The Botany of Desire

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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.

出版者:Random House Trade Paperbacks
作者:Michael Pollan
出品人:
页数:271
译者:
出版时间:2002-5-28
价格:USD 17.00
装帧:Paperback
isbn号码:9780375760396
丛书系列:
图书标签:
  • 植物 
  • 科普 
  • 自然 
  • botany 
  • 美国 
  • 哲学 
  • 植物之书 
  • food 
  •  
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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

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否则以王毅教授“辽宁师范大学文学院教授、副院长、文艺学教研室主任、硕士研究生导师、辽宁省美学学会副会长”这样高级的身份,翻译出下述如此磕碜的句子来,辽宁师大文学院未免也太寒碜了。 瓦维洛夫最终成为斯大林对遗传学大批判的牺牲品,于1943年在列宁格勒的一个监狱里...  

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世界是银子做的,不知怎的,这句隐喻一直萦绕在我心头。最开始听到它是在《白银时代》中,"我"的老师在课堂上反复说这话。"我"却不能了解他的意思。 其实我高中读这小说的时候,也不明白,只知道,热力学第二定律说:封闭体系最终会走向熵的极大值,内部达成均一。银...  

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在这个基因游走的世界 ——《植物的欲望》 于是 很多人和我一样五谷不分。没法分。从小就在餐厅和菜场的背景中完成吃的工作,城市里的土壤、土壤里的植物越来越少。有一天我甚至听一个诗人在抱怨,他送给女儿一掊种子,却满大街找不到泥土。而在花店里,我们出钱购买包裹在塑...  

用户评价

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写的挺啰嗦的,而且是文学式啰嗦,不像枪炮玫瑰是学术式啰嗦。内容不是很切题,有点标题党,更多的是人类对于植物的欲望。

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睡不着觉的话用来催眠,可是真正阅读进去,思维会被撞击到,尤其是苹果那一章。

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读完第一章实在受不了了,作者思维很跳跃而散文般的文风实在是太难follow,但是Conclusion很惊艳,the agency of botany, coevolutionary relation, BIODIVERSITY

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讲了四种植物:苹果郁金香大麻和土豆,可惜内容和书名不是很相符。土豆一章很震撼,有关GMO。

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i want to garden!!!

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