You say this like Ellman was responsible for making the book famous. Take issue with critics and the literary establishment, not Ducks. I think the book is mediocre and flat, failing where The Pale King's fragments succeeded over a decade ago, but she definitely tapped into something that some group of people found valuable, and you can't call that an unmitigated failure of her alone.

I believe that fungus by the way makes colonies near the brain and muscles, so the ant stays cognisant (as cognisant as an ant) the entire time. The brain is fine and can only watch the body kill itself.