Early Reading: The Mushrooms or Morels

[Paul_Hochman]

On page 34 of the hardcover, the father comes across a patch of mushrooms that he and the son then eat. This, to me, seems like a positive sign that the land is still fertile and able to sustain growth. How did you interpret this scene?

[bentley]

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PaulH wrote:
On page 34 of the hardcover, the father comes across a patch of mushrooms that he and the son then eat. This, to me, seems like a positive sign that the land is still fertile and able to sustain growth. How did you interpret this scene?

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I am not sure. I would think that this was positive. Morels are associated with some trees and can come back two to three years after a forest fire. The fact that they have come back at all and/or are still alive is promising in itself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morel

However, morels evolve around ice ages..but I doubt that the world was facing an ice age.

This is another write up on morels and how they had a legendary crop after the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens growing in the ash.

http://www.samcooks.com/Tastes/morels.htm

[Paul_Hochman]

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bentley wrote:

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PaulH wrote:
On page 34 of the hardcover, the father comes across a patch of mushrooms that he and the son then eat. This, to me, seems like a positive sign that the land is still fertile and able to sustain growth. How did you interpret this scene?

---

I am not sure. I would think that this was positive. Morels are associated with some trees and can come back two to three years after a forest fire. The fact that they have come back at all and/or are still alive is promising in itself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morel

However, morels evolve around ice ages..but I doubt that the world was facing an ice age.

This is another write up on morels and how they had a legendary crop after the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens growing in the ash.

http://www.samcooks.com/Tastes/morels.htm

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Hmm. Interesting connection to volcanic activity, although, the morels could be symbolic of mushroom clouds.

[bentley]

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PaulH wrote:

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bentley wrote:

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PaulH wrote:
On page 34 of the hardcover, the father comes across a patch of mushrooms that he and the son then eat. This, to me, seems like a positive sign that the land is still fertile and able to sustain growth. How did you interpret this scene?

---

I am not sure. I would think that this was positive. Morels are associated with some trees and can come back two to three years after a forest fire. The fact that they have come back at all and/or are still alive is promising in itself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morel

However, morels evolve around ice ages..but I doubt that the world was facing an ice age.

This is another write up on morels and how they had a legendary crop after the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens growing in the ash.

http://www.samcooks.com/Tastes/morels.htm

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Hmm. Interesting connection to volcanic activity, although, the morels could be symbolic of mushroom clouds.

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True..little mushroom clouds...sometimes I think we are looking everywhere for clues..LOL...but the volcanic activity I thought interesting and worth noting. Though I am in the nuclear winter camp. Still the detail did evoke something growing even though it was a fungi.

[vivico1]

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bentley wrote:

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PaulH wrote:
On page 34 of the hardcover, the father comes across a patch of mushrooms that he and the son then eat. This, to me, seems like a positive sign that the land is still fertile and able to sustain growth. How did you interpret this scene?

---

I am not sure. I would think that this was positive. Morels are associated with some trees and can come back two to three years after a forest fire. The fact that they have come back at all and/or are still alive is promising in itself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morel

However, morels evolve around ice ages..but I doubt that the world was facing an ice age.

This is another write up on morels and how they had a legendary crop after the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens growing in the ash.

http://www.samcooks.com/Tastes/morels.htm

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Something else to think about with it being mushrooms. Do you know mushrooms are grown as crops out of sunlight? They are a fungi and dont need it the way other plants do. They are grown commercially in dark houses, maybe not all varieties, I dont know about Morels. If the ground was not radiated but in almost constant darkness, mushrooms could be one of the first plants to come back. So we may be back at the cause of the catastrophe too lol.

[Paul_Hochman]

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vivico1 wrote:

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bentley wrote:

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PaulH wrote:
On page 34 of the hardcover, the father comes across a patch of mushrooms that he and the son then eat. This, to me, seems like a positive sign that the land is still fertile and able to sustain growth. How did you interpret this scene?

---

I am not sure. I would think that this was positive. Morels are associated with some trees and can come back two to three years after a forest fire. The fact that they have come back at all and/or are still alive is promising in itself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morel

However, morels evolve around ice ages..but I doubt that the world was facing an ice age.

This is another write up on morels and how they had a legendary crop after the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens growing in the ash.

http://www.samcooks.com/Tastes/morels.htm

---

Something else to think about with it being mushrooms. Do you know mushrooms are grown as crops out of sunlight? They are a fungi and dont need it the way other plants do. They are grown commercially in dark houses, maybe not all varieties, I dont know about Morels. If the ground was not radiated but in almost constant darkness, mushrooms could be one of the first plants to come back. So we may be back at the cause of the catastrophe too lol.

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You raise a good point, but what about the apples they find later in the novel? I don't think apples can grow without some degree of sunshine. Both these instances of food could be read as signs of hope, no?

[vivico1]

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PaulH wrote:

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vivico1 wrote:

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bentley wrote:

---

PaulH wrote:
On page 34 of the hardcover, the father comes across a patch of mushrooms that he and the son then eat. This, to me, seems like a positive sign that the land is still fertile and able to sustain growth. How did you interpret this scene?

---

I am not sure. I would think that this was positive. Morels are associated with some trees and can come back two to three years after a forest fire. The fact that they have come back at all and/or are still alive is promising in itself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morel

However, morels evolve around ice ages..but I doubt that the world was facing an ice age.

This is another write up on morels and how they had a legendary crop after the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens growing in the ash.

http://www.samcooks.com/Tastes/morels.htm

---

Something else to think about with it being mushrooms. Do you know mushrooms are grown as crops out of sunlight? They are a fungi and dont need it the way other plants do. They are grown commercially in dark houses, maybe not all varieties, I dont know about Morels. If the ground was not radiated but in almost constant darkness, mushrooms could be one of the first plants to come back. So we may be back at the cause of the catastrophe too lol.

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You raise a good point, but what about the apples they find later in the novel? I don't think apples can grow without some degree of sunshine. Both these instances of food could be read as signs of hope, no?

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The apples were nasty dead things, just shriveled up things with no flavor, I am sure no nutritional value and could have died long ago. Apples when they die on the tree or on the ground, if theres nothing to eat them like insects or animals, will dry and rot or become like this little mummified thing for really long times. They could have been a good sign too, that they had come up, grown, but then become these dried dead looking things cause they couldnt survive without enough light but honestly, i dont see that apples could even grow to bloom or fruit in this environment and then wither. Heck one good freeze too soon even and your apples are gone for the season. Could be a good sign, I just dont think so, but like i said since mushrooms can grow in a different environment, yeah they could be a good sign and a good first plant to show in the story as beginning to come back.

[Fozzie]

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PaulH wrote:

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but what about the apples they find later in the novel? I don't think apples can grow without some degree of sunshine. Both these instances of food could be read as signs of hope, no?

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I hadn't put enough thought into the apples, I see. If "the event" occurred about 8-10 years ago (my guess, based on how old I think the boy is), could the apples have been on the ground that long? I had originally thought so, but upon further reflection, it seems impossible. I am thinking that these are apples grown in the aftermath of "the event." Certainly they aren't what apples once were, but a tree beginning to produce again would be a sign of hope.

[vivico1]

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Fozzie wrote:

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PaulH wrote:

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but what about the apples they find later in the novel? I don't think apples can grow without some degree of sunshine. Both these instances of food could be read as signs of hope, no?

---

I hadn't put enough thought into the apples, I see. If "the event" occurred about 8-10 years ago (my guess, based on how old I think the boy is), could the apples have been on the ground that long? I had originally thought so, but upon further reflection, it seems impossible. I am thinking that these are apples grown in the aftermath of "the event." Certainly they aren't what apples once were, but a tree beginning to produce again would be a sign of hope.

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I felt like the story took place with the boy starting about age 6 and moves to about 8 or 9. I wonder if he will say how old the boy is in his interview. When apples dry out that way,I dont know how long they can last on the ground because we have other life now that that eats them long before what we are seeing here, but we had found some once in a cellar that had been there for a couple of years. The way they are described here are not healthy apples at all, just something shriveled up but worth trying to eat. I dont know,I didnt take them as a necessarily good sign and if they started to grow after the event and matured into full apples that then fell and the trees are looking dead, that doesnt make sense to the nuclear war theory i dont think, not unless they had been traveling for 90 years lol. They could have been in an area where the radiation didnt hit there for a long time and were grown already then died on the tree but still that doesnt sound quite right. I would love to know the authors meaning on this point. Maybe he just needed them to find something to eat, and shriveled up apples might just work. I know i kept thinking all throughout the book, where are you going to find food next and what is it going to be. He had to keep them going on something and the apples did at least still have that dark unhealthy feeling about them that the whole atmosphere of the book did. At the same time , it did do what we see here, and that is give people a glimmer of hope. So maybe they just served two purposes and we wont know unless he ever says, why there were these apples , nasty as they were, around these dead trees. Interesting tho huh.

[maxcat]

I thought that was interesting too that they came across mushrooms, but mushroom grow under any conditions and it has been raining or snowing. I find it interesting that mushrooms exist in the cold. Did anyone else catch this? F=Here in NC, you don't see any mushrooms growing in the fields unless they come from a warmer climate.

[Rdanison]

The mushrooms were dead, just like the apples. Read the passage again.