12 April 2006

The Mushroom

I am a mushroom. I don’t know what to think. I am told that a mushroom cannot think. Maybe that is it.
Once upon a time, I was told that a mushroom could only be. A mushroom could not hope to be anything better; a mushroom could not hope.
Then I became a rose. Now I tell you that it was most strange. I took on a shape that I was not before, a colour and radiance that I had not before and a fragrance that I issued not before.
All was changed.
Once before I existed only to scatter spores; then I became a thing of beauty and an object of desire. Once before, I, a common mushroom, needed no defence; then I grew thorns. And cloaked in their danger, did my beauty grow and I became yet more desirable.
Then, as quickly as I had been changed before, I became a mushroom again.
Changed, without so much as a by-your-leave.
Changed, without being asked.
Changed without being told.
Someone could have said in the beginning, ‘This is magic of the most dangerous kind and you are going to be a rose.’ Someone might have said the next night, ‘We are going to change you back and there is not a thing you can do about it.’ Yet who could have bothered with a mushroom?
What is it with the main characters in any story? How do they get away with sneezing on innocent mushrooms? Don’t they know their every decision affects others as well?
Doesn’t a mushroom have a right to live Happily Ever After too?

Update 13 April 2006
What was all the fuss about? I watched Shrek 2 last night and couldn’t help but wonder about the mushroom. You know, the solitary mushroom that stood between Shrek and friends as they were arguing about who was the best one to literally swallow the risk of Fairy Godmother’s Happily Ever After Potion; that’s the one.
On the one hand, there is the feeling that the mushroom received its comeuppance. It did grow alone when other mushrooms had enough sense to sprout in little clumps, so serves it right when it got sneezed on (if it did not choose to grow on its own, then what followed takes on a slightly different light).
For this was the mushroom that transformed in the rainstorm, even as Shrek, Puss In Boots and Donkey ran for shelter. This was the mushroom that became a single red rose. Did Shrek and friends unwittingly oppress this mushroom by accidentally denying its right to continue to be a mushroom?
At the end of the story, when Princess Fiona chose to remain true to herself (and also to Shrek), when the transformations of Shrek, herself and Donkey were reversed, I am sure the same thing happened to the rose. Having had just one day to get used to being a rose, it would have found itself a mushroom once more. Did Princess Fiona and company (again) unwittingly oppress the rose-mushroom by snatching away its new life as a rose? Was it not the worst form of cruelty, to let this mushroom be a rose for a fleeting moment, then disregard its right to continue to be a rose? Even if it had wanted to be a mushroom once more, should it not have been allowed to choose?

10 Comments:

At 2:11 am, Blogger L B said...

...compares the plink with one of his own Tung Kus on the kitchen shelf...

Looks edible.... *pops into mouth*... awaits reaction..

 
At 9:34 am, Blogger may said...

hmmmm, magic mushroom? chinese mushroom? japanese mushroom? cream of mushroom?

*mushroom nightmare*

 
At 3:36 pm, Blogger plink said...

LB: *gasp* *starts music*
Where have all the good men gone and where are all the gods?
Where's the streetwise Hercules to fight the rising odds?
may: Close, but just a mushroom. In a film, so in a sense, it is a mushroom's nightmare.
SAm: Just telling it like I see/saw it.

*gives up*

Oh, all right. I watched this DVD a couple of nights back. There's magic, fairy tales and a mushroom. This is your third clue; the post itself is the first. Your second clue is somewhere in the comments above.... ;)

 
At 2:47 pm, Blogger plink said...

SAm: Nearly there... another clue is in my reply to LB.... ;)

 
At 7:50 pm, Blogger L B said...

Er..... *counts mushrooms in plink's tea garden, with the Queen of Hearts and the Cheshire Mouse*

 
At 3:33 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

hhmm....i like mushroom soup, i like it when the mushrooms are shredded into tiny bits n boiled to perfection, i love when the soup is hot n creamy. and now i've just made myself hungry - LB....where's my soup????

 
At 3:52 pm, Blogger plink said...

Shrek 2 lar, Shrek 2!
LB: Are you counting the QoH and the Cheshire Cat/Mouse as Tung Kus also?
SAm: It's rumoured that Humpty's in a TV deal too.... A Happy Easter to you too.
yvy: LB now mass-cooking ar?

 
At 6:18 pm, Blogger L B said...

*contemplates a plink in the soup*

 
At 6:18 pm, Blogger L B said...

...FunkyTown....

 
At 9:32 pm, Blogger plink said...

LB: Yoeh... the story of my life. Funky and always in hot soup....

 

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