Table of Contents
Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xiii
Preface by Emanuele Coccia xiv
Part 1
First Contacts 1
Origins 1
Winters 2
Weeds 3
A Scientific Challenge: Remaining or Rising in the Ranks 12
Customs and Beliefs 22
Lichen Erotics 34
Part 2
To Describe, Name, Represent 45
A Challenge to Representation 45
Music = Mushroom 72
The Far East, Mosses, and Wabi-Sabi 77
Part 3
Ecopoetics: Life Force and Resistance 91
Ruderal 91
Rousseauist Walks 92
Sentinel Species 108
"Lichens of sunlight and mucus of azure" 112
"Sbarbarian" Glowworm 116
Ecological Forewarnings 124
Fragility, Resistance 132
Contemporary "Poethics" 134
"Insurrection of the Humble" 156
Micro-habitats 166
Part 4
Toward a Symbiotic Way of Thought 173
The Politics of Lichen: at the Origins of Symbiosis 175
Chimeras, Vampires, and Other Common Monsters 192
A "Third Place" 197
Cohabitation 210
Envoi: Sporules 215
Notes 220
Index of Names 255
Index of Lichens 260