{"id":238326,"date":"2025-05-12T16:10:18","date_gmt":"2025-05-12T16:10:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/entertainment\/art\/a-mystical-obsessive-encounter-with-the-ginseng-root\/"},"modified":"2025-05-12T16:10:18","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T16:10:18","slug":"a-mystical-obsessive-encounter-with-the-ginseng-root","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=238326","title":{"rendered":"A Mystical, Obsessive Encounter With the Ginseng Root"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<aside>\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1664\" onerror=\"if (typeof newspackHandleImageError === 'function') newspackHandleImageError(this);\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ZkxC7-1200x1664.jpeg?resize=1200%2C1664&amp;quality=90&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1011500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ZkxC7-scaled.jpeg?resize=1200%2C1664&amp;quality=90&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ZkxC7-scaled.jpeg?resize=720%2C998&amp;quality=90&amp;ssl=1 720w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ZkxC7-scaled.jpeg?resize=768%2C1065&amp;quality=90&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ZkxC7-scaled.jpeg?resize=1108%2C1536&amp;quality=90&amp;ssl=1 1108w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ZkxC7-scaled.jpeg?resize=1477%2C2048&amp;quality=90&amp;ssl=1 1477w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ZkxC7-scaled.jpeg?resize=738%2C1024&amp;quality=90&amp;ssl=1 738w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ZkxC7-scaled.jpeg?resize=2000%2C2773&amp;quality=90&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ZkxC7-scaled.jpeg?resize=780%2C1082&amp;quality=90&amp;ssl=1 780w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ZkxC7-scaled.jpeg?resize=400%2C555&amp;quality=90&amp;ssl=1 400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ZkxC7-scaled.jpeg?resize=706%2C979&amp;quality=90&amp;ssl=1 706w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ZkxC7-scaled.jpeg?w=1846&amp;quality=90&amp;ssl=1 1846w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ZkxC7-1200x1664.jpeg?w=370&amp;quality=90&amp;ssl=1 370w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Book cover of <i>Ginseng Roots: A Memoir<\/i> (2025), written and illustrated by Craig Thompson (all images courtesy Pantheon Graphic Library, an imprint of Penguin Random House)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Twenty years ago, Craig Thompson captivated readers with <em><a href=\"http:\/\/bookshop.org\/a\/539\/9781770462182\">Blankets<\/a> <\/em>(2003) \u2014 a gripping and fluidly drawn romance set amid the Christian fundamentalism, poverty, and abuse of his childhood. Now, he\u2019s out with a thick new book called <em><a href=\"http:\/\/bookshop.org\/a\/539\/9780593700778\">Ginseng Roots<\/a><\/em> that digs into territory that <em>Blankets<\/em> left out: a decade of \u201cpicking rocks\u201d on ginseng farms in Marathon, Wisconsin.<\/p>\n<p>That Midwestern soil is, improbably, deeply tied to Asia. On a vacation in China, Thompson, stuck in a middle-aged career rut, injured his drawing hand and was given ginseng as medicine. The root \u2014 drawn with big googly eyes \u2014 implores him to return home to Marathon and its ginseng farms. One of Thompson\u2019s gifts \u2014 and a strength of the comic format, which seamlessly blends interior and exterior worlds \u2014 is showing us how a bizarre episode like this can be true.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>Originally, Thompson conceived of ginseng as the book\u2019s main character, the way trees are in Richard Powers\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/bookshop.org\/a\/539\/9780393356687\"><em>The Overstory<\/em><\/a><em> <\/em>(2019). His publisher steered him toward people, but there\u2019s still a sense that the heart of the project is a mystical, obsessive encounter with the root itself. It turns out that Marathon is a world center for the ginseng industry, with a far older history than one might imagine: The Iroquois, whose ancestors came from Asia millennia ago, sometimes smoked it. They called it <em>garent oguen<\/em>, which means \u201cresembles man.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside>\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1689\" onerror=\"if (typeof newspackHandleImageError === 'function') newspackHandleImageError(this);\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/NjNty-1200x1689.jpeg?resize=1200%2C1689&amp;quality=90&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1011501\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/NjNty-scaled.jpeg?resize=1200%2C1689&amp;quality=90&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/NjNty-scaled.jpeg?resize=720%2C1013&amp;quality=90&amp;ssl=1 720w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/NjNty-scaled.jpeg?resize=768%2C1081&amp;quality=90&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/NjNty-scaled.jpeg?resize=1091%2C1536&amp;quality=90&amp;ssl=1 1091w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/NjNty-scaled.jpeg?resize=1455%2C2048&amp;quality=90&amp;ssl=1 1455w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/NjNty-scaled.jpeg?resize=728%2C1024&amp;quality=90&amp;ssl=1 728w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/NjNty-scaled.jpeg?resize=2000%2C2815&amp;quality=90&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/NjNty-scaled.jpeg?resize=780%2C1098&amp;quality=90&amp;ssl=1 780w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/NjNty-scaled.jpeg?resize=400%2C563&amp;quality=90&amp;ssl=1 400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/NjNty-scaled.jpeg?resize=706%2C994&amp;quality=90&amp;ssl=1 706w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/NjNty-scaled.jpeg?w=1819&amp;quality=90&amp;ssl=1 1819w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/NjNty-1200x1689.jpeg?w=370&amp;quality=90&amp;ssl=1 370w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Page from <em>Ginseng Roots: A Memoir<\/em> (2025), written and illustrated by Craig Thompson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The reporting in <em>Ginseng Roots<\/em> is nuanced \u2014 Thompson has cited Joe Sacco (author of <em><a href=\"http:\/\/bookshop.org\/a\/539\/9798875000003\">Palestine<\/a><\/em>, and the standard setter for graphic journalism) as an influence \u2014 and Thompson\u2019s sure-handed lines world-build around voices like Chua Vang, son of humble Hmong ginseng farmers, and Paul Hsu, a Wisconsin ginseng mogul with a surreal connection to Trump.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Graphically, <em>Ginseng Roots<\/em> is an epic accomplishment. Thompson thinks of the entire page \u2014 not just the panel \u2014 as his unit, creating a layered, rhizomatic reading experience. While deeply reported, like Sacco\u2019s work, this book feels less like hardcore journalism and more like an immersion in the personal, chaotic order of art.<\/p>\n<p>Thompson\u2019s exquisite brushwork is a big part of that. It\u2019s a boisterous hybrid of styles: <em>Mad Magazine<\/em> gonzo maximalism meets classical Eastern gesture. The book gets incredible mileage from its limited red-and-black palette, blending analog inking with digital mark-making for delightfully richly textured pages.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1689\" onerror=\"if (typeof newspackHandleImageError === 'function') newspackHandleImageError(this);\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/o58ST-1200x1689.jpeg?resize=1200%2C1689&amp;quality=90&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1011503\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/o58ST-scaled.jpeg?resize=1200%2C1689&amp;quality=90&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/o58ST-scaled.jpeg?resize=720%2C1013&amp;quality=90&amp;ssl=1 720w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/o58ST-scaled.jpeg?resize=768%2C1081&amp;quality=90&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/o58ST-scaled.jpeg?resize=1091%2C1536&amp;quality=90&amp;ssl=1 1091w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/o58ST-scaled.jpeg?resize=1455%2C2048&amp;quality=90&amp;ssl=1 1455w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/o58ST-scaled.jpeg?resize=728%2C1024&amp;quality=90&amp;ssl=1 728w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/o58ST-scaled.jpeg?resize=2000%2C2815&amp;quality=90&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/o58ST-scaled.jpeg?resize=780%2C1098&amp;quality=90&amp;ssl=1 780w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/o58ST-scaled.jpeg?resize=400%2C563&amp;quality=90&amp;ssl=1 400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/o58ST-scaled.jpeg?resize=706%2C994&amp;quality=90&amp;ssl=1 706w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/o58ST-scaled.jpeg?w=1819&amp;quality=90&amp;ssl=1 1819w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/o58ST-1200x1689.jpeg?w=370&amp;quality=90&amp;ssl=1 370w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Page from <em>Ginseng Roots: A Memoir<\/em> (2025), written and illustrated by Craig Thompson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>But <em>Ginseng Roots<\/em> isn\u2019t a sugary pleasure. You can sit down and read <em>Blankets<\/em> in one go, but this book is too wonderfully compressed for that, with the crafted information-density of a farmer\u2019s almanac, demanding slow looking. All this is to say that <em>Ginseng Roots<\/em> is what it should be: a medicinal herb you steep in.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-2    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>And it\u2019s the right medicine for the moment. It explores the paradoxes that have burst into the open:\u00a0Trump\u2019s supporters are often caricatured as irrational conspiracy theorists, but nearly 80% of farm-dependent counties <a href=\"https:\/\/investigatemidwest.org\/2024\/11\/13\/trump-election-farming-counties-trade-war\/\">voted for him<\/a> \u2014 practical people who spend harsh winters welding their broken ploughs for the next planting season. This is the sort of disconnect Thompson is so well positioned to humanize. But he also complicates it.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>When Trump\u2019s tariffs were announced, I thought immediately of Thompson\u2019s ginseng farmers. Sure enough, there was Will Hsu on PBS Wisconsin, calling tariffs \u201creliving a nightmare.\u201d This heartland industry \u2014 reliant on immigrant labor \u2014 is also entirely dependent on exporting to China. <em>Ginseng Roots<\/em> is a story about the tendril-like global interconnections that form reality, despite how the MAGA regime spins it.<\/p>\n<p>Hsu\u2019s existential predicament echoes a moment in <em>Ginseng Roots<\/em> when Thompson, working the fields with the Vangs, admits that his new book \u201cmight be another failure and ruin me financially.\u201d Art so often feels out of step with capitalism \u2014 creative expression might sometimes overlap with money, but at the end of the day, it constitutes its own value system.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFarmers know that feeling!\u201d Vang replies.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1689\" onerror=\"if (typeof newspackHandleImageError === 'function') newspackHandleImageError(this);\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/t3vsz-1200x1689.jpeg?resize=1200%2C1689&amp;quality=90&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1011504\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/t3vsz-scaled.jpeg?resize=1200%2C1689&amp;quality=90&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/t3vsz-scaled.jpeg?resize=720%2C1013&amp;quality=90&amp;ssl=1 720w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/t3vsz-scaled.jpeg?resize=768%2C1081&amp;quality=90&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/t3vsz-scaled.jpeg?resize=1091%2C1536&amp;quality=90&amp;ssl=1 1091w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/t3vsz-scaled.jpeg?resize=1455%2C2048&amp;quality=90&amp;ssl=1 1455w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/t3vsz-scaled.jpeg?resize=728%2C1024&amp;quality=90&amp;ssl=1 728w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/t3vsz-scaled.jpeg?resize=2000%2C2815&amp;quality=90&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/t3vsz-scaled.jpeg?resize=780%2C1098&amp;quality=90&amp;ssl=1 780w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/t3vsz-scaled.jpeg?resize=400%2C563&amp;quality=90&amp;ssl=1 400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/t3vsz-scaled.jpeg?resize=706%2C994&amp;quality=90&amp;ssl=1 706w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/t3vsz-scaled.jpeg?w=1819&amp;quality=90&amp;ssl=1 1819w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/t3vsz-1200x1689.jpeg?w=370&amp;quality=90&amp;ssl=1 370w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Page from <em>Ginseng Roots: A Memoir<\/em> (2025), written and illustrated by Craig Thompson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/bookshop.org\/a\/539\/9780593700778\">Ginseng Roots: A Memoir<\/a> <em>(2025), written and illustrated by Craig Thompson and published by Pantheon Graphic Library, an imprint of Penguin Random House, is available for purchase online and in bookstores. <\/em><\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-3    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<aside>\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<section id=\"block-27\" class=\"below-content widget widget_block\"\/>\t<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Book cover of Ginseng Roots: A Memoir (2025), written and illustrated by Craig Thompson (all images courtesy Pantheon Graphic Library, an imprint of Penguin Random House) Twenty years ago, Craig Thompson captivated readers with Blankets (2003) \u2014 a gripping and fluidly drawn romance set amid the Christian fundamentalism, poverty, and abuse of his childhood. Now, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":238327,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[1752,47509,38918,70388,30128,16751],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-238326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art","tag-books","tag-encounter","tag-ginseng","tag-mystical","tag-obsessive","tag-root"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A Mystical, Obsessive Encounter With the Ginseng Root - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=238326\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Mystical, Obsessive Encounter With the Ginseng Root - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Book cover of Ginseng Roots: A Memoir (2025), written and illustrated by Craig Thompson (all images courtesy Pantheon Graphic Library, an imprint of Penguin Random House) Twenty years ago, Craig Thompson captivated readers with Blankets (2003) \u2014 a gripping and fluidly drawn romance set amid the Christian fundamentalism, poverty, and abuse of his childhood. 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