Michael Pollan is a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine as well as a contributing editor at Harper’s magazine. He is the author of two prizewinning books: Second Nature: A Gardener’s Education and A Place of My Own: The Education of an Amateur Builder. Pollan lives in Connecticut with his wife and son.
In The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan argues that the answer lies at the heart of the intimately reciprocal relationship between people and plants. In telling the stories of four familiar plant species that are deeply woven into the fabric of our lives, Pollan illustrates how they evolved to satisfy humankinds’s most basic yearnings — and by doing so made themselves indispensable. For, just as we’ve benefited from these plants, the plants, in the grand co-evolutionary scheme that Pollan evokes so brilliantly, have done well by us. The sweetness of apples, for example, induced the early Americans to spread the species, giving the tree a whole new continent in which to blossom. So who is really domesticating whom?
Weaving fascinating anecdotes and accessible science into gorgeous prose, Pollan takes us on an absorbing journey that will change the way we think about our place in nature.
Amazon.com's Best of 2001
Working in his garden one day, Michael Pollan hit pay dirt in the form of an idea: do plants, he wondered, use humans as much as we use them? While the question is not entirely original, the way Pollan examines this complex coevolution by looking at the natural world from the perspective of plants is unique. The result is a fascinating and engaging look at the true nature of domestication.
In making his point, Pollan focuses on the relationship between humans and four specific plants: apples, tulips, marijuana, and potatoes. He uses the history of John Chapman (Johnny Appleseed) to illustrate how both the apple's sweetness and its role in the production of alcoholic cider made it appealing to settlers moving west, thus greatly expanding the plant's range. He also explains how human manipulation of the plant has weakened it, so that "modern apples require more pesticide than any other food crop." The tulipomania of 17th-century Holland is a backdrop for his examination of the role the tulip's beauty played in wildly influencing human behavior to both the benefit and detriment of the plant (the markings that made the tulip so attractive to the Dutch were actually caused by a virus). His excellent discussion of the potato combines a history of the plant with a prime example of how biotechnology is changing our relationship to nature. As part of his research, Pollan visited the Monsanto company headquarters and planted some of their NewLeaf brand potatoes in his gardenseeds that had been genetically engineered to produce their own insecticide. Though they worked as advertised, he made some startling discoveries, primarily that the NewLeaf plants themselves are registered as a pesticide by the EPA and that federal law prohibits anyone from reaping more than one crop per seed packet. And in a interesting aside, he explains how a global desire for consistently perfect French fries contributes to both damaging monoculture and the genetic engineering necessary to support it.
Pollan has read widely on the subject and elegantly combines literary, historical, philosophical, and scientific references with engaging anecdotes, giving readers much to ponder while weeding their gardens. Shawn Carkonen
發表於2024-11-04
The Botany of Desire 2024 pdf epub mobi 電子書 下載
作者波倫行傢記者齣身,文字優美、意境迷人,他打破幾韆年來醞釀齣來的西方人本主義思想,試著從自然的角度,迴看人與自然的關係。 於是,他就有瞭迷人的發現,原來那些百變的蘋果之所以一變再變,不是人在主宰,而是植物利用瞭人類,達成它們把自己的基因繁殖最大化的理想。 ...
評分先看這樣一段話:“安德魯韋爾把大麻描繪為一種‘活躍的安慰劑’,他認為大麻本身並沒有創造而是觸發瞭那種我們確定為‘高潮’的精神狀態。這同樣的精神狀態,如果減去由麻醉品自身所帶來的‘生理學上的喧鬧’外,也能夠由其他的方式來觸發,比如冥思或者是有氧運動。” 我...
評分 評分一 我超愛麥當勞的薯條:晶瑩剔透,散發著迷人的香味,往嘴裏輕輕一嚼……人生於是完滿瞭。這就是柏拉圖式的薯條啊,完美的藝術品! 懷著愛屋及烏的心情,我把目光轉嚮瞭美國的愛達荷州,這裏盛産馬鈴薯,每年嚮麥當勞提供成韆上萬噸優質的伯班剋馬鈴薯(Burbank Potato)。由...
評分書是很有意思,但是翻譯得太可怕瞭,編輯也不把把關。 如第一部分關於蘋果的,蘋果可以做成酒,……黃油!!你見過蘋果作的黃油嗎??肯定是 BUTTER, 這裏是果醬。爛糊糊的都可以叫做BUTTER。就算編輯不懂英文,這種毛病還是看得齣的吧。 另外很多句子看得齣王毅很努力瞭,也想...
圖書標籤: 植物 科普 自然 botany 美國 哲學 植物之書 food
睡不著覺的話用來催眠,可是真正閱讀進去,思維會被撞擊到,尤其是蘋果那一章。
評分長知識
評分講瞭四種植物:蘋果鬱金香大麻和土豆,可惜內容和書名不是很相符。土豆一章很震撼,有關GMO。
評分I just can't emphasize enough how important and wonderful this book is. For anyone who eats food (which is pretty much everyone), this is a must read.
評分寫的挺囉嗦的,而且是文學式囉嗦,不像槍炮玫瑰是學術式囉嗦。內容不是很切題,有點標題黨,更多的是人類對於植物的欲望。
The Botany of Desire 2024 pdf epub mobi 電子書 下載