Tuesday 27 March 2012


Universal intoxication




Pollan M. The botany of desire. New York, NY: Random House, Inc.; 2001. 113-178p.

Terms of interest
Pyrrhic (p115): A metrical foot of two short or unaccented syllables
Animism (p125): Belief in the existence of a spiritual world, and of soul or spirit apart from matter; spiritualism as opposed to materialism
Panacea (p140): A remedy, cure, or medicine reputed to cure all diseases
Entheogen (p144): A psychoactive substance used for the purpose of inducing a mystical or spiritual experience
Banality (p168): Anything trite or trivial; a commonplace
Definition source: http://www.oed.com

Elementary school having just come to an end, summer on the horizon never looked so beautiful. I was aware that many other children slept on the idea of freedom, and woke charged at thoughts summers’ unaccountability. I was not one of these children. My father was on his way to pick my brother, a select friend, and myself up for the start of our tradition-like camping adventure.  Some of the fondest memories I have as child. Although I never made the connection at such an age, I remember the ever so particular focus upon my fathers’ eyes the day he picked us up. It was a look I was particular accustomed to on many of our big adventures. It was a look of exuberance. My father was high. To this day I have met few people so in love with nature, addicted to its mystery and beauty - Intoxicated.  By no means am I saying that I am for or against drugs, or that my father is some kind of “special” example that will change whatever opinion you have on the matter. I just know that I grew up knowing of many associations between plants and people that not every kid did.  As I grew up, and was completely aware of the many emerging realities woven into my adolescent years I had never been aware of, I was always safe. I was never in danger of becoming a “pot head”.  To be honest I never even thought of it as something kids did, I had no interest. It wasn’t until high school, as somewhat of a late bloomer, that I finally became tempted by what Micheal Pollan, calls “human desires”, in his book The Botany of Desire. With loving and caring parents, even when I learned of drugs in school, I never once viewed anyone in my life, which may have smoked marijuana, any different. Maybe some children could have been disappointed in their parents with their newly found, all knowing, opinions, but not me. I was too busy living a wondrous and lively childhood. Something I never could have experienced without a Father to encourage me to “stop looking at the lines in front of the vehicle while we drive”. I may have wasted many years learning to try and take in, and appreciate, the world we live in if it hadn’t been for him. No father is perfect but a father that loves his children is a good one.  I believe this is what Pollan is getting at in his chapter on Cannabis (marijuana). When you have an opinion independent of your government things may seem a little skewed.

The culture of North America likely has a distorted perception of marijuana. Our culture, what so many believe, is a reason to be against the use of marijuana. What we see now only represents a fraction of the history people have surrounding marijuana, it has been engrained in our past for thousands of years. One of the most interesting things about this fraction of history is that, as Pollan says on pg. 129, “For modern prohibition against marijuana led directly to a revolution in both genetics and the culture of the plant. It stands as one of the richer ironies of the drug war that the creation of a powerful new taboo against marijuana led directly to the creation of a powerful new plant”. The idea of a species adapting, and converging in synchrony to one another seems almost poetic, when ignoring the reality behind why such a movement may have occurred. I found it particularly strange, however marijuana and people converged to present day, that marijuana does not affect our spinal cords. A deleterious effect produced by an affected spinal cord would have been difficult to select for with people having a fondness for its sinsimella. Although it could have happened, it almost seems as if the plant made some kind of judgement call, “choosing” to work with us and not against us. The idea, however, is not that surprising after all Pollan describes, on pg. 139, a universal want to alters one’s experience of consciousness. How interesting it is to think that marijuana is rooted in the human desire for pleasure.

Although I found the entire read very enjoyable, on pg. 41, when Pollan describes transparent drugs, drugs that “leave the users space-time coordinates untouched”, I was exceptionally interested. I really began to understand that many of these alkaloid-based intoxicants were only dangerous at large doses. I realized that, aside from cultural associations, maybe all that distinguishes between drugs such as caffeine and cocaine are the relative dosages at which they are ingested. Despite being no less than oversimplification,  I began to wonder what effect cocaine would have on society if 0.05 of a gram was in every large cup of coffee getting pumped out of the worlds coffee corporations. Despite being an unconventional thought, and just a little bit ridiculous, I honestly don’t think coffee drinkers would act a whole lot different. We have all achieved that feeling of well-being from a morning coffee a size too big.

Anyway, amongst the beautiful comparison of memes to genes and light jabs at religion, I more than enjoyed the read. I loved that Pollan was able to make me reevaluate the very foundations of which our culture, and government, currently has built on drugs. I think that it would do everyone a little good to read Pollans chapter on marijuana.  


Sunday 18 March 2012


Nature’s pharmacy




Nabhan G. Gathering the desert. Arizona, AZ: University of Arizona Press; 2-19p.
Photo source: http://www.denimandtweed.com/2008_01_01_archive.html

Plant: Creosote bush (Larrea tridentate)

Not everything is, as it seems. Deserts may be limited to quantity, but not quality, of biodiversity. Gary Nabham, in “The Cresosote Bush Is Our Drugstore", seems to raise the question of why some plants have persisted as long as they have, while others have been lost, and why some people, of variable ethnicities, seem to be attracted to particular plants. The creosote bush history is unraveled. Explaining how a touch down in the Chihuan Desert, around 4500 years ago, could have led to the some 30 million hectares that the plant now covers in Mexico, and the 18 million hectares in the USA.

For this reason, six plants out of “the 2500 vascular plants in the Sonoran Desert”, although chosen arbitrarily, were to be studied because “each exemplifies either a symbolic or an ecological relationship which Sonoran Desert dwellers had with numerous plants”.  Nabhan and colleagues wanted to explore the possibility of a spiritual connection between plants and people, like those often found between people and other animals (something commonly associated with many first nations people).

Although I suppose I understand the want to find such a connection, I found it very interesting, on pg. 6, that Nabham soon after explains that “plants are used symbolically in ways which sometimes link people with their homeland and past, serving as a conservative element to slow change”. Ok, so we live in a world full of ever budding equality but why must we pretend as if all of life is served out equal? After all, life is not equal. Life is not fair. Although similarities exist because of similar environmental stressors (creating layers of cells for gas exchange like lungs etc.), there is something fundamentally different about a plant from an animal. Yes change is inevitable, and I do think it should be embraced, but some change seems a little bit ridiculous - needless. I guess in my opinion, I don’t want to pretend millions of years of divergent evolution has left plants a hand for me to hold because it hasn’t. I think that the fabric of our DNA has been woven to interpret this world in a biased manner. I truly think, for the most part, our interpretation of this world is skewed because of our want to see what we see in ourselves, as animals, in other species and in the environment.

“Anyway, I am getting sidetracked…”

I think our species relationship with plants, symbolically or ecologically, is true one, a natural one. This being said, I feel we should appreciate, perfect, and refine the relationship we have, and have had. I am in no disagreement that importance should further be put upon evaluating native desert plants as potential economic resources. I like that the idea that there is knowledge “waiting” to be discovered, that could have a positive impact on mankind. It's endearing.

“Anyway, one of the plants Nabham chose to study, the creosote bush, is actually really interesting”

It is hard to believe, on pg. 13, that whole plant populations of creosote bush may simply consist of clones, and that there is a “king clone” possibly older than “the most ancient bristlecone pine known to human kind”. Undoubtedly creosotes secondary metabolites are immense in number and have the potential for many useful applications. The plants seem very well adapted. Unfortunately, with little scientific research being done on the secondary metabolites, and even less proven to be beneficial, I see another biased opinion forming. I really would like to see more of a fight for doing things the right way, not the easiest. How are we going to ever understand our relationship with plants if we try to view them like we do animals? How are we going to progress as a species unless we let go of the many guidelines that exist simply because of tradition, and not necessity?

Sunday 11 March 2012

Ungovernable passions


Ungovernable passions

Pollan M. The botany of desire. New York, NY: Random House, Inc.; 2001. 3-58p.

Chapter 1
Desire: Sweetness
Plant: The Apple (Malus domestica)

Terms of interest
Armada (p.4): a fleet of ships of war
Catamaran (p.4): a kind of raft or float
Pantheism (p.10): a belief or philosophical theory that God is immanent in or identical with the universe
Parable (p.12): able to be readily prepared, procured, or got; procurable
Prodigality (p.13): a wasteful expenditure of one’s resources
Saccharine (p.18): pertaining to or the nature of sugar
Defined at: http://www.oed.com

Chapter one, of The Botany of Desire, is sweet. It affords enjoyment and gratifies desire. By telling the story of John Chapman, and his role in the domestication of the apple in North America, Micheal Pollan raises the question of whether or not sweetness is the prototype of all desire. He retraces the path of Chapman, “Johnny Appleseed”, through pioneers and prohibition, and investigates the journey of the apple from its origin, Kazakhstan. As the chapter progresses, Pollan gives insight to the progression of his own opinion.  He becomes able accept strangeness, a characteristic of both apple and “Appleseed”. Pollan adapts, a theme present in the entirety of the chapter. Pollan provides the means for a new outlook on plants and people of today, by examining the rich tastes of, what sometimes seems, a bitter past.

Unfortunately, as a species, we seem to mask the beauty of many things. Our pasts often seem bitter because of mistakes made within them. With inequality budding from every stem of society a few hundred years ago, it’s not unreasonable to want to turn the other way. The only problem is that once our backs are turned, even if mistakes are out of mind, we lose more. We lose beauty. Thankfully, Pollan lessens this loss by enforcing equality, on pg. 4, when he says “the scene, for me, has the resonance of myth – a myth about how plants and people learned to use each other, each doing for the other things they could not do for themselves, in the bargain changing each other and improving their common lot”. This thought, of equality, is reinforced by Pollan never letting the readers’ attention slip from where it should be. With the use of metaphors he is able to constantly maintain a sort of daydream he creates with his words.  He explains the “common lot” of plants and people, on pg. 5, saying “an emblem of marriage between people and plants, the design of Chapman’s peculiar craft strikes me as just right, implying as it does a relation of parity and reciprocal exchange between its two passengers” – he describes such a sense of strength in the relationship. Reminding us of a time when people had a greater connectivity with nature.

As always, I enjoyed that Pollan refrains from simply giving his opinion. Despite a focus on Johnny Appleseed, we were able to get some information on the history surrounding the legends and even some information on the origin of apples, its ancestors, and their home. Pollan allows us to understand that there is a reason we generally fail to see ourselves eye to eye with plants. Explaining, on pg. 5, “even the power over nature that domestication supposedly represents is overstated” - I love that he always goes out of his way to let us see things his way, through his minds eye. It was from this guidance of opinion I really appreciated the apples side of the story. I saw Johnny Appleseed equally important as the apples he loved. 

I particularly found it interesting that time had distorted the reality, of whatever truth once existed, behind Johnny Appleseed. John Chapman did not only carry and plant apple seeds but also carried and planted a variety of other seeds, of what he thought were of medicinal value. I started to get the sense that Chapman was a lot more than just another man. He was a hybrid. Pollan described him as a hybrid between other worlds, such as between the realms of matter and spirit.

I was captivated by Pollans comparison of Chapman to Dionysus, on pg. 37, but felt as if it was a little forced. Yes, it is true that Dionysus brought wine as Chapman brought cider, and yes Dionysus is describe as somewhat of a hybrid but I just can’t buy it. In my own readings of Nietzsche I often recall Dionysus being described as the all is within each moment; an individual not subject to the constraints of others or by environments, thus having the capacity to live out each moment with the greatest of intensity and fullness. I do not recall ever reading Dionysus ridding himself of boots as punishment for stepping on a worm.

“Don’t worry Pollan you won me back with your reference to Nietzsche”

Anyway, through the investigation of the Greek god tangent, I realized John Chapman, at very least, seemed god-like because of his ability to be honest with people, and that this is likely why he was widely accepted. I am in no disagreement with the idea that he may have crossed worlds. Even the descriptions of his relationship with wildlife, such as him and the apple seeds traveling down the river as equals, portrayed a middleman between plants and animals. He was a bridge between kingdoms that truly seems to define the term hybrid vigor.

I can’t get over how very interesting it is that John Chapman could be the cause of the apples fame (and domestication) and the apple could be the cause of John Chapman’s fame. The two seemed to have a mutualistic, symbiotic relationship, maybe even obligate.
As Pollan begins to conclude the chapter, on pg. 56, and explains the diversity of apples (their color, taste, and shape), I began to think of all the wild and wondrous beauty life has to offer, and how so very few people ever take the time to see it like John Chapman did. I see people walk down streets with their heads down, looking at their phone, as if to the products of an environment were more important than the environment itself.

“I truly hope these are the same people that protest against factories, mines and the use of fossil fuels. The irony would be so great”

On a lighter note, maybe even now Johnny Appleseed is a bridge between two worlds, a bridge between our delusional present and our mysterious past. Maybe, after hearing his story, people will feel less of an inclination to ignore the world they walk within.