The secret lives of fungi

[firecat]

This is an article about fungi, but it’s also a prose poem, an acid trip, and a horror movie. I stand ready to welcome our new mycelial overlords.

Francis Gooding reviews Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds and Shape Our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v43/n10/francis-gooding/from-its-myriad-tips

Comments

[ljgeoff]

Fascinating and creepy. Thanks!

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

I agree that it's fascinating. I have put myself on the library waiting list for the book itself. There are 11 ahead of me!

Edited to add: I just finished the article. Wow! I am glad I read the part about the ant and the zombie fungus during the day! So creepy!

[zeborah]

It's a popular book! I managed to snag a copy off the "New Books" display of my own library mostly because most people don't yet know you can borrow books straight off the display. :-) It was well worth it.

[firecat]

I just listened to a sample of the audio version of the book. It's narrated by the author, so I wasn't expecting much, but OMG he reads beautifully and sounds almost like Tom Hiddleston. Then I went to his website and damn he looks a bit like him too (around 20 years younger though).

Ophiocordyceps is definitely among the top ten creepy entities.

[silveradept]

It's one of those things that reminds the humans that no matter how much they know about the world around them, there's a whole lot more they don't have a clue about. And that could adapt to decide humans are the next great thing to conquer.

[firecat]

If that means we'll see more humans vs fungus movies and fewer humans vs AIs movies, I'm all for it.

[silveradept]

I would be interested if the entire zombie genre decided they wanted to decamp to the "fungi have taken over humans and are making them do horrifying things" genre for the next while. Might take a little different makeup ideas, but you could probably keep most scripts and screenplays nearly unchanged to tap the new market.

[firecat]

Yes, The Girl With All the Gifts is one of the few zombie genre stories I like. I suspect it’s not the fungus zombie-ism per se that makes it good. But if it is, then I want fungus reboots of all the ones I find less than interesting.