The mind-blowing literary boom of mushrooms

"All mushrooms are edible, but some only once." Like this saying, there are many others that encourage us to stay away from any type of mushroom, most often out of fear or ignorance. Therefore, the fact that the new releases table is filled with titles in which mushrooms are the main protagonists never ceases to surprise booksellers. "The truth is, I would never have bet on it, but it's true that little by little they've been gaining ground," acknowledges Fernando Pelayo from the +Bernat bookstore.

There are all kinds: cooking, clinical, novels, essays... they explore plant intelligence, therapeutic uses, or even those that use mycelium as a model for political organization. One of the latest to arrive is Cositas (Little Things) (Seix Barral/Periscopi), by French author Benoît Coquil (Brittany, 1989). The essay, which is told in the tone of an adventure novel, began to take shape during a trip to Oaxaca (Mexico) in 2019, when this professor of Spanish and Latin American literature bought a T-shirt printed with the face of the shaman María Sabina. "I had no idea who she was, but she appeared on several souvenirs, so I did some research," he explained to La Vanguardia during his visit to Barcelona. Later, he learned that she was considered "half-saint."

Shaman María Sabina stars in several new releases related to the fungi world.

During her research, she eventually came across the Wasson couple, consisting of Gordon, a New York banker, and Valentina, a Russian-born pediatrician, "who had the intuition that the hallucinogenic Psilocybe mushrooms Sabina used for her 'things' could be used therapeutically." She found the information she gleaned so interesting that she ended up writing a book, acclaimed by critics and readers.

It's worth mentioning that several authors have explored Sabina's life. Siglo XXI publishing house recently reissued the book Vida de María Sabina: La sabia de los hongos (Life of María Sabina: The Wise Woman of Mushrooms ). It was written in the 1970s by the late engineer and writer Álvaro Estrada, but in the first person. Sabina herself, who couldn't read or write, told him her life story, and he decided to write it down as it was.

He's also an engineer and refers to the shaman Naief Yehya (Mexico City, 1963), who, like Coquil, recently visited Barcelona to present her essay "The Planet of Mushrooms" (Anagrama). Hers is a history of the use of hallucinogenic mushrooms and LSD from the Stone Age to Silicon Valley.

There is still a stigma surrounding mushrooms, but there is less fear due to the use some therapists give them to treat mental disorders and addictions. Naief Yehya, engineer and writer, author of 'Planet of the Mushrooms'

“There's still a stigma surrounding mushrooms, but I think it's faded. There's less fear due to the use some doctors give them to treat mental disorders, addictions, and alcoholism.” He also compares them to the Internet: “The similarities are striking, as it's an underground network that functions as a communication and exchange system (water, nutrients, information) between forest organisms.”

In March, biologist Eduardo Bazo also contributed his knowledge on the subject to Mushrooms (Pinolia). "I wanted to develop an accessible and rigorous work addressing aspects that are linked to current events in terms of history, economics, and scientific and technological development," he explained to La Vanguardia , while acknowledging that "there is a growing interest" in mushrooms. "We have moved from a situation of mistrust to one where we have opted to approach with curiosity a wonderful world in which the potential of fungi and the discoveries that their study is yielding are leading us to test everything from new antibiotic drugs to developing biodegradable textile materials."

Bazo believes that climate change may be another factor explaining the phenomenon. “Many anthracophilous fungi sprout more vigorously after a forest fire. A phenomenon as destructive and critical to an ecosystem as a fire represents a new opportunity for some fungal species to colonize new areas. Observational methods have allowed us to seek solutions to major problems facing our society by focusing on how fungi do it.”

Read also Eating mushrooms can save the planet: why mycology is key to a sustainable diet Sergio Fuentes Antón

Simón López Trujillo's (Santiago de Chile, 1994) debut novel, El vasto territorio (Caja Negra), also stems from ecological anxiety. It focuses on a worker whose body and mind are infected by a fungus that possesses them and leads his community to sectarian, mystical, and religious consequences. The story has some points in common with one of the most-watched television series of the moment, The Last of Us , created by Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann for HBO and based on the 2013 video game of the same name developed by Naughty Dog. The plot is set twenty years after a pandemic caused by a massive fungal infection, which causes people to transform into zombies.

Albert García, a journalist specializing in video games, explains that "mushrooms have been a recurring element in video games for years," and that their particular boom came long before the literary one, helping to bring them closer to the general public. He explains that "they can be bad, as is the case in The Last of Us ; or good, as is the case with the Super Mushroom in Mario Bros., which allows Mario to grow in size, becoming bigger and stronger. Mushrooms are no less important in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, as they give Zelda energy."

From Nintendo and Illumination, a new animated film based on the world of Super Mario Bros. is coming to theaters. Directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic (who collaborated on the animated series 'Teen Titans Go' and Teen Titans Go: The Movie) with a script by Matthew Fogel (The LEGO Movie 2 and Minions: The Rise of Gru), the film features an ensemble cast that includes Chris Pratt as Mario, Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Charlie Day as Luigi, Jack Black as Bowser, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad, Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong, Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong, Kevin Michael Richardson as Kamek and Sebastian Maniscalo as Spike. The film is produced by Illumination founder and CEO Chris Meledandri and Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto. SUPER MARIO BROS: THE MOVIE is co-financed by Universal Pictures and Nintendo and will be distributed worldwide by Universal Pictures. GENRE: Action comedy OV CAST: Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Day, Jack Black, Keegan-Michael Key, Seth Rogen, Fred Armisen, Kevin Michael Richardson, Sebastian Maniscalco SCREENPLAY BY: Matthew Fogel DIRECTED BY: Aaron Horvath, Michael Jelenic PRODUCERS: Chris Meledandri, Shigeru Miyamoto Discover more Universal Pictures movie releases for 2022 here: https://b.link/Estrenos2022_YTplaylist Visit us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/universalpicturesspain Visit us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Universal_Spain Visit us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/universal_spain/ #SuperMarioBrosLaPelicula #UniversalPictures" width="449">

Music festivals have also featured this whole world over the years, and not exclusively for psychedelic reasons. Juan Arnau, the Aragonese entrepreneur behind Elrow, Florida135, and the Monegros rave, explains that mushrooms "are part of one of our shows, El bosque encantado . That's why, at our venue, we filled the reception area with mushrooms hanging from the ceiling, because it felt like entering a magical space from a storybook. It invites you to enter an experience that transports you to unimaginable worlds to dance in." The installation is reminiscent of the work Upside Down Mushroom by Belgian artist Carsten Höller, whose work also invites escape.

In addition to video games, fiction, various essays, musical performances, and audiovisual documentaries—such as Netflix's hit Fantastic Fungi —mushrooms also make their way into reports that address capitalism and the economy from different perspectives. An example of this is Las setas del fin del mundo (Capitán Swing), which arrived in bookstores post-pandemic. An anthropologist, Anna Lowenhaupt, investigates matsutake, one of the most valuable mushrooms in the world, which explains its exorbitant price in Japan, where it is considered an edible delicacy. The text presents a study of the relationship between capitalist destruction and collaborative survival within multi-species landscapes.

Given all this success, it's no surprise that true mushroom influencers are emerging. One of the best-known is Nanae Watabe. "Mushrooms are my job and my passion. During the season, I dedicate myself completely to them: I collect them, I sell them, I study them... Of course, it's a seasonal job: I rest when the mushrooms rest." As a result of this dedication, she has just published Estado de hongos (State of Mushrooms ) (Novo Editorial), currently available only in Mexico.

Who knows if it will eventually make it to the Spanish rentrée? For now, it will be released through Reservoir Books, with Mycelium Wassonii , by underground cartoonist Brian Blomerth, who, like Benoît Coquil, was fascinated by the Wasson couple and their involvement in the spread of psychedelic mushrooms.