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bluestarfish 's review for:
The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins
by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing
Anna Lowenhaupt Tsingis an anthropologist part of the Matsutake Worlds Research Group and uses the matsutake mushroom to explore many topics. She also uses the non-linear and relational nature of the mushroom as a template for communicating her work. It's an admirable task that she's set herself, and I found it sparking many thoughts in my head due to the sometimes unexpected angles that the chapters went off in.
There's some fascinating ethnographic work with matsutake pickers in Oregon as well as tracing the trail of the mushroom from Japan to all over the world through supply chains and other interesting entanglements. What is it that a mushroom can teach us about our relentless quest for growth? This is very readable for writing by an academic, and I found it enlightening, entertaining, and challenging.
Also, as per usual, anyone quoting the magnificent UKLG gets bonus points:
"My intent is not reactionary, nor even conservative, but simply subversive. It seems that the Utopian imagination is trapped, like capitalism and industrialism and the human population, in a one-way future consisting only of growth. All I’m trying to do is figure how to put a pig on the tracks."
There's some fascinating ethnographic work with matsutake pickers in Oregon as well as tracing the trail of the mushroom from Japan to all over the world through supply chains and other interesting entanglements. What is it that a mushroom can teach us about our relentless quest for growth? This is very readable for writing by an academic, and I found it enlightening, entertaining, and challenging.
Also, as per usual, anyone quoting the magnificent UKLG gets bonus points:
"My intent is not reactionary, nor even conservative, but simply subversive. It seems that the Utopian imagination is trapped, like capitalism and industrialism and the human population, in a one-way future consisting only of growth. All I’m trying to do is figure how to put a pig on the tracks."