Tag: #Fungi

The Fungal Utopia: Seeing Utopia in Mushrooms and Mushrooms in Utopia

Sheryl M. Medlicott1 Comment
The fungal utopia: photos from Weston Wood

As autumn turns to winter it’s time for me to summarise what I’ve read and thought about fungi this season. I started off from the current trend for fungal fiction. I found myself asking whether fungi are being used to think about better ways of being, and this made me wonder about the relationship between fungi and utopia. This led me to think about the fungi appearing in contemporary utopian fiction, and to ask what work authors are putting fungi to in their literary utopias. Here’s what I found when exploring these questions.

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Mushroom Diary: Autumn 2025 in Photos of Fungi

Sheryl M. MedlicottLeave a comment

I’ve been reading a lot about fungal fiction and the fungal turn recently. It gets to a point where it’s weird to be inside reading about mushrooms when there are actual mushrooms outside. Accordingly, I’ve been fungi spotting whenever I’ve been out, and even going on mushroom walks specifically to look for them.

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The Seep: Book of the Month August 2023

Sheryl M. Medlicott1 Comment

In The Seep by Chana Porter, utopia has been brought about by means of an alien invasion. What follows in this novella is a loving pastiche of contemporary utopian tropes. The emotional processing, sensitivity to ecological connections, and community-mindedness. Its diversity in terms of race, gender and sexuality. The abolition of money and the police. And the complete mitigation of human-induced climate change.

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