The Mushroom at the End of the World

On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins

By: Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing

Narrated by: Susan Ericksen

Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's Summary

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 Tantor

An interesting book full of great ideas but lacking clarity.

I appreciated the work of the author. If someone is interested in the boundaries between mushroom foragers and entrepreneurship as it relates to capitalism and the natural world, this is an excellent read.

I struggled however with obtuse vocabulary and meandering stories. The latter seemed an intentional mirroring of the sporadic growth of mushrooms, but the overly indulgent vocab lacked clarity.

so much to tell about a mushroom

First of all I should say that this kind of anthropological, ethnographic combined with biological, environmental research is quite new to me.
Tsing takes you through the complete value chain of the Matsutake mushroom and uncovers as far as I can remember two kinds of stories about capitalism that are intertwined.

The mushroom was a delicacy in Japan because it was so rare and only grows in certain pine forests. However, due to human intervention in the forests of Oregon, the mushroom started to flourish. This is where southeast Asian migrants (war refugees) started to make a living from this mushroom, picking them on common land and selling them in the 'open ticket' market in Vancouver. This is what she calls 'salvage accumulation', whereby common resources are turned into private profits.

At the same time she tries to take these scenarios as examples for living in precarity. She goes into great detail in how the mushroom is foraged and traded and what the customs and beliefs of the migrant as well as the white pickers and sellers are. She draws parallels in between the mushroom itself and how it only grows in a ravaged landscape and how people (could) live. She analyses how the mushroom makes its journey from spore to fruiting body of the mycelium, picked and sold, until once it's on its way in a crate it has become a 'full capitalist commodity', whereafter it becomes entwined again in cultural practices of giving and ceremony and the non-capitalist values that encompasses.

Because her book branches out into so many detailed accounts of these different aspects of the mushroom, it's sometimes hard to keep track of the point she's trying to make. I started listening not knowing what I would hear exactly and perhaps a sort of map, chart or legend (book summary) would have helped. It's only after finishing that I start to see the web and links that she has been spinning.
The narrator does a really good job and takes you into the story. I did however, start listening at 1.3 times the speed to keep myself more engaged.

Captivating and mind-opening

I'm a fan of Tsing's work, and while I prefer Frictions for academic purposes, this is a magnificent book conveying and developing her work in a way that's easy to follow, and therefore great at as audio-book. I highly recommend it!

my favorite book ever

Capitalism, mushrooms, geopolitical history, human behavior. I couldn't ask for a better book. it is very entertaining and educational.

Had to make her talk faster

It’s a heavy text book, but with the slow reading, I couldn’t see the big picture and the concept Tsing was highlighting. As for the writing itself, I wish she would go in depth more with technogical terms, and stop saying “i imagine”- redundancies...?maybe just my taste...? Yet, I don’t mind rereading and listening to this again though. Super interesting topic.

tears apart capitalism. no nature

was hoping to learn a bit about mushrooms, not hear about how bad my political system is

About capitalism?

This book is mostly about fungus and forests and forest management and the people who pick the mushrooms. It is an interesting description of those things, particularly if they interest you. The book presents commentary and insight on certain aspects of capitalism but does not provide real insight on a post-capitalist world that can sustain 7 billion people.

Tsing is brilliant

As in other ethnographies I've read, there were a few parts that were a little too drawn out for me, but Tsing's writing made even those pretty good.

Ericksen's narration was as lively as Tsing's prose, and she pronounced with ease the names in various languages. It was a pleasure to listen to. love that books like these are made available as audiobooks. Thanks, Tantor Media!

saTOyaMA

Once again I wish Audible would make sure narrators can pronounce at least one of the languages they’re going to be reading names and loan words in. I don’t speak any of the southeast Asian languages that many of the names of the subjects in this book come from, but the narrator’s Japanese pronunciation was painful enough I had to give up.

Rich, inspiring and highly relevant.

Tsing does an incredible job plucking grounded stories from the matsutake trade and considering them in the light of some of the most disconcerting questions I face about survival in the ruins of capitalism. I found myself constantly stopping to take notes in everything from mycology to philosophy to the structure of storytelling.

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.

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

THINKING WITHOUT A BOX

So it is never-ending and withou t boundaries. A journey full of surprising branches. Just love it. Thanks.

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.

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.

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.

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