Bagworms and Spiders and Other Essays

A cluster of bagworms hangs from a maple outside a window. Removing them reveals a hidden drama of predation, and the observer begins to question his own intervention. In another essay, a pair of grass shears opens a world of insects, childhood discoveries, and reflections on cruelty and civilization.

Bagworms and Spiders and Other Essays gathers four complete works by Terada Torahiko. Forecasting Natural Phenomena asks what scientific predictions can mean, why uncertainty persists, and how a forecast useful to a government may seem vague to an individual. Its examples range from falling pencils and crystallizing solutions to weather maps and earthquakes.

Self-Portrait follows an amateur painter through five attempts to paint his own face. Reflections in mirrors, shifting likenesses, remembered ancestors, and the unruly behavior of paint lead him toward questions about identity and the nature of representation.