The provocative critique of the sci

The provocative critique of the scientific cataloging of mushrooms playfully sheds light on this point. The narrator laments mushrooms’ categorization based on “poisonous vs. edible,” rather than on such dichotomies as “beautiful vs. ugly” or “pleasant to touch vs. unpleasant to touch.” According to her, “People see what they want to see, and in the end that get what they want—clear, but false divisions” (H 222).21 Though one can rationally understand the categorization of mushrooms based on poisonous and edible, Tokarczuk’s point remains no less valid: to categorize, classify, order, and organize knowledge is a discursive, performative act that creates and reforms perception, reflects how we see the world from a certain vantage point, and then affects the way the world is perceived.