{"id":10543,"date":"2023-11-23T12:39:04","date_gmt":"2023-11-23T12:39:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=10543"},"modified":"2023-11-23T12:39:04","modified_gmt":"2023-11-23T12:39:04","slug":"book-review-entangled-life-merlin-sheldrake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=10543","title":{"rendered":"BOOK REVIEW: Entangled Life, Merlin Sheldrake"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Enjoying reading at home\u2026<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m giving this book my rare and coveted (ha! I wish!) six stars<\/em> rating. For the exceptionally<\/em> good. Am I being swept up and away in the euphoric hype around young Merlin and his \u00fcber-trendy book? Will I regret my blissful embrace? We shall see, I guess. Anyhoo\u2026 my review:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m still reading this, at the time of starting this review. I\u2019m probably about 80% through the main body of text (there are tons of notes!). And we – my wife and I, and some friends – are going to see the author give a talk about the book in Ely, next week (Nov, \u201823).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Knowing that Merlin is the son of the maverick and sometimes controversial Rupert Sheldrake (who has published a book with the provocative title The Science Delusion<\/em>*), I was rather sceptical of this at first glance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*Haven\u2019t read it yet. But want to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, as one can see by the plethora of breathlessly admiring quotes that adorn the various editions – and this is the authors\u2019 first book! – Merlin appears to be the very dictionary definition of what it is to be lionised, or (even worse), fashionable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deploying little quotes that range from Prince to Tolkien and Tom Waits – all of whom I love, as it happens – this populist vibe, and his background, reared on the lap of such psychedelic psychonauts as Terence McKenna and Paul Stamets, might be cause for grave concern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And he does have an occasionally rhapsodic side, that\u2019s nearly as evangelistic as folk like McKenna. But all in all, the younger Sheldrake gives us a very balanced account, putting both the enthused visionary\u2019s views, and those of the more sober sort over with nearly equal weight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One thing I\u2019ve come away with, amongst many, from reading this hugely interesting, highly readable, deeply informative, and altogether fascinating book, is a view Sheldrake shares; I forget who he quotes at the time (the book is strewn with quotations and citations), but someone describes mycology as a neglected \u2018mega-science\u2019, compared with our studies of plants and animals (or even inert matter, for that matter!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And this brilliant book makes a very strong case for the need for more folk, both at grassroots and social\/institutional levels, to remedy this oversight. The stories Sheldrake tells here – from his own rotten-wood fermentation bath, to stuff from deep history and\/or a \u2018fungal point of view\u2019 – are both very beguilingly told, and full of inherent interest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m one to bridle at hype, and both book and author seem to be \u2018instant darlings\u2019, making me deeply suspicious. But on reading the book, I\u2019m entirely won over. Superb. Highly recommended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m giving this book my rare and coveted (ha! I wish!) six stars rating. For the exceptionally good. Am I being swept up and away in the euphoric hype around young Merlin and his \u00fcber-trendy book? Will I regret my blissful embrace? We shall see, I guess. Anyhoo\u2026 my review: I\u2019m still reading this, at … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “BOOK REVIEW: Entangled Life, Merlin Sheldrake”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paGwUa-2K3","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10543"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10543\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}