we had written this one! Not only do we read here about the birds and the bees?, mammalian phyla are well represented throughout the 13 chapters. The full tour includes gender differences (as well as similarities) and the how?s and why?s of the sex that might take place between them, whether that be in (serial) monogamy, polygyny, polyandry, or even parthenogenetic circumstances. The implications of each section for our better understanding of human sexual behaviours (both normal and abnormal) are rarely explicit, and for the most part (possibly intentionally so), are presented rather tongue-in-cheek. This is not a failing of the work, however. There is ample material here to occupy the lateral-thinking reader in this regard.Although this book makes for a terrific vacation or conference-trip read whilst in transit, it also has much of seriousness to offer the student of comparative psychology, sociology, anthropology, zoology or medicine. For those wishing to cut to the chase with the primary literature concerning particular issues, over 20 pages of extensively referenced notes are provided. Although by no means dealing extensively with theoretical issues in the aetiology of particular sex behaviours, we do meet (albeit briefly) with Darwin, Fisher, Hamilton, Bateman, Muller and Wallace. The notes cover every "Dear Dr. Tatiana..." Q & A presented in the book, and could well form the basis of core tutorial reading and/or stimulation for small group discussions.A welcome volume for the shelf at home as much as for the academic library, unless you?re comfortable with the public at large thinking that you?re undergoing sex therapy counseling, be sure to carry it in a brown paper bag when moving between the two!

Entertaining Romp Through the Animal Sexual Battleground

We live in a very kinky world. Promiscuity, genitalia issues and sexual insecurities are severe problems that affect most of the planet's creatures. Thank goodness for sex columnist Dr.Tatiana. Informed and confidential she eases many a worried soul from nymphomaniac stick insects to homosexual manatees. Unfortunately she doesn't seem too interested in helping humans, perhaps because sexually we are very boring creatures. Dr.Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation by Olivia Judson is a fascinating and entertaining romp through the sexual battleground of animals, big and small, simple and complex. You will laugh out loud, shake your head and be thoroughly absorbed at the incredible sexual antics described, explained and prescribed. Through her advice to the lovelorn writing to her in desperation on such troubling issues as necrophilia, sex changes and male pregnancy, Dr. Tatiana enlightens us on the evolutionary biology of sex in an often humorous, always interesting and never tedious manner. Olivia Judson has created a real winner with Dr.Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation. It is an impressively researched, enjoyable and very original read and afterwards you'll breathe a sigh of relief for being merely a dull human.

A VERY Distorted Mirror. A Mirror Nonetheless.

This extraordinary book can be read at many levels: humor, sexology, general science, evolutionary biology, and it is amazingly successful in all its various layers; some of the information it imparts is so fantastic that it will strain one's sense of reality. Can a mammal be born through the clitoris of the mother? UH?? Well, YES, it can. The spotted hyena delivers its pups through her clitoris (leading to the frequent mortality of the pups or the hyena moms). Read all about it.Or consider the well known fate of the male praying mantis, whose head keeps his sexual urges in check until this organ is devoured by the amorous female: the the male's sexual inhibitory mechanisms (residing in the head) are removed, and he becomes a veritable sexual athlete while in the throes of death. Adds Dr. Judson: "Something analogous even happens in humans: Throttle a man and like as not he'll get an erection, not from erotic pleasure in dying, but because 'Down, boy' signals from the brain stop coming."The variety of sexual behavior among the critters that populate planet earth is so extraordinary that after reading this book it will be unlikely that the extremely narrow band of sexual "deviance" among humans will have much of an impact on the reader. Sexual bondage? Pschaw! Consider the sagebrush cricket(Cyphoderis strepitans), who carries a gin trap with open jaws on his back. Those teeth clamp on the female's belly when she approaches the male (the female preference is to be on top) and immobilizes her so that the male can have his way, whether she wants to or not. Incest, cannibalism, rape, masturbation, homosexuality, they all flower in incredible variety among the users of this planet.The book is written with scientific seriousness and literary humor. Its author has the steady hand of those who dominate their field, and at the same time she displays the joy and impudence of someone who loves the theme of sexual behavior. A good index and plenty of citations round out the excellence of this work. This is a book to keep as a reference for those protracted arguments about sexuality in which humans so often engage.

Dr. Ruth meets Steven Jay Gould meets Gary Larson

What an amazing world! This book is filled with some of the strangest behavior I have ever read about. The book would still be an excellent read if it limited itself to fascinating examples of very odd animal & insect reproduction rituals. However, Judson uses these examples to examine the forces of evolutionary biology, and the result is a lucid tour across the scientific terrain. I particularly enjoyed the many examples of bizarre and seemingly paradoxical animal behavior, that only make sense in the broader context of evolution. As the title suggests, the book is a bit racy in places. The persona of Dr. Tatiana is charming, a witty Victorian scholar who has surely acquired experience with a number of gentlemen. Dr. Tatiana is a mix of Dr. Ruth, Steven Jay Gould and Gary Larson. Like the other reviewers, I couldn't put this book down. It's a great read!

Thoroughly Fascinating, it was hard to put down!

Unable to read through the book in one setting, I found myself desperately trying to find ways to get back to it as soon as possible. Who would have thought that you could take the subject of sexual reproduction and evolutionary biology and made it into such a thoroughly entertaining read? The author chose an advice column format with letters supposedly from crickets, stick bugs, stickleback fish and dozens of other creatures asking advice about their sexual situation. Needless to say most of it is fascinating and highly unnatural - for a human that is, but perfectly normal for them. Some of the situations she describes are so bizarre as to be beyond what one would expect from even the best science-fiction writers.Olivia Judson is to be applauded for writing an educational book that is so thoroughly entertaining that it does not seem like you are actually being taught in the process. But you will learn and you will walk away with a completely different view of nature and reproduction. I was so thoroughly fascinated with the book that all I can say at this point is "Encore, encore".