I don't think I've even been so bored reading about corn. Now, I've been to trips to Arizona and gotten the state parks ranger's spiel about how Native American thrived on corn. That was not boring. This was so tedious it became boring. If one sees the title in a book called "corn sex", one has gone too far and needs to pull a u-turn. Maybe because I also have a farm family background, the marvels of corn are not nearly so marvelous. Washington farmers in the 50s still fed their dairy cows grass. I've gone back and seen corn rows in Custer County, but there are still farms that grow alfalfa hay.
I would also like to point out how the author goes from waxing poetic to "oh noes! petroleum!" That kind of gave me whiplash reading that. He also offers no potential solutions, but instead talks about the dismantling of the New Deal programs. I get it, that was important. But why can't something be done? Bemoaning the fate of an industry designed to be highly prolific doesn't do much. Maybe in the scope of the book it's the readers who are being educated.
The section about beef cattle and the author's response made me sneer a little. He's so far removed from the process that his gets easily righteous. I want to tell him to go kill his own cow and to buck up boy.
There was a wave of farmers in the 70s that came from the hippie subculture. They were often called "gentleman farmers" because they didn't want to do any work, only reap profit, or in this case food. My father has stories of people who needed help, and still couldn't make a go of it. Many moved out after two seasons.
But enough about my own history and context. Maybe section two will be better.
Colleen,
ReplyDeleteWow, seems like you had some strong feelings about the first part of this book. I agree that reading about corn for that long got tedious. In fact, I didn't know there was even that much to say about corn. Sometimes I feel like Pollan speaks from above in a way that is inappropriate because, like you said, he is so far removed. However, I also feel like at times he puts himself into the story enough that he has given himself a sort of credibility to say these things. I have to be careful to not just believe everything he says because he is such a great story teller, but to challenge his thoughts with my own ideas. Nice response! It got me thinking about this book in a different way.