The Botany of Desire

The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan (2001) As inspiring as I find this book, I like to imagine if I’d encountered it while in high school (a quarter-century before it was written) and wonder if it would have altered my career trajectory. (I don’t just mean botany, or science—but history, as well, even philosophy.) Its subtitle: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World, indicates how it expands its specific subjects to an overview of our very existence. I read it a few years back, but returning to it recently—as inspiration for writing a fictional story with “desire” at the core—reminded me how much fun the book is—maybe one worth going back to occasionally. I believe some PBS show was based on it—haven’t seen it—but I imagine you could get a lot out of that was well. It’s about the evolutionary relationship between humans and plants—taking the intriguing slant that the plants are equally in charge—if not more so. For someone like me who occasionally likes to consider humans as the bottom of the scale (trees at the top—or maybe even rocks), the book leads to further thought. He’s got a great approach—starting with four basic desires (sweetness, beauty, intoxication, control)—and expands those ideas with the stories of the apple, the tulip, cannabis, and the potato. He takes a particularly personal approach to each—involving his own garden. Each section could be its own book (and the book could be expanded to every recognized desire—or even every known plant). It says a lot for his choice of subject matter, though, that I’m unable to pick a clear favorite—or even one I wasn’t as into as the rest of them. I don’t smoke weed, I’m through with apples, list tulips among my least favorite flowers, and can’t stand French fries—but after recently rereading this book—I’m currently excited about nothing as much as those four subjects.

4.28.24