I was speaking to a guy that looks after an ancient forest and he was explaining the fungi that allow the trees to communicate and it was fascinating but I thought he might be pulling my leg, so I came home and read everything, it's fascinating.
this post was submitted on 12 Apr 2024
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a guy that looks after an ancient forest
I'm guessing a park ranger
He might mean old-growth forest.
Ancient forests are a designation in the UK - https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/habitats/ancient-woodland/
The Woodland Trust have staff that mind them. I'm not sure what this guys job title was but probably a conservation officer or similar? He was helping us with something about the oldest trees in the UK.
Also, not a he.
100% a druid
People should look up Paul Stamets. Dude is doing amazing things in the field of mycology and showing the power of mushrooms!
TIL the Star Trek Discovery character has a real life namesake.
Someone should help him with the page. At least to do a proper one (I've just looked the code).
I discovered The CryptoNaturalist over at the other place, and ending up buying 'Field Guide to the Haunted Forest' and 'Love Notes from the Hollow Tree' by Jarod K. Anderson....
Which is unusual for me as I detest poetry. I think it's a pile of long-winded, navel gazing wank...Except for haiku, (because they're short and sweet, and condense things down to their essence, which I like).
I like The CryptoNaturalist though, probably because they write about nature in a weird, beautiful and wonderous way. I want to use the word 'magical' to describe it, but am reluctant, for reasons
Also, thanks to this post I just found out there's a couple of other books available which I'm going to buy tonight 😀
What is your favorite haiku that comes to mind?
I rather like this one...
wearily she waves
the white flag of surrender
cobwebbed butterfly
—Tracy Davidson from here
Pawprints fade, empty
Silence fills the empty space
Love lives on, always
From here
I sometimes feel that the classic haiku are let down by some translations, and the fact there are Japanese words that don't translate across very well or at all.
I have a soft spot for this one
The old pond,
A frog jumps in:
Plop!
Translated by Alan Watts from here
It's interesting to see how each translation differs, and tries to put into English something that is probably untranslatable....also...
pond
frog
plop!
Translated by James Kirkup
'The sound of water' 'kerplunk' 'splashing the water' 'leap, splash' 'water note' ....just don't capture it for me
Do you know any that are decent?
Mushrooms are so fucking cool, and they taste great too.
Fungi confuse me. I can't figure out what they are. I think the fact that I thought they were plants my whole life and then it turns out they aren't just broke me lol.
afaik a decent summary is that they're sorta like animal cells that specced into a plant lifestyle, but since animals are good at digesting stuff and can't photosynthesize, they went for eating dead things that no one else eats.
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Some of them will also make you high, but some will kill you.
Some will make you high, then kill you.
Some taste great on pizza, gets you high and then kills you as a bonus.
and some will taste great on pizza!
The American mind cannot comprehend that.
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Only kinda related but if anyone wants a good fantasy book with this kind of energy and theme, Gods of the Wyrdwood by RJ Barker is the way to go
cryptonaturalist has a few books too iirc. great little account, they are on masto too.
Could be fun, I'll take a gander, thanks!
That is what people sound like that have taken too many shrooms. Comes a bit too close to newage bullshit. "Life is the universe evolving to experience itself through you" and bullshit like that.
But it's cool.
Just don't go thinking it means anything other than nature is awesome.
I just think there are better ways to say nature is awesome without adding mystics, new age stuff, or fantastical expressions to it. Then it starts turning into non-science.
I like those better ways too, but I'm me and you're you. I think the vulgarisation like in the op are good and useful as well. We're not talking about Deepak Chopra here, just a little mycological poetry.
I would use the word "special" rather than mystical, but the awesomeness of reality can often feel mystical. I think it's ok to play with that as long as you aren't making any serious claims, like we should order our social structure around fungi deity or something
I feel exactly the same way as how you described it. I think the quote from OP about the universe experiencing itself actually originated from Carl Sagan, who is as scientific and atheistic as you could ask for. It's just a play on words.
And then you have the likes of Deepak Chopra, who is the most disingenuous woowoo-talking charlatan in existence. If he said something like that, he would mean it literally.
Yeah, I saw that X-files episode too.
So mushrooms are Vegan Cthulhu's boners?
It’s true I’ve spoken to them many times.
That guy probably knows a lot about mushrooms, talking like that.