An Apple's Fake Sweetness

Pollan, M.  2001.  Chapter 1 – Desire:  Sweetness;  Plant:  The Apple (pg. 3-58) in The Botany of Desire:  A Plant’s-Eye View of the World.  Random House Trade Paperbacks, New York. 

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always loved reading;  probably since the very first time my parents read me a fairytale before bed, my interest was sparked and I wanted to be able to read those stories for myself.  I don’t enjoy all reading though – for instance, I hate/loath/detest textbook reading – but I have (almost) always enjoyed well written fantasy books because they are so descriptive that I feel as if I’m actually going through the experiences along with the characters (without the imminent danger).  This “trait” of mine, if you can call it a trait, is why I have appreciated what I have read of Pollen’s written works so much.  And I bemoan that I can’t learn all my coursework through reading such interesting, well-written, and attention grabbing language. 

Pollen starts his chapters by grabbing my attention with a descriptive story – which effectively draws me in and places me directly in the scene he’s describing.  For his apple chapter he did this by stating that if I would have been “on the banks of the Ohio River on a particular afternoon in the spring of 1806” I would have seen “a strange makeshift craft drifting lazily down the river” which “consisted of a pair of hollowed-out logs that had been lashed together to form a rough catamaran, a sort of canoe plus sidecar” (p. 3).  All of these, and his other, descriptions of the scenery help the story feel very real to me, which, in turn, spikes my interest in what Pollen wants to convey to me through his writing. 

I also like how Pollen shows great respect for the plants that he discusses, not just through all the research he does about them, but also through his discussions of how the plant has benefitted mankind (e.g. “...without [apples] the American wilderness might never have become a home” (p. 5)) and how the plant has ‘used’ mankind to further its own interests (e.g. “What did the apple get in return?  A golden age:  untold new varieties and half a world of new habitat” (p. 5)). 

I thoroughly enjoyed reading ‘The Apple’ chapter of Pollen’s ‘The Botany of Desire’.  I found it interesting to learn the ‘true’ story of the ‘Johnny Appleseed’ who had captured my attention as a child in Walt Disney’s ‘Melody Time’ – though my interest in this story was likely due to the songs (e.g. “...singing with my feathered friends, humming with the bees...”) and my appreciation of musical type movies.  However, even though I enjoyed learning the ‘true story’ – as perceived by Pollen – I also resent him a little for ruining my perfect fairytale picture of Johnny Appleseed;  though I also resent that the story became a fairytale-type lie due to the apples bad rap during the prohibition.  Pollen’s story and association between how John Chapman became Disney’s Johnny Appleseed and how the apple became “sweetness without dimension” (p. 7) were intriguing.  I enjoyed how he described this change with how both of their “tang of strangeness” (p. 7) became “composted beneath a deep sift of myth and legend and wishful thinking” (p. 6) and becoming a “fake sweetness” substituting the real thing (p. 7).