Help: Searching for Books, Short Stories etc.

Hi!

Im Julia from Germany and about to write a term paper in literary studies. The topic of this paper is (roughly said) the consciousness of plants and how this issue is dealt with in literature.
So here's what you could help me with: I need novels, short stories or tales that deal with this subject.
I already read Blackwood's "The man whom the trees loved" and Dahl's "The sound machine", which are perfect for my studies. But I'm always looking for more.
Please note that I'm not searching for secondary literature like biological essays, but for FICTION!

Thank you very much for your help :)

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Originally Posted by Juelsspuels

Hi!

Im Julia from Germany and about to write a term paper in literary studies. The topic of this paper is (roughly said) the consciousness of plants and how this issue is dealt with in literature.
So here's what you could help me with: I need novels, short stories or tales that deal with this subject.
I already read Blackwood's "The man whom the trees loved" and Dahl's "The sound machine", which are perfect for my studies. But I'm always looking for more.
Please note that I'm not searching for secondary literature like biological essays, but for FICTION!

Thank you very much for your help :)

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Try 'The Day of the Triffids' by John Whyndham. You will never be quite so friendly towards plants again.

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Originally Posted by Emil Miller

Try 'The Day of the Triffids' by John Whyndham. You will never be quite so friendly towards plants again.

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Big second here (though look under Wyndham instead :)). Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree is also a good one. The Wizard of Oz has the talking trees that don't like having their fruit plucked. Lord of the Rings has the Ents.

You could try Louise Glück's poetry collection The Wild Iris.

Another thought: If you want to branch out [drum fill], there have been several plant-based monsters in comics. I think The Heap was the first, but the best-known now are probably Marvel's Man-Thing and especially DC's Swamp Thing. The latter probably best fits your purpose, as the first two remained simple monsters, while Swamp Thing underwent some major development in the '80s, learning that he was the current in a line of Swamp Things that have served as "enforcers" for the global network of plant life (known as "The Green") headed by a Parliament of Trees located in South America.

If you want to include mass market horror movies, there are at least two versions of The Thing From Another World (1951) as well as the 1982 remake by John Carpenter about a menacing giant vegetable in Antarctica (of all places.) Likewise, the 1960 original (and 1986 musical version) of Little Shop of Horrors hinges upon a man-eating Venus fly-trap. Lest we forget the immortal Attack of the Killer Tomatoes(1978).

Then there is the dreadful thing called The Happening(2008) by M. Night ("The Sixth Sense") Shymalan. In that piece of you-know-what, the world's trees are so pissed off by pollution that they telepathically force humans to commit suicide, which they do by stupefyingly gory means.

Then there's the song "I Talk to the Trees (But They Don't Listen to Me)" in Paint Your Wagon (1969). Come to think of it, listening to Clint Eastwood trying to croak out that ditty is just as horrifying as any creature feature.

Wow, that was quick, thank you so so much :)
I asked this question in serveral other forums but got not one suitable answer.
Again, thanks a LOT, you guys are great!!

You might also consider those parts of The Lord of the Rings that deal with the Ents, and the section in which Frodo and Sam were saved by Tom Bombadil. The Little Shop of Horros is quite nice alos, but look for consciousness.

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Originally Posted by TheFifthElement

You could try Louise Glück's poetry collection The Wild Iris.

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Definitely seconded.

The Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton. Jack and the Beanstalk There's a song which starts "I know that I will never see a poem lovelier than a tree.

You could try The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy. The plants are not exactly conscious, but spirituality connected to some of the characters. There is one character who is tormented by an elm tree that has grown outside his cottage. Another character has an almost spiritual way of planting trees so that they always take root. The trees add to the claustrophobic atmosphere of the book.

Thought #3: The forest in Robert Holdstock's exceptional Mythago Wood fantasy series aren't conscious as such, but the wood is psychically active. It's also much bigger on the inside than the outside, and time flows more slowly the deeper into it one goes.

Kipling's "On the city wall" deals with women married to trees.