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.