202 10820 listening notes: doomsday matsutake

What is the meaning of "doomsday" in the title of "Doomsday Matsutake"? In fact, the title of the original book is "Mushroom at the End of the World", which literally translates as "Mushroom at the End of the World".

This "doomsday" has two meanings. One meaning is that Tricholoma matsutake can only grow in a barren forest because it can't be planted artificially, which is like the end of the modern civilized world. Another meaning is that the doomsday ruins are often a paradise for Tricholoma matsutake-it is said that Tricholoma matsutake was the first creature to emerge from the scorched earth after the atomic bomb explosion in Hiroshima. In the apocalyptic ruins, matsutake symbolizes hope.

This kind of transformational mutual benefit is precious, but it can't be met. Humans cannot force Tricholoma matsutake to marry its host. Japanese research institutions have invested more than one billion yen in the experiment of Tricholoma matsutake cultivation, but so far it has not been completely successful, and only semi-artificial cultivation of Tricholoma matsutake slices can be achieved. Tricholoma matsutake only exists in forests destroyed by human beings. They naturally resist the plantation environment and need to cross-dye and interact with the dynamic and diverse species in the forest. In Japan, the world's largest market for Tricholoma matsutake, it can't be cultivated on a large scale, so it still needs to rely on the most primitive picking to obtain Tricholoma matsutake. Although modern agricultural cultivation is helpless to Tricholoma matsutake, the market demand for Tricholoma matsutake will never stop.

Short-sighted human beings destroy the natural environment, and greedy capital exhausts precious resources-are you familiar with this story? However, this desperate ending is matsutake's hope. Oregon's plundered virgin forest has only sparse and low pine forests and barren earth and stone, but it has become an excellent site for breeding Tricholoma matsutake.

Pickers and matsutake are actually somewhat similar. They are all on the edge of the capitalist world. Pickers live in forests far from cities, and Tricholoma matsutake grows in abandoned forest farms. This forest in Oregon, USA, was once eroded by capital, lumberjacks came in and abandoned by capital, and now it is free and peaceful again. In the first half of this story, the forest was destroyed, and we may accuse the greed of capital and the short-sightedness of human beings. But the emergence of Tricholoma matsutake is like a turning point in a desperate situation, telling us that the "Tianya" abandoned by capital actually has new forces.

Whenever the day's picking is over, the pickers return to the camp to rest, and people who buy pine mushrooms will also come to the forest camp to buy pine mushrooms. This site is often referred to as the "security ticket site". "guaranteed ticket" means to make up the difference. If you are a Tricholoma matsutake picker, your Tricholoma matsutake was bought by the buyer earlier, and then the Tricholoma matsutake in the camp called for a higher price, you can ask the buyer to get the difference back. The value-preserving ticket mechanism gives the Tricholoma matsutake pickers more freedom and choices, and the Tricholoma matsutake acquirers rely on this method to please the pickers, buy a large number of Tricholoma matsutake from the pickers and crowd out competitors.

This chain connects the forest where capital is absent and the market where capital is king, and opens up the external world and the internal world of capitalism. Tricholoma matsutake grows on the ruins of capitalism, and pickers who escape from modern life go into the forest to pick Tricholoma matsutake for freedom. Exchange with the advocates of market freedom, entered the capitalist system. The picker realized personal value through the picking skill of Tricholoma matsutake, and Tricholoma matsutake was endowed with commodity value from an ownerless thing. Tricholoma matsutake entered the Japanese market from the United States through intermediaries. In Japan, Tricholoma matsutake is endowed with the value of building relationships, from commodities to gifts. Matsuzaka's life shows a complete process of creating capitalist value from non-capitalist value system.

Tricholoma matsutake is the fruiting body of a fungus. Tricholoma matsutake can not be cultured in batch or in sterile laboratory. It is a creature born in the ruins of industrialization with the appearance and demise of big industry. This book mainly tells about a forest in Oregon, USA, which used to be the ruins of a factory, and now pickers all over the world are picking a lot of pine mushrooms there. Tricholoma matsutake picker is similar to Tricholoma matsutake. They cannot be domesticated by capitalism. Among them are veterans who suffered from post-war trauma, descendants of Japanese immigrants whose ancestors came to the United States because of the war, and refugees from Southeast Asia whose hometown was destroyed. Tricholoma matsutake was acquired and transported to the hands of importers and exporters, and was given the meaning of goods. When consumers who buy Tricholoma matsutake give it away, the meaning of this commodity disappears again.

Tricholoma matsutake has become a contradictory aggregate. This is an exception to capitalism. No matter how much capital enters the market, it is impossible to cultivate a matsutake. Tricholoma matsutake is an excellent case to show the strength of market supply and demand, and it is a representative global commodity.

And all this was born in the forest destroyed by human beings, and even in the land where the atomic bomb exploded. The appearance of Tricholoma matsutake is a crime committed by human beings' thirst for wealth and irresponsible development of nature, but it is also a generous forgiveness given to human beings by nature.

Finally, I want to tell you about the special reading experience of this book.

The story of this novel "The Death of Matsutake" is very rare. It is always open, even unfocused. Luo Anqing, like a person who picks Tricholoma matsutake, stops to collect subtle clues. Through prose-like narration, he tells how Tricholoma matsutake presents the influence of people on the environment, the change of environment to people, and the pulling force of environment, people and capital. There are few very clear ideas in the book, and even if there are, the arguments supporting it are sloppy. This way of writing makes the reading of this book more difficult.

Luo Anqing did it on purpose. She made an analogy. She said that she didn't want to be a hunter who was ready to kill at any time. In order to make the story dramatic, she cut out the touching details that might lead to a fork in the road. This rich and varied narrative is perhaps the most touching aspect of anthropological research. Just like picking pine mushrooms, adventure will lead to more adventures, and treasure will lead to more treasures. When picking Tricholoma matsutake, only one flower is not enough. Once you find the first flower, you will want to find more.