The Mushroom at the End of the World
On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins
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The Mushroom at the End of the World
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Narrated by:
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Susan Ericksen
About this listen
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 areas far beyond just mushrooms and addresses a crucial question: what manages to live in the ruins we have made?
A tale of diversity within our damaged landscapes, The Mushroom at the End of the World follows one of the strangest commodity chains of our times to explore the unexpected corners of capitalism. Here, we witness the varied and peculiar worlds of matsutake commerce: the worlds of Japanese gourmets, capitalist traders, Hmong jungle fighters, industrial forests, Yi Chinese goat herders, Finnish nature guides, and more. These companions also lead us into fungal ecologies and forest histories to better understand the promise of cohabitation in a time of massive human destruction.
©2015 Princeton University Press (P)2017 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
What listeners say about The Mushroom at the End of the World
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 07-09-19
phenomenal
great in every aspect- very enlightening and wholesome. interspecies survival in capitalist precarity explored though layering of chapters and different aspects amd points of view
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- maggie
- 26-07-19
The Mushroom at the End of the World
A compelling multi-species account of themes around mushroom picking, with a strong development of themes of procerity and personhood under neoliberalism and the new forms of scholarly formulations endorses by people like Haraway. Totally banging book.
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5 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- c huntbach
- 19-12-19
A beautiful, rich and fascinating book.
A great 'read" and extremely well researched. Full of complex and brilliant ideas. I'm ready to start it all over again.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- eileen boyle
- 26-04-23
Terrific
Using the subject of mushrooms this book and author encouraged us to look at capitalism in a different, more manageable way. I welcome this challenge in a time of doom and gloom on the one hand and avoidance on the other.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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- Jim W
- 12-06-20
Too much waffle
I gave up on this book. I really wanted to like it, and there are some interesting facts. But the author has interspersed these with so much unsubstantiated opinion and chatter that by the time she is talking about something cool again I’ve drifted off. Shame, because the idea interested me
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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- Susan M. Strickland
- 10-02-23
What a waste of my time
Once I start a book I will finish it. Unfortunately, because some books are better left unfinished. This book does not offer interesting or useful information. It rather takes you on a long, neverending and boring exploration of all things around Matsutake mushrooms. And it feels like it covers everything but the mushroom itself. There is some information on the mushroom. Something like 2% of the book can be credited as interesting info. The rest is pointless conjectures.
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1 person found this helpful