Green Fungal Light: On Bioluminescence and Fungal Intelligence in Vandermeer's The Ambergris Trilogy

10.6153/EXP.202406_(51).0005

Chiu-Hua Su

Jeff Vandermeer ； bioluminescence ； mushroom intelligence ； tentacular thinking ； chromophobia ； Jacques Derrida

Ex-position

51期（2024 / 06 / 01）

73 - 96

英文

In The Ambergris Trilogy, Jeff Vandermeer portrays the fantastic world of the Gray Caps, or unidentified extraterritorial creatures resembling mushrooms, living where bioluminescent mushrooms shine. In this essay, I attempt to elaborate on the challenge that colorful fungal light poses to sunlight, which is presumably white in color. By so doing, I aim to extend the notion of "tentacular thinking" proposed by Donna Haraway and to redefine intelligence as inter-legere, or groping amid the dark. The colorful light emitted by bioluminescent fungi is thus deployed to oppose sunlight, privileged by Western metaphysics. By taking account of the etymology of luciferin as "Lucifer" and "light-bringer," I will argue that the phenomena of bioluminescence put helio-logo-centric thinking into question. If, as Jacques Derrida maintains, the sun is the source of light, or the ultimate metaphor of truth, I would like to ask: can the light brought by those chthonic critters show us a way to imagine an alternative intelligence? To tackle this question, I argue that the black-and-white sensibility, which harbors anthropocentric epistemological and moral values, should be calibrated to address the subdued colors shimmering in the grayish darkness of Chthulucene.