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The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins
by
Matsutake is the most valuable mushroom in the world--and a weed that grows in human-disturbed forests across the northern hemisphere. Through its ability to nurture trees, matsutake helps forests to grow in daunting places. It is also an edible delicacy in Japan, where it sometimes commands astronomical prices. In all its contradictions, matsutake offers insights into are
...more
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Hardcover, 331 pages
Published
September 29th 2015
by Princeton University Press
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Start your review of The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins
Feb 04, 2016
Joshua Buhs
rated it
really liked it
Recommends it for:
fans of Eisenberg, "Ecology of Eden."
Recommended to Joshua by:
University of Chicago Press FB
Coulda been great: it's an experiment that failed, or, maybe, never needed to be taken in the first place.
At its most fundamental, Tsing's book is an ethnography of those people involved in the trade of the matsutake mushroom. Valued in Japan, the mushroom has become scarce there; now there are attempts to bring it back to the archipelago at the same time it is being harvested in Finland, Russia, and the Pacific Northwest--where much of the book is centered--and where the work is done by an unex ...more
At its most fundamental, Tsing's book is an ethnography of those people involved in the trade of the matsutake mushroom. Valued in Japan, the mushroom has become scarce there; now there are attempts to bring it back to the archipelago at the same time it is being harvested in Finland, Russia, and the Pacific Northwest--where much of the book is centered--and where the work is done by an unex ...more
Do you ever have one of those evenings where you're listening in on a really erudite, engaging conversation? A conversation among smart people where everyone is totally into the subject, and in discussing it bring each other to all kinds of new insights and connections among widely disparate things?
Have you ever overhead that kind of conversation and thought to yourself, "Wow. That sounds like a really interesting set of people. Talking to each other in a really animated way about something tha ...more
Have you ever overhead that kind of conversation and thought to yourself, "Wow. That sounds like a really interesting set of people. Talking to each other in a really animated way about something tha ...more
This book is hot garbage. It’s one of the worst and most pointless books I’ve ever read.
Tsing, an anthropologist, has attempted to write about some ill-defined phase of post-capitalism while apparently knowing next to nothing about capitalism. “Salvage capitalism,” as she tries to use that term, turns out to be just . . . capitalism.
Again and again, Tsing writes tautologically about the most basic and banal capitalist subjects as if she is Captain Cook discovering Hawaii.
This book seems to be ...more
Tsing, an anthropologist, has attempted to write about some ill-defined phase of post-capitalism while apparently knowing next to nothing about capitalism. “Salvage capitalism,” as she tries to use that term, turns out to be just . . . capitalism.
Again and again, Tsing writes tautologically about the most basic and banal capitalist subjects as if she is Captain Cook discovering Hawaii.
This book seems to be ...more
honestly ending this book with an excerpt from ursula le guin is some king shit
I had high expectations of this book but I think the the title is misleading - Tsing doesn't really explore the possibility of life in or after capitalist ruins - at least not in a way that feels very politically generative for me. The anthropology of people and mushrooms is fascinating though, but overall the book is a bit let down by Tsing's Panglossian characterisations of precarity as freedom and also her lack of engagement in Marxian political economy and also permaculture. But maybe this i
...more
I can't believe I finished this book which had like 100 pp of forest ecology but that's what a pandemic does, give you lots of time and desperation for some kind of transformative hope-giving ideology!
Tsing explicitly states that her writing aims to be "patchy" rather than motivated by a central thesis, as she characterizes the systems she studies. What this actually taught me is that centralization and systematization are not inherently bad, in fact kind of necessary in writing... Otherwise you ...more
Tsing explicitly states that her writing aims to be "patchy" rather than motivated by a central thesis, as she characterizes the systems she studies. What this actually taught me is that centralization and systematization are not inherently bad, in fact kind of necessary in writing... Otherwise you ...more
What I liked most about this book was how grounded it is in biology and systems thinking. A background in biology is not required but if you have one, you are going to get so much more out the ideas.
It is the kind of book where I read a statement and it had to spin off to read the source. I became torn between following the cadence or a reference.
I think I’ll need to make my own glossary of concepts from this book and read it again.
It was the first book to reference A. D. M Rayner
Degrees Of Fre ...more
It is the kind of book where I read a statement and it had to spin off to read the source. I became torn between following the cadence or a reference.
I think I’ll need to make my own glossary of concepts from this book and read it again.
It was the first book to reference A. D. M Rayner
Degrees Of Fre ...more
You’ve seen this book before. It’s on the shelves of every contemporary art gallery, probably sitting somewhere near Hyperobjects. It’s in the window of every independent bookstore in the recently curated ‘nature’ section, tucked in next to Donna Harraway. Years pass and it’s still there, in fact it's been around for so long now that it's basically entered itself into the canon by virtue of its constant presence just about everywhere.
When my curiosity finally got the better of me and I actually ...more
When my curiosity finally got the better of me and I actually ...more
Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing writes:
Now it seems that all our lives are precarious – even when, for the moment, our pockets are lined. In contrast to the mid-twentieth century, when poets and philosophers of the global north felt caged by too much stability, now many of us, north and south, confront the condition of trouble without end.
And:
While I refuse to reduce either economy or ecology to the other, there is one connection between economy and environment that seems important to introduce up front: ...more
Now it seems that all our lives are precarious – even when, for the moment, our pockets are lined. In contrast to the mid-twentieth century, when poets and philosophers of the global north felt caged by too much stability, now many of us, north and south, confront the condition of trouble without end.
And:
While I refuse to reduce either economy or ecology to the other, there is one connection between economy and environment that seems important to introduce up front: ...more
this is definitely an academic, theory-heavy book, and I'd honestly be surprised if anyone with no background in (what I perceive to be) often-esoteric theory would have had the fortitude to finish the book.
as someone who hasn't read this kind of writing in a long long time, I'm definitely not really qualified to evaluate it as it's meant to be. that being said I'm not quite sure this title is reflective of its contents. there's not really a prescriptive argument for or even engagement with wha ...more
as someone who hasn't read this kind of writing in a long long time, I'm definitely not really qualified to evaluate it as it's meant to be. that being said I'm not quite sure this title is reflective of its contents. there's not really a prescriptive argument for or even engagement with wha ...more
This was one of the most though-provoking, unique and interesting books I read in 2018. It is evocatively written in a series of short chapters, “like the flushes of mushrooms that come up after a rain.” Not your typical academic publication!
The approach is a "practice of noticing," in which the small is examined in order to gain insights in the large. In this case, that means looking at the Matsutake mushroom trade as a lens or gateway into late and post-capitalist ruin. Since Heidegger, philo ...more
The approach is a "practice of noticing," in which the small is examined in order to gain insights in the large. In this case, that means looking at the Matsutake mushroom trade as a lens or gateway into late and post-capitalist ruin. Since Heidegger, philo ...more
Came across this book written by anthropologist Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing subtitled as hunting for mushrooms and the capitalist ruins :). it's an incredible book of anthropology about matsutake mushrooms which is world's most expensive mushroom. She tracks the communities of people often violently exiled, who are harvesting the mushroom in the northwest of United Sates and the different kinds of collaborations, commodity chains and affiliations that spring up. But even though it's about mushrooms, i
...more
I love to sink into the mind of Anna Tsing, because she knows her mind -- and her writing -- isn't 'hers.' It's a web of roots and rhizomes where all kinds of creatures are welcome.
As academic writing: this is such a good challenge to old epistemologies and ego-infused academies. This is playful, collaborative, and surprising. As Tsing writes: "Getting by without progress requires a good deal of feeling around with our hands."
As lyrical prose: some sentences made me grit my teeth.
As political s ...more
As academic writing: this is such a good challenge to old epistemologies and ego-infused academies. This is playful, collaborative, and surprising. As Tsing writes: "Getting by without progress requires a good deal of feeling around with our hands."
As lyrical prose: some sentences made me grit my teeth.
As political s ...more
I do not feel strongly about the content of this book but the sheer amount of research that went into it fills me with awe. To be honest I'm just glad I finally conquered the mountain and finished this book lmao I don't think I'll retain much but at the end of the day it was still lovely (although very, VERY thorough and thus extremely slow-moving) and I always love a good example of how all things are interconnected :)
...more
This book is continually fascinating, not just in the broad and impossibly entangled subjects it covers, but in the way it unfolds in rhythms, moving around the mushroom in ever-increasingly sized circles to reveal a web of interconnections in everything. Fuck Capitalism and fuck Boxes! Commodification is the trading of meaning for value, there's spores in the fuckin Stratosphere! Inevitably, covering so much eclectic ground, there are a few bits which grab my attention less BUT even though the
...more
This book is full of remarkable descriptions of the micro and macro, the individual and social--someone feeling the ground of the forest for traces of Matsutake, the energy of a mushroom auction, the byzantine links of transnational supply chains. Tsing's curiosity is infectious. I want to interview the local shoelace tying collective.
/
Look, this isn't revolutionary political philosophy, and I suspect some of the knocks on this book are because that's what folks want it to be. Its ethnographic a ...more
/
Look, this isn't revolutionary political philosophy, and I suspect some of the knocks on this book are because that's what folks want it to be. Its ethnographic a ...more
Really wanted to love this but it reads like a robot ingested a load of Goldsmiths social studies MA dissertations and regurgitated something soulless - will probably give it another try one day
Just a smidgen too academic for me at times, but otherwise an enthralling look at Matsutake mushrooms, the people who pick them and the ways in which they illuminate our economic, social and environmental systems. Tsing is an intellectual powerhouse, drawing surprising connections throughout.
This book is extraordinary and a joy to read.
Wowzer! What a book!
Jun 15, 2020
Sandy Plants
added it
I spent all day cutting trees down to make posts for a deer-fence I’m building. I thought about all the mycelium running below my feet and the infinite-seeming spores and pollen flowing and blowing around me. Scales of growth and decomposition and change and what a magical time and space to spend time in: gardening, listening, cutting, harvesting, sweating, slipping and hitting myself, sitting with the feelings, feeling all of the sensations, taking deep breaths... “Oh, there’s an owl in the dis
...more
A fascinating book that uses the matsutake mushroom as a way to talk about the environment, science, society, capitalism, and the place of humans in the world. Chapters are short and there are lots of notes and references. Highly recommended for anyone looking for a different angle of approach to some of the more pressing issues in the world today.
Oct 12, 2019
Richard Thompson
rated it
it was ok
Shelves:
biology-evolution,
sociology-and-anthropology
This book tries to be a lot of things at once. It is an anthropological description of the society of matsutake mushroom pickers, a story of possibly post-capitalist economics, a work about botany, ecology, forestry and micobiology, and a story of the interconnectedness of things. It uses the matsutake mushroom to tie all of these subjects together around a central theme of hopeful but precarious developments of nature and humanity in the wake of human disturbance of the natural environment. If
...more
One of the best books I've ever read. Profoundly grounded and nuanced. Not incredibly light fare, and it took me a little bit to get used to how Tsing communicates ideas, but I found her explorations of the complexities and connections which emerge from (and in spite of) disturbances-- whether human or otherwise-- and the thorough yet empathetic way she reframes all sorts of processes that I often don't notice, take for granted, or assume are objectively Negative to be incredibly compelling. I c
...more
Very thought provoking, especially around salvage economies as an alternative to capitalism, and where/how these systems are thriving. But to me it was overly academic and somewhat unfocused, jumping around in great detail between economics and ecology/mycology/biology. I am interested in both, but it made it harder for me to hold the train of thought of the arc of the book. The metaphoric ties she made between systems weren't conceptually mind-blowing enough to justify the lengthy emphases.
...more
Some parts of this book were a little above my pay grade but nevertheless, I immensely enjoyed this book about matsutake and it’s connections to the precarious world we live in. Much like the favorite non-fiction books I’ve consumed over the years, I hope to return to this jawn over and over, learning new things about existing through change and ruin each time.
INSPIRING!!!! WHAT MIGHT IT BE LIKE TO LET LOOSE AND BE AS CREATIVE AS YOU WANT TO BE IN ACADEMIA???????????? ********the caveat is that you need to have TOTAL UNEQUIVOCAL grasp of the field before you do so which I DEFINITELY don't have and therefore DO NOT feel qualified to write like this yet but maybe someday.................................
...more
How the biologies of mushrooms and forests, japanese supply chain management strategies, and different practices of "freedom" among southeast asians and whites in the pacific northwest all make matsutake mushroom trade possible. Anthropology of capitalism at its best. Beautiful prose too.
...more
one of the best books i've ever read about storytelling, noticing, edges, living-with, and picking all night with lights and Others
...more
I fell into the opening pages of this book in a Vermont cabin at the tail end what was probably the biggest shroom trip I’ll ever have in my life. It was the kind of wobbling that became in the end a cathartic heaving inside.
Aaron was reading this book and left it out for me to pick through. Its poetic softness seduced me just enough, as did it’s promises of a non traditional structure, as did Aaron, jamming out to his friends Levon’s music scarfing down the greenest ruffles sour cream and onio ...more
Aaron was reading this book and left it out for me to pick through. Its poetic softness seduced me just enough, as did it’s promises of a non traditional structure, as did Aaron, jamming out to his friends Levon’s music scarfing down the greenest ruffles sour cream and onio ...more
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“We are stuck with the problem of living despite economic and ecological ruination. Neither tales of progress nor of ruin tell us how to think about collaborative survival. It is time to pay attention to mushroom picking. Not that this will save us—but it might open our imaginations.”
—
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“To walk attentively through a forest, even a damaged one, is to be caught by the abundance of life: ancient and new; underfoot and reaching into the light. But how does one tell the life of the forest? We might begin by looking for drama and adventure beyond the activities of humans. Yet we are not used to reading stories without human heroes. This is the puzzle that informs this section of the book. Can I show landscape as the protagonist of an adventure in which humans are only one kind of participant? Over the past few decades many kinds of scholars have shown that allowing only human protagonists into our stories is not just ordinary human bias. It is a cultural agenda tied to dreams of progress through modernization. There are other ways of making worlds. Anthropologists have become interested, for example, in how substance hunters recognize other living beings as persons, that is protagonists of stories. Indeed, how could it be otherwise? Yet expectations of progress block this insight. Talking animals are for children and primitives. Their voices silent, we imagine wellbeing without them. We trample over them for our advancement. We forget that collaborative survival requires cross-species coordinations. To enlarge what is possible we need other kinds of stories, including adventures of landscapes.”
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