Weirdness of Water
The author combines the literary tool of imagery with the rhetorical tool of paradox to illustrate how water is a strange element for humans. Water is "formless and transparent, and yet we long to be beside it. It has no taste and yet we love the taste of it." This use of imagery describes the literal reality of water's properties in a way that is not just paradoxical, but deeply ironic. The author then uses imagery to point out the ultimate irony in human society: we travel great distances to frolic on beaches even though we know the mortal threat bodies of water pose to us.
Cellular Nation
Much of the book is devoted to the history of things we cannot even see that are absolutely vital to all life. "Your cells are a country of ten thousand trillion citizens...They let you feel pleasure and form thoughts. They enable you to stand and stretch and caper...keep your hair growing, your ears waxed, your brain quietly purring." It is the use of imagery here that brings the significance of this vast nation of cells to tangibility. The visuals of stretching and capering are combined with the tactile presentation of growing hair and waxy ears and the cat-like sound attributed to thinking.
Climate Change
The outlook for the long-term climate future of the planet has wavered between the onset of a new ice age and the devastation of global warming. "Only one thing is certain: we live on a knife edge." Over the expanse of geological time, the earth has experienced both extremes, and both events have resulted in catastrophic mass extinction. Humans are the first creatures to know it is happening and the imagery of living on the edge of a blade conveys the dangerous point the species is experiencing as it makes often unwise decisions that could hasten global warming or global freezing.
Chanel No. 5
Chanel No. 5 is almost synonymous with fragrances. It was long held as the gold standard for the average person who wanted to really splurge on themselves. "Indigestible parts of giant squid, in particular their beaks, accumulate in sperm whales’ stomachs into the substance known as ambergris" so that Chanel No. 5 is equitable with "dousing yourself in distillate of unseen sea monster." The imagery used to describe where this highly valued fragrance originates is surprising and, perhaps, disgusting, but hardly unique within the wild world of nature.
