Diamond J. 1999. Guns, germs, and steel. W.W. Norton & Company Inc., New York, New York
Pollan M. 2001. Botany of desire. Random House, Toronto, Canada.
This week’s reading tackled the beast that is artificial selection. Both Diamond and Pollan introduce artificial selection in the attempt to alter the way the reader thinks of the products of the process that are often overlooked. In common language, artificial is used to describe something fake and often carries a negative connotation. Both authors attempt to steer the reader away from that conception of artificial selection.
In Diamonds chapter on artificial selection, there are only two points at which he actually says the words “artificial selection”. Both of these moments are in the final paragraph of the chapter. Throughout the rest of the chapter Diamond refers to domestication instead. Domestication is typically associated with a long standing relationship with a species, from which we both have benefited. Artificial selection, however, carries the weight of an exploitive relationship in which humans are the only ones who benefit. He describes how we have picked up on the process of natural selection and used it to our advantage. As he describes our domestication of plants, Diamond draws our attention to the long standing relationships we have with plants and how it is mutually beneficial. When he puts the words “artificial selection” only at the end, the reader then realizes that he has been discussing this the whole chapter. This almost tricks the reader into forgetting the aversion they may have towards artificial selection until after he has truly explained what those words mean. He leaves it to the reader to then realize that domestication and artificial selection are the same thing.
Pollan, on the other hand, is clear with fact that he is discussing artificial selection but encourages the reader to look at it, not as a “fake” process, but rather one that humans have played a part in. In Pollan’s writing he encourages the reader to think critically about our view that humans are “other” from animals. Pollan, instead, imagines us just like a bee. There to serve the plant just as much as the plant serves us: “All these plants, which I’d always regarded as the objects of my desire, were also, I realized, subjects, acting on me, getting me to do things for them they couldn’t do for themselves.” (Pollan pg xv). Pollan and Diamond both are trying to tell the same story. They are both illustrating the complex relationship we have with plants and how we have cultivated it over generations. They do this differentl,y however, Diamond tends to tell it in the light of human accomplishment, while Pollan tells it from the point of view of the plants. In Pollan’s story we are no more to a plant than a bee is.
Plants and People 