To that last end, I found the chapter on Johnny Appleseed very enlightening as well as highly entertaining. I've wanted to read this book ever since it came out, but, so far, I've been pretty deeply disappointed by it. Gave it as a gift on a couple of occasions after I read it. Okay, okay, books by Michael Pollan are clearly a fad right now, but I have bought into it whole-heartedly. 2 questions answered. just as a warning, the below is not really about the book by pollan at all (which is great, btw! He was the American Dionysus.”, “...People who smoked cannabis were Other, and the cannabis they smoked threatened to let their Otherness loose in the land.”, “It seems that by the time the singular beauty of a flower in bloom can no longer pierce the veil of black or obsessive thoughts in a person's mind, that mind's connection to the sensual world has grown dangerously frayed.”, “Banality depends on memory, as do irony and abstraction and boredom, three other defenses the educated mind deploys against experience so that it can get through the day without being continually, exhaustingly astonished.”, “He points out that mystics have always worked systematically to modify their brain chemistry, whether through fasting, self-flagellation, sleeplessness, hypnotic movement, or chanting. You might not think the story of a plant would be very compelling, but as our Plaza Branch Barista’s Book Club learned, Pollan intrigues readers through careful management of historical facts, research, and personal anecdotes. Okay, okay, books by Michael Pollan are clearly a fad right now, but I have bought into it whole-heartedly. Readers’ questions about The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World. We don’t merely imagine that the placebo antidepressant is working to lift our sadness or worry—the brain is actually producing extra serotonin in response to the mental prompt of swallowing a pill containing nothing but sugar and belief. the potato chapter was great, the marijuana chapter irritating, the tulip chapter needlessly verbose (but full of some of the book's best trivia), the apple chapter...quixotic. The Botany of Desire. The number “four” is also operative in “The Botany of Desire,” which was published in 2002. The chapters on the apple, tulip, and potato offer cautionary evidence on the danger of destroying diversity in the name of commerce. 2This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. It is the story of four plants: apples, tulips, cannabis and potatoes. Working under the rational sign of Apollo, he domesticated their forbidden Dionysian knowledge, turning the pagan potions into healing tinctures, bottling the magic plants and calling them medicines.”, “Queen of Night is as close to black as a flower gets, though in fact it is a dark and glossy maroonish purple. I loved the former, thought the latter was thin and a resaying of what he'd already said. Packed with food-related history, trivia and stories, Michael Pollan attempts to explain how four types of plants have had such a large effect on humanity. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author… 51 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more – everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan. But we’ll get to the argument bit in a minute. Of course Pollan realizes that intent cannot be ascribed to the plant. In East Asian cultures – according to my increasingly Japanese daughters – the number four brings bad luck. Their potion recipes called for such things as datura, opium poppies, belladona, hashish, fly-agaric mushrooms (Amanita muscaria), and the skin of toads (which can contain DMT, a powerful hallucinogen). (119)”. In The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan argues that the answer lies at the heart of the intimately reciprocal relationship between people and plants. Reflecting the theme of the title, there are four human desires that are associated with these plants: sweetness, beauty, … That’s why he was so popular. Pollan represents one of my favorite types of writers: modern polymaths who can bring scientific, historic and literary knowledge to bear on whatever they're writing about. In Michael Pollan’s The Botany of Desire, we get four stories: the histories of apples, tulips, marijuana, and potatoes. Their potion recipes called for such things as datura, opium poppies, belladona, hashish, fly-agaric mushrooms (Amanita muscaria), and the skin of toads (which can contain DMT, a powerful hallucinogen). In place of every fourth flower a candle, its wick trimmed to tulip height, was set into the ground. But forgetting is also one of the more important things healthy brains do, almost as important as remembering. For it is only by forgetting that we ever really drop the thread of time and approach the experience of living in the present moment, so elusive in ordinary hours. Pollan is sometimes whimsical ... he writes in a way that is like no other author. April 3, 2013 DoingDewey Uncategorized 4 Title: The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s Eye View of the World Author: Michael Pollan Source: library Rating: ★★★★★ Fun Fact: A tulip grown from seed doesn’t flower for 7 years! The book that helped make Michael Pollan, the New York Times bestselling author of How to Change Your Mind, Cooked and The Omnivore’s Dilemma, one of the most trusted food experts in America Every schoolchild learns about the mutually beneficial dance of honeybees and flowers: The bee collects nectar and pollen to make honey and, in the process, spreads the flowers’ genes far and wide. I took many a too-long lunch break because I was so hooked. ), but is mostly some really juvenile hatin' on thoreau. Four common plants and I didn't know they each held such a rich history. Too much navel-gazing and not enough substance. This may be my favorite Pollan book of all time. Boy, was I wrong! At the same time the viruses, bacteria, fungi, and insects keep very much at it, reproducing sexually and continuing to evolve until eventually they hit on the precise genetic combination that allows them to overcome whatever resistance the apples may have once possessed. Hell, that's what the author's introduction led me to expect, too. The section on tulips as a flower embodying Apollo and Dionysus and about the apple were just brilliant. I see the world in a new way. Well, I was kind of familiar with marijuana's development (not from personal toking, honest Asian, but from being surrounded by tokers - hey, it was Oregon) and that it was completely villified in the "just say no" era of drug awareness education. It's the smell of fresh soil in the spring, but fresh soil somehow distilled or improved upon, as if that wild, primordial scene has been refined and bottled: “Yes, forgetting can be a curse, especially as we age. Pollan's The Botany of Desire is by far one of the best books I have ever read, and it is one of those books that has changed my world view for the better. Tulips whose petals had flexed wide were held shut with fine threads hand-tied. it's all grotesquely bucolic, and the lack of any synthesis at the end left me underwhelmed. Sometimes called the “Father of Medicine,” Paracelsus established a legitimate pharmacology largely on the basis of the ingredients found in flying ointments. To see what your friends thought of this book, Pollan is sometimes whimsical ... he writes in a way that is like no other author. See all 4 questions about The Botany of Desire…, Popsugar 2020 - A Book by or about a Journalist, Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation, The Botany of Desire / Michael Pollan. Or does beauty have a purpose? “Sooner or later your fingers close on that one moist-cold spud that the spade has accidentally sliced clean through, shining wetly white and giving off the most unearthly of earthly aromas. Johnny Appleseed’s efforts were to the overwhelming advantage of apple genetic proliferation, and the science of mass potato farming means more seeds are planted every year. ), to only eat organic food, and to find out the story and origin of every morsel of food I put in my body. In. The number “four” is also operative in “The Botany of Desire,” which was published in 2002. GWEN IFILL: The book is “The Botany of Desire: A plant’s-eye view of the world.” In it, author Michael Pollan explores human impulse and its connection to the life of plants””our desire for the apple’s sweetness, the tulip’s beauty, the intoxication of marijuana and our desire to control nature by producing the perfect genetically modifiedMore » A brief but compelling history of four plants whose genetic destiny has been markedly altered by man – the apple, the tulip, cannabis, and the potato. The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World is a 2001 nonfiction book by journalist Michael Pollan. The tulip, beauty; marijuana, intoxication; the apple, sweetness; and the potato, control. How could flowers, of all things, become such objects of desire that they can drive men to financial ruin? Dratted industry and their shipping lives, ap. (Among his many accomplishments was the invention of laudanum, the tincture of opium that was perhaps the most important drug in the pharmacopoeia until the twentieth century.) this was like NPR in printed form, and felt intended to be read in that medium. He is very emotional and at the same time very scientific and logical, that is not a common group of traits in my opinion. Free download or read online The Botany of Desire: A Plants-Eye View of the World pdf (ePUB) book. Pollan's The Botany of Desire is by far one of the best books I have ever read, and it is one of those books that has changed my world view for the better. The book that helped make Michael Pollan, the New York Times bestselling author of Cooked and The Omnivore’s Dilemma, one of the most trusted food experts in America In 1637, one Dutchman paid as much for a single tulip bulb as the going price of a … Vitamin deficiencies wreak havoc on brain function and probably explain a large portion of visionary experiences in the past.”, “Johnny Appleseed was bringing the gift of alcohol to the frontier. Refresh and try again. Error rating book. At the appointed moment a cannon sounded, the doors to the harem were flung open, and the sultan's mistresses stepped into the garden led by eunuchs bearing torches. The premise was a good one, but Pollan's writing style drove me up the wall. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of, Published He masterfully links four fundamental human desires, sweetness, beauty, intoxication, and control, with the plants that satisfy them: the apple, the tulip, marijuana, and the potato. He is very emotional and at the same time very scientific and logic. In The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan argues that the answer lies at the heart of the intimately reciprocal relationship between people and plants. His prose is unrivaled, and he draws readers into his narrative with seamless ease. He is very emotional and at the same time very scientific and logical, that is not a common group of traits in my opinion. what? We’d love your help. He is an amazing, amazing writer: he makes me want to plant a garden, to tour his garden (his bedroom? How could flowers, of all things, become such objects of desire that they can drive men to financial ruin? Reflecting the theme of the title, there are four human desires that are associated with these plants: sweetness, beauty, … (“Hard” cider is a twentieth-century term, redundant before then since virtually all cider was hard until modern refrigeration allowed people to keep sweet cider sweet. The book that helped make Michael Pollan, the New York Times bestselling author of Cooked and The Omnivore’s Dilemma, one of the most trusted food experts in AmericaIn 1637, one Dutchman paid as much for a single tulip bulb as the going price of a town house in Amsterdam. The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World by Michael Pollan introduces the possibility to the reader that plants are using insects, animals and humans to ensure their own survival. I love books that open my eyes, teach me something, and even go so far as to re-educate me on the fallacies foisted upon me by ill-informed elementary school teachers. he was . The science. I knew nothing much about botany and have never been particularly interested in that branch of science, but this book was a very easy read and I found it extremely fascinating. We study botany because plants have a lot of information to share with us. Wherever the apple tree goes, its offspring propose so many different variations on what it means to be an apple—at least five per apple, several thousand per tree—that a couple of these novelties are almost bound to have whatever qualities it takes to prosper in the tree’s adopted home.”, “In the wild a plant and its pests are continually coevolving, in a dance of resistance and conquest that can have no ultimate victor. Songbirds in gilded cages supplied the music, and hundreds of giant tortoises carrying candles on their backs lumbered through the gardens, further illuminating the display. Its helps account for the sharpening of sensory perceptions, for the aura of profundity in which cannabis bathes the most ordinary insights, and, perhaps most important of all, for the sense that time has slowed or even stopped. ), to only eat organic food, and to find out the story and origin of every morsel of food I put in my body. Instead, he lets you get what he is saying while at the same time telling an engaging, well-researched story. Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Chapter 1 Desire: Sweetness Plant: The Apple (Malus domestica) If you happened to find yourself on the banks of the Ohio River on a particular afternoon in the spring of 1806--somewhere just to the north of Wheeling, West Virginia, say--you would probably have noticed a … About The Botany of Desire. Its hue is so dark, however, that it appears to draw more light into itself than it reflects, a kind of floral black hole. the botany of desire a plants eye view of the world Nov 20, 2020 Posted By Corín Tellado Publishing “For it is only by forgetting that we ever really drop the thread of time and approach the experience of living in the present moment, so elusive in ordinary hours.”, “Witches and sorcerers cultivated plants with the power to "cast spells" -- in our vocabulary, "psychoactive" plants. what? Wow! I called it quits when he started analogizing Johnny Appleseed and Dionysius. Johnny Appleseed’s efforts were to the overwhelming advantage of apple genetic proliferation, and the science of mass potato farming means more seeds are planted every year. The plants were too precious to banish from human society, so in the decades after Pope Innocent’s fiat against witchcraft, cannabis, opium, belladonna, and the rest were simply transferred from the realm of sorcery to medicine, thanks largely to the work of a sixteenth-century Swiss alchemist and physician named Paracelsus. by Random House, The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World. These ingredients would be combined in a hempseed-oil-based "flying ointment" that the witches would then administer vaginally using a special dildo. Chef, writer, and cookbook author Samin Nosrat's first book Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking not only... Every schoolchild learns about the mutually beneficial dance of honeybees and flowers: The bee collects nectar and pollen to make honey and, in the process, spreads the flowers’ genes far and wide. These are merely the standard tools available to the plant for survival and procreation. Pollan’s argument is that, though we see domestication as a strictly top-down, subject-to-object process, there really may also be some co-evolutionary force at work. Each variety was marked with a label made from silver filigree. I knew nothing much about botany and have never been particularly interested in that branch of science, but this book was a very easy read and I found it extremely fascinating. 0307967. often a process of mutation is involved in the creation of a new meme, in much the same way that mutations in natural environment can lead to useful new genetic traits.”, “The bubble logic driving tulipomania has since acquired a name: “the greater fool theory.” Although by any conventional measure it is folly to pay thousands for a tulip bulb (or for that matter an Internet stock), as long as there is an even greater fool out there willing to pay even more, doing so is the most logical thing in the world.”, “Curiously, growing Papaver somniferum in America is legal—unless, that is, it is done in the knowledge that you are growing a drug, when, rather magically, the exact same physical act becomes the felony of “manufacturing a controlled substance.” Evidently the Old Testament and the criminal code both make a connection between forbidden plants and knowledge.”, “Human cultures vary widely in the plants they use to gratify the desire for a change of mind, but all cultures (save the Eskimo) sanction at least one such plant and, just as invariably, strenuously forbid certain others. Written by Prof. Michael Pollan, the book further explores how humans, being manipulated … Pollan takes his readers on an odyssey through the natural histories of four plants that have been important to the course of human history, and relates them to a certain form of desire that he believes to be inherent in each and every person. It is the story of four plants: apples, tulips, cannabis and potatoes. This was another museum book club pick from our Minneapolis Institute of Art; while I like Michael Pollan it's unlikely I would have otherwise read this fascinating book. The Botany of Desire Michael Pollan, Author, Scott Brick, Read by, read by Scott Brick. Find books like The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World from the world’s largest community of readers. I read this a few days after "The Omnivore's Dilemma", and began it the day after picking up "In Defense of Food". In The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan argues that the answer lies at the heart of the intimately reciprocal relationship between people and plants. This book was a beautiful book, though not the tome that O.D was, it's beautifully written. And what might our ancient attraction for flowers have to teach us about the deeper mysteries of beauty - what one poet has called "this grace wholly gratuitous"? The Botany Of Desire summary shows you that we might not control plants as much as they control us, using the apple and cannabis as examples. Well, I was kind of familiar with marijuana's development (not from personal toking, honest Asian, but from being surrounded by tokers - hey, it was Oregon) and that it was completely villified in the "just say no" era of drug awareness education. )”, “Darwin called such a process artificial, as opposed to natural, selection, but from the flower’s point of view, this is a distinction without a difference: individual plants in which a trait desired by either bees or Turks occurred wound up with more offspring.”, “This is no small thing. An interesting book about the symbiosis between all living organism and how Charles Darwin's evolutionary theory of natural selection is happening. Indeed, I would venture that, more than any other single quality, it is the relentless moment-by-moment forgetting, this draining of the pool of sense impression almost as quickly as it fills, that gives the experience of consciousness under marijuana its peculiar texture. It's so beautifully written and full of wonder at the plant world. But we’l. In the garden, depending on the the angle of the sun, the blossoms of a Queen of Night may read as positive or negative space, as flowers or shadows of a flower.”, “There is another word for this extremist noticing—this sense of first sight unencumbered by knowingness, by the already-been-theres and seen-thats of the adult mind—and that word, of course, is wonder.”, “cultural change occurs whenever a new meme is introduced and catches on. The altered perspective displays the multiple props of genetic diversity — color, shape, size, fragrance, taste and robustness — offered to seduce the gardener's favors. . But coevolution ceases in an orchard of grafted trees, since they are genetically identical from generation to generation. Or agenda-driven his narrative with seamless ease apples, tulips, cannabis ( pleasure ), cannabis and potatoes with! 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