Slither

A spellbinding scientific and cultural study of snakes, the fascination and fear they inspire, and how surprising new science is indelibly changing our perception of these stunning and frightening creatures.

For millennia, depictions of snakes as alternatively beautiful and menacing creatures have appeared in religious texts, mythology, poetry, and beyond. From the foundational deities of ancient Egypt to the reactions of squeamish schoolchildren today, it is a historically commonplace belief that snakes are devious, dangerous, and even evil. But where there is hatred and fear, there is also fascination and reverence. How is it that creatures so despised and sinister, so foreign of movement and ostensibly devoid of sociality and emotion, have fired the imaginations of poets, prophets, and painters across time and cultures? 

In SLITHER, science writer Stephen S. Hall presents a naturalistic, cultural, ecological, and scientific meditation on these loathed yet magnetic creatures. In each chapter, he explores a biological aspect of The Snake, such as their cold blooded metabolism and venomous nature, alongside their mythology, artistic depictions, and cultural veneration. In doing so, he explores not only what neurologically triggers our wary fascination with these limbless creatures, but also how the current generation of snake scientists is using cutting-edge technologies to discover new truths about these evolutionarily ancient creatures—truths that may ultimately affect and enhance human health.

• "The story of snakes and people is long and sinuous, rich with beauty and fascination, looping by way of Ophites, D.H. Lawrence, the mathematics of slithering, and Edward O. Wilson. Stephen Hall’s telling of that story is wise and wondrous. Both I and the beloved python with whom I share my office, Boots, applaud it wholeheartedly."
   
  David Quammen, award-winning author of Breathless
• "SLITHER is Ssssssimply Ssssssssssssssssplendid! If you are not already a fan of stunning, sinuous, super-powered serpents, this glorious book will help you come to your senses!  Stephen Hall's deep and tender love for snakes radiates from every incandescent page. Prepare to be enchanted."
  Sy Montgomery, New York Times bestselling author of The Soul of an Octopus
• “In Slither, Stephen Hall delivers both a compendium of new ways to consider one of our most feared and loathed creatures as well as an insightful meditation on our long social history with them. Each beautifully researched chapter unfolds as a new investigation of their sheer otherness. What emerges is a surprising look at the ways that the lives of human and snake lives have long been intertwined. In the end, this surprising book, shows us just how much we might learn from snakes if we dropped some of our (primate) habits of ophidiophobia, stopped loathing and killing them, and as this book helps us do, looked with fresh eyes at this extraordinary creature.”
   
  Leila Philip, New York Times bestselling author of Beaverland
• "Steve Hall writes with erudition but he also knows how to show his readers a good time. No matter how you feel about snakes, you are going to love this fun and fascinating book."
  Dan Fagin, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Toms River
• PRAISE FOR INVISIBLE FRONTIERS
  
  "An important and pioneering book."
  New York Times Book Review
• "A splendid piece of science writing."
  Washington Post Book World
• PRAISE FOR WISDOM
  
  “A comprehensive and thought-provoking book that examines the difficult topic of wisdom in a fair—even wise—manner.”
  Science News
• “Stephen Hall is not just a terrific science writer, he’s a terrific writer, period.”
  Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma
• “Utterly engaging. . . . Hall’s work as a translator and intermediary between the humanities and the hard neurosciences is in itself a feat of extraordinary mental balance and understanding.”
  The Post and Courier