Shroom: A Cultural History of the Magic Mushroom
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.40 (709 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0060828293 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 384 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2015-11-23 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Since its rediscovery only fifty years ago, this hallucinogenic fungus, once shunned in the West as the most pernicious of poisons, has inspired a plethora of folktales and urban legends. In this timely and definitive study, Andy Letcher chronicles the history of the magic mushroom—from its use by the Aztecs of Central America and the tribes of Siberia through to the present day—stripping away the myths and taking a critical and humorous look at the drug's more recent manifestations.Informative, lively, and impeccably researched, Shroom is a unique and engaging exploration of this most extraordinary of psychedelics.. Did mushroom tea kick-start ancient Greek philosophy? Was Alice's Adventures in Wonderland a thinly veiled psychedelic mushroom odyssey? Is Santa Claus really a magic mushroo
The "bemushroomed," he says, proselytize that the fungus inspired humans to construct Stonehenge, found Western philosophy and even think up Santa Claus. But Letcher digresses for 18 pages before finally delivering the kicker: financier Gordon Wasson engaged in a grave deception to gain access to the goods and declared himself blameless as hippie hordes destroyed the ancient community Huautla. From Publishers Weekly Letcher, an eco-protestor who once lived in a tree house, wrote this exhaustive history in order to debunk the folklore in which mushroom munchers have rooted their appreciation of the hallucinogen. Major figures like Timothy Leary and Allen Ginsberg appear, but are also subsumed by Letcher's colorless, academic style. (Feb. It's star
"A smug and underresearched book" according to James K.. This is the annoying kind of book whose main point seems to be, I'm smarter than everyone I'm writing about. And he's not, actually--he's a good example of how post-modern scholarship allows you to deploy labels like "orientalist" to place yourself in a superior position to whatever you're critiquing. Andy Letcher is no Edward Said, who actually did the hard work of debunking the body of work he called orientalism--he didn't think labeling it was. Oannas said An Exercise in Character Assassination. One star for the interesting tidbits of information not easily found elsewhere. Did his Oxford professors not teach Mr. Letcher the fallacy of the argumentum ad hominem? His personal attacks on Gordon Wasson and John Allegro bring this book down to the level of tabloid journalism.First, he portrays Wasson as a con artist who became famous as a result of clever salesmanship rather than for "clarity or originality of his thinking." He criticizes Wa. A great modern perspective on a culturally skewed topic James Kent by Andy Letcher, is that most wondrous of finds; a magic mushroom book that dares to confront modern orthodoxy, and does so in a way that actually advances our knowledge in the field. Billing his text as "A Cultural History of the Magic Mushroom", Letcher does not disappoint in dishing up the tastiest mushroom morsels modern research can unearth. And for those of you who think you "know it all" already, I assure you, this book has the best a fung