In which a gardner experiments with opium, caffeine, and mescaline
5 stars
An exploration of the mind-altering effects of plants and how they have influenced humans individually and culturally. Michael Pollan is an avid gardener, and a very unlikely person to experiment with opium or mescaline, and yet that’s just what he did as he wrote this book, in a nerdy and thoughtful way. He didn't just try opium or mescaline, he also tried abstaining from caffeine, which almost seemed to have more of an impact than his small forays into growing poppies or trying peyote. It was an unexpectedly delightful read for me.
Review of 'This Is Your Mind on Plants' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Just finished this one. Amazing! Fav book of the year so far. A perfect mix of information and narrative. Loved each section equally, but the history of caffeine was incredibly interesting, and mescaline gave me hope for the future.
(He regarded the pandemic as a sign we had fallen away from Mother-Father Earth, that we had lost touch with “our brother and sister animals, plants, minerals, bacteria, and viruses. That is why this pause we call coronavirus is so urgent. It is a time to replenish and regenerate the absolute energy of the mind.”)
^ this part towards the end really stood out to me
Review of 'This Is Your Mind on Plants' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
I enjoyed this much more than I’d expected to. You might too, even if (like me) you’ve heard a jillion of his interviews, even if (like me) you haven’t found the subject matter calling out to you.
The opium chapter, meh, interesting in a historical sense, mostly serving as a contrast between eras: the nineties and today. But I just couldn’t relate: opium seems like such an idiotic, uninteresting drug.
Caffeine, that was more informative and relevant: it’s a drug I’m more familiar with. I enjoyed the history and lore, but was surprised at his one-size-fits-all coverage of the effects of caffeine: there’s no mention of the completely different way — often genetically determined — that caffeine affects different people. As someone on the less-affected end of the spectrum I found it really weird how much Pollan suffered when he withdrew; I’ll confess to questioning whether a little bit of …
I enjoyed this much more than I’d expected to. You might too, even if (like me) you’ve heard a jillion of his interviews, even if (like me) you haven’t found the subject matter calling out to you.
The opium chapter, meh, interesting in a historical sense, mostly serving as a contrast between eras: the nineties and today. But I just couldn’t relate: opium seems like such an idiotic, uninteresting drug.
Caffeine, that was more informative and relevant: it’s a drug I’m more familiar with. I enjoyed the history and lore, but was surprised at his one-size-fits-all coverage of the effects of caffeine: there’s no mention of the completely different way — often genetically determined — that caffeine affects different people. As someone on the less-affected end of the spectrum I found it really weird how much Pollan suffered when he withdrew; I’ll confess to questioning whether a little bit of that might have been artistic license.
Mescaline, though: that’s what swerved the book solidly into four-star territory. That chapter was informative, insightful, and ever-so-slightly teetering on the edge of discomfort along several dimensions: the cultural-appropriation and overharvesting aspects of the peyote cactus, for a start, then the innerspace effects of the mescaline itself. This is where it gets interesting, because how the hell do you describe that to someone like me who hasn’t been there? That kind of communication channel requires a little effort from the reader and a lot from the writer, and I think Pollan pulled it off — at least inasmuch as he’s given me a small sense of the kind of healing that’s possible with this medicine, and a profound new respect for other life forms and our human interwovenness.
