Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds and Shape Our Futures, by Merlin Sheldrake, Random House, 2021 paperback edition, 352 pages.
Even if You Think You Don't Care About Fungi
Every terrestrial plant and every human rely on fungal networks for existence. There are many reasons to read Sheldrake's eloquent and exuberant exploration of this oft-overlooked kingdom of life upon which we depend. Sheldrake oozes with celebration, intellectual fervor and a literary style that charms the reader into finding fungi as fascinating as he finds them. He makes fungi fun.
'Entangled Life' Shakes up Thinking
Each of Sheldrake's chapters entices with novelty and scientific acumen. Consider how a being without a brain makes life-giving decisions as it builds connections with other organisms to thrive in environments in which each alone would likely die.
How can a fungus infect an insect and force a specific action? Zombie fungi modify their insect hosts’ behavior and cause them to clamp their jaws around a plant at a particular height and orientation to the sun. (Pictures included.) They then take over their host’s body in an act as creepy as any alien movie.
How does a fungus puppeteer ant movements? Scientists investigative speculations persist. Enlarge the perception of fungi as a decomposer. Fungi also become sustainable products such as batteries, medical skin substitutes, leather substitutes, and cardboard. The growing science of mycology shakes up some paradigms of how we consider living beings because fungi don’t behave like plants or animals, and science has built structures of understanding that don’t fit the lives and traits of fungi.
Smart Enough to Change His Mind
The underlying reason to read Entangled Life is to experience the mind of Sheldrake as he considers and reconsiders what he knows as it bumps up against what he is learning. While nations, countries, and neighbors seem to line up with polarities of thinking and deep trenches of opinion that form angry communities, Sheldrake serves as an example of rationality where opinions are in flux, tested against reality, and readjusted as he moves through his studies.
His is a beautiful mind at work that can ask if what we think we know is wrong. In his chapter ‘Wood Wide Webs’ he considers: “Are we able to stand back, look at the system, and let the polyphonic swarms of plants and fungi and bacteria that make up our homes and our worlds be themselves, and quite unlike anything else? What would that do to our minds?” Do read Entangled Web to be entertained, educated, and changed.
Amy Lou Jenkins BSN MFA is the Author of Every Natural Fact. Contact her at AmyLouJenkins.com if you have a book to forward for review. A version of this review previously appeared in the WI Sierra Clubs' Green Review.
Thank you for sharing these reviews. I’ve always loved hikes in nature and the inspiration to explore what I don’t know. Braiding Sweetgrass is in my home to stay and share.
The botany peaked my interest because of her sharing her Native culture in the real time of her professional teaching and family life. I especially love how gratitude and respect in all realms are paramount; leaving enough foliage for re-growth and sharing, honoring the food of the earth and the critters. Part of my family is in Wisconsin with children 8, 5 and 2. We’re going to have a meal together honoring Indigenous people with a Native blessing.
I’ll use a few words from the book too.