A Mycological Foray: A new look at John Cage and his mushroom obsession (2020) • Hacker News Board

Re: A Mycological Foray: A new look at John Cage and his mushroom obsession (2020)

#31

Post by Alex3917 » Sat, Jun 12, 2021, 6:26 PM UTC

Turing_Machine wrote: post #25

Alex3917 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah there are a lot of mushrooms that are listed as deadly poisonous in field guides, but that lots of people eat anyway. And there are other mushrooms that are listed as edible, but that kill some of the people who eat them. I've never eaten false morels, although if I were at Noma or something I'd probably try the soup. Eating them outside of a geographic region where there is a history of eating them is definitel…

Right. Even within a species, your mileage may vary. Sweet and bitter almonds are the same species, but the bitter variety contains cyanide (as do the pits of their close relatives, the peach and apricot). As few as 5-10 bitter almonds can be fatal to a child.

This just makes me want persipan.

Re: A Mycological Foray: A new look at John Cage and his mushroom obsession (2020)

#32

Post by spoonjim » Sat, Jun 12, 2021, 6:40 PM UTC

aleks224 wrote: post #11

It's fascinating how these articles create drama without any justification. There's no "mushroom obsession", JC simply did all the usual stuff that a passionate mushroom hunter would do. He wrote a book about mushrooms? Obsessed! He accidently poisoned himself? Unheard of for passionate mushroom hunters!

“Obsessed” is society’s word for “passionate” outside of approved areas. Spend all your time and hundreds of thousands of dollars on wine or golf and you’re an enthusiast. On splotchy canvases by louche cigarette-smoking sybarites in tight jeans and you’re just getting started. On mushrooms and you’re “obsessed.”

Re: A Mycological Foray: A new look at John Cage and his mushroom obsession (2020)

#33

Post by heavyset_go » Sat, Jun 12, 2021, 9:57 PM UTC

14 wrote: post #17

dr_dshiv wrote: post #10

This article did not address whether he ever took magic mushrooms. I was hoping to find out!

Kind of funny my last thoughts when leaving the article was I wonder if he also took magic mushrooms and if that influenced his music at all?

To my knowledge, magic mushrooms weren't really known to Westerners until this article[1] was published in Life in 1957. And it wasn't until the 1960's that Timothy Leary and others helped make them a part of popular culture.

If he did consume them, then the music he composed before those dates probably wasn't influenced by them.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seeking_the_magic_mushroom

Re: A Mycological Foray: A new look at John Cage and his mushroom obsession (2020)

#34

Post by heavyset_go » Sat, Jun 12, 2021, 10:07 PM UTC

rantwasp wrote: post #2

Mushrooms are fascinating. Can't blame this guy for digging them. Did you know that mushrooms (fungi to be precise) are not a plant and are not an animal? They are so special that they have their own biological kingdom. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fungus )

Also interesting if you're into this kind of stuff: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/long-before-trees-...

Re: A Mycological Foray: A new look at John Cage and his mushroom obsession (2020)

#35

Post by dr_dshiv » Sun, Jun 13, 2021, 7:07 AM UTC

heavyset_go wrote: post #33

14 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kind of funny my last thoughts when leaving the article was I wonder if he also took magic mushrooms and if that influenced his music at all?

To my knowledge, magic mushrooms weren't really known to Westerners until this article[1] was published in Life in 1957. And it wasn't until the 1960's that Timothy Leary and others helped make them a part of popular culture. If he did consume them, then the music he composed before those dates probably wasn't influenced by them. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seeking_the_magic_mushroom

It is kind of crazy, but magic mushrooms were completely unknown to westerners before that 1957 article, despite the fact that magic mushrooms grow natively all over Europe. All we need is ONE person to have described taking them before 1957 to show otherwise — but there is no evidence of it.