Fascinating.

Susan Orlean :

Hi. I'm looking for John Laroche. 

Matthew Osceola :

Hi. 

Susan Orlean :

Hi. I'm writing an article 

on John, and I stopped by. 

Hoped I could see him. 

Matthew Osceola :

John's not here. 

Susan Orlean :

Oh. Well, you were at The Swamp 

with him, weren't you? 

Saw you at the courthouse, 

that's how I know. 

Matthew Osceola :

I'm Matthew Osceola. 

Susan Orlean :

Susan Orlean. Nice to meet you. 

Maybe I could talk to 

you for a second. 

I'm just trying to get a feel 

for the whole operation... 

Matthew Osceola :

You have very beautiful hair. 

Susan Orlean :

…Thank you very much. 

Thank you. I just... 

I just washed it this morning. 

I just used a new conditioner. 

Matthew Osceola :

I can see Your Sadness. 

It's lovely. 

Susan Orlean :

....Well, I'm just tired, that's all. 

That's my problem. 

So maybe we could chat a little bit, 

and I could get some background...

Matthew Osceola :

I'm not going to 

talk to you much. 

It's not personal. 

It's The Indian way. 

John Laroche :

Angraecum sesquipedale. Beauty! 

God! Darwin wrote about this one. 

Charles Darwin? 

Evolution guy? Hello? 

You see that nectary down there? 

Darwin hypothesized a moth 

with a nose 12 inches long 

to pollinate it. 

Everyone thought he was a loon. 

Then, sure enough, they found 

this moth with a 12-inch proboscis. 

"Proboscis" means nose, by the way. 

I know what it means. 

Hey, let's not get off the subject. 

This isn't a pissing contest. 

The Point is, what's so wonderful is that 

all these flowers have a specific relationship 

with the insect that pollinates it. 

There's a certain orchid looks exactly like a certain insect. 

So The Insect is drawn to This Flower, its double, 

its soul mate, and wants nothing more 

than to make love to it. 

After The Insect flies off, 

it spots another 

soul-mate flower 

and makes love to it, 

pollinating it. 

And neither The Flower 

nor The Insect 

will ever understand the significance of their lovemaking. 

How could they know that because of 

their little dance, The World lives? 

But it does. By simply doing 

what they're designed to do 

something large 

and magnificent happens. 

In this sense, They show Us 

How to Live. 

How the only barometer 

you have is Your Heart. 

How when You spot 

Your Flower, 

You can't let anything 

get in Your Way. 

He's really quite a character. 

No front teeth. 

Doesn't seem to bother him at all. 

Why doesn't he get them fixed? 

It seems almost Sociopathic 

to make everybody look at that. 

Yeah, but he gives a great blowjob, honey. 

He is a fascinating character, though. 

Sounds like a gold mine, Sue. 

Susan Orlean :

It could be. I don't know, you know? 

He's, uh... 

He lives with his dad, he's obsessed 

with his dead mother, and... 

He wears his sunglasses on a little 

dingle-dangle around his neck. 

Loving it. Tell them about the van. 

Okay, the van. The van. 

Susan Orlean :

I can't tell about the van. I gotta pee. 

No, tell us about the van. 

It's amazing. It's... 

What's in it? 

You did it in the van. 

Susan Orlean :

Shut up. David, you tell... 

Don't you tell them. Don't tell them. 

Okay, the van. David! 

This van was filled with junk... 

Susan Orlean :

Shut up! 

Potting soil. Shovels. 

Food wrappers. Fertilizer. 

Susie said she hoped it was fertilizer, anyway. 

Said she couldn't be sure. 

Laroche had a certain aromatic look about him. And she said...

She said perhaps his obsessiveness 

didn't leave room in his schedule 

for personal hygiene. 

Maybe the orchids got all the available water. 

Susan Orlean :

I wanted to want something 

as much as people wanted these plants. 

But... it isn't part of my constitution. 

I suppose I do have one unembarrassed passion. 

I wanna know what it feels like 

to care about something passionately. 

"Should one be lucky enough to see a ghost orchid, all else will seem eclipsed." 

If the ghost orchid was really a phantom, 

it was such a bewitching one 

that it could seduce people to pursue it 

year after year and mile after miserable mile. 

If it was a real flower, I wanted to see one. 

The reason wasn't that I love orchids. 

I don't even especially like orchids. 

What I wanted was to see this thing 

that people were drawn to in such 

a singular and powerful way. 

Susan Orlean :

So how many turtles did you end up collecting? 

John Laroche :

Oh, I lost interest right after that. 

Susan Orlean :

Oh. 

John Laroche :

I dropped turtles when I fell in love with Ice Age fossils. Collected the shit out of them. 

Fossils were the only thing 

that made sense to me 

in this fucked-up world. 

I ditched fossils for resilvering old mirrors. 

My Mom and I had the largest collection of 19th-century Dutch mirrors on the planet. 

Perhaps you read about us. 

Mirror World, October '88? 

I got a copy here somewhere. 

Susan Orlean :

I guess I'd just like to know 

how you can detach from something that 

you've invested so much of your soul in. 

I mean, didn't you ever miss turtles? 

The only thing that made 

your 10-year-old life 

worth living? 

John Laroche :

Look, I'll tell you A Story, all right? 

I once fell deeply, you know, 

profoundly in love with tropical fish. 

I had 60 goddamn fish tanks in my house. 

I'd skin-dive to find 

just the right ones. 

Anisotremus virginicus, Holacanthus ciliaris, 

Chaetodon capistratus. 

You name it. 

Then one day I say, "Fuck fish.

I renounce fish. 

I vow never to set foot 

in that ocean again.”

That's how much "Fuck fish." 

That was 17 years ago, and I have 

never since stuck a toe in that ocean. 

And I love the ocean. 

Susan Orlean :

But.... why? 

John Laroche :

Done with fish. 

Susan Orlean :

If you'd really loved something, 

wouldn't a little bit of it linger? 

Evidently Laroche's finishes 

were downright and absolute. 

He just moved on. 

I sometimes wished 

I could do the same.