The mushroom at the end of the world

What Hacker News says

1. vanderZwanSep 2023
   For another really interesting take on human/fungus interaction from an anthropological perspective, I highly recommend "The Mushroom at the End of the World"

   [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mushroom_at_the_End_of_t...

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2. roughlyFeb 2023
   There's a fantastic book about the entire natural, social, and economic ecosystem around Matsutake foraging - "The Mushroom at the End of the World" - https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780691220550
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3. culiFeb 2023
   Highly recommend Anna Tsing's The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins which does a deep dive into this world
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4. RodericDayDec 2018
   "The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins" by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing

   https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25510906-the-mushroom-at...

   It's all about how in Japan there's this tradition of gifting (and never purchasing for oneself) matsutake, as a way of showing appreciation. However, this tradition grew alongside deforestation.

   Japan has done a pretty good job conserving forests, but this strange mushroom they like so much only grows in deforested forests out of skinny pines, so now it has to be imported from Oregon, Finland, and China.

   The author embeds herself a bit with Laotian refugees that do mushroom hunting in Oregon, and describes the various interesting ways these communities operate. Auctions, forest hunting, how kids get started, etc.

   And then she explains how these two intensely social and human concepts (the gift giving and the harvesting) are connected via an impersonal cynical international supply chain that commodifies everything.

   Beautiful book tbh.

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