Mushrooms in literature
Alice's Adventures Underground
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
The most famous mushroom in fairy tales is definitely the one that also introduces the Blue Hole or the Caterpillar, a character invented by Lewis Carroll, the pseudonym of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, a writer, poet, photographer, logician, and mathematician who lived between 1832 and 1898 in England.
- Alice looked at the flowers and blades of grass around her, but she saw nothing that looked like the right thing to eat in these circumstances. There was a large mushroom nearby, about her own height, and when she had looked underneath, and on both sides, and behind the mushroom, it occurred to her to see what was above.
She stood on tiptoe, and peeped over the edge of the mushroom, and immediately her eyes met those of a big blue caterpillar, who was sitting there with folded arms, smoking a long hookah, and paying no attention to her or anything else.
excerpt from Alice's Adventures Underground, 1862
The Blue Caterpillar (the name was later given to him by the Italian Disney adaptors) appears to be blue, around 7/8 centimeters tall, and smokes a hookah while sitting on top of a mushroom, presumably an Amanita muscaria.
Alice finds him annoying and will respond evasively to all his questions.
Photo on the side: John Tenniel, Illustration for Alice in Wonderland with the Blue Caterpillar, 1865
Brucaliffo is definitely a man of few words, but it will only be thanks to his explanations that Alice will discover that one side of the mushroom will make her grow while the other side will make her shrink.
Carroll describes it as a psychedelic mushroom, a fungus that distorts reality, and considering the description, it seems to be none other than the Amanita muscaria. This fungus was indeed known because ancient populations used it for its mystical properties, but it was also well-known and widely used in Victorian England.
It seems that a symptom of Amanita Muscaria is precisely the sensation of elongation of the limbs, which suggests that Carroll thoroughly studied its psychedelic effects before incorporating it into his books.
Sembrerebbe infatti che un sintomo dell'Amanita Muscaria sia appunto la sensazione di allungamento degli arti, il che ci fa pensare che Carroll, prima di inserirlo nei suoi libri, ne studiò approfonditamente gli effetti psichedelici.
WARNING!!! DO NOT CONSUME AMANITA MUSCARIA!!!
We inform you that ingesting Amanita muscaria leads to the pantherine and muscarinic syndrome whose initial manifestations of poisoning are:
- dizziness,
- drowsiness,
- difficulty maintaining balance
- difficulty coordinating movements
- confusion.
Subsequently, there will be psychomotor excitement, euphoria, tachycardia, anxiety, and sometimes hallucinations.
Gastrointestinal disturbances such as nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea may occur.
In severe poisonings, tremors or seizures may occur with loss of consciousness, reflexes, and coma.
Given the variability and abundance of symptoms, any use of this fungus is not recommended as it is classified asTOXIC
