Food in Literature

[VeryApe77]

The Electric Bible?

Close - The Neon Bible. Written a long time before ACOD and very different. Made into a film by Terrence Davis a few years ago - Scully from the X-Files was in it. Hardly a must-see.

[Busboy]

Possibly the best banana-oriented writing in postmodern literature, from Pynchon's "Gravity's Rainbow."

"Pirate, driven to despair by the wartime banana shortage, decided to build a glass hothouse on the roof, and persuade a friend who flew the Rio-to-Ascension-to-Fort-Lamy run to pinch him a sapling banana tree or two, in exchange for a German camera, should Pirate happen across one on his next mission by parachute.

Pirate has become famous for his Banana Breakfasts. Messmates throng here from all over England, even some who are allergic or outright hostile to bananas, just to watch--for the politics of bacteria, the soil's stringing of rings and chains in nets only God can tell the meshes of, have seen the fruit thrive often to lengths of a foot and a half, yes amazing but true....

Black market marshmallows slide languid into syrup, and the sweet, fragile, musaceous odour of breakfast permeates Prentice's flat. There is a giant glazed crock where bananas have been fermenting since the summer with wild honey and muscat raisins to create (yes!) Banana Mead.....

With a clattering of chairs, upended shell cases, benches, and ottomans, Pirate's mob gather at the shores of the great refectory table, a southern island well across a tropic or two from chill Corydon Throsp's mediaeval fantasies, crowded now over the swirling dark grain of its walnut uplands with banana omelets, banana sandwiches, banana casseroles, mashed bananas molded into the shape of a British lion rampant, blended with eggs into batter for French toast squeezed out a pastry nozzle across the quivering creamy reaches of a banana blancmange to spell out the words C'est magnifique, mais ce n'est pas la guerre (attributed to a French observer during the Charge of the Light Brigade) which Pirate has appropriated as his motto ... tall cruets of pale banana syrup to pour oozing over banana waffles, a giant glazed crock where diced bananas have been fermenting since the summer with wild honey and muscat raisins, up out of which, this winter morning, one now dips foam mugsfull of banana mead ... banana croissants and banana kreplach, and banana oatmeal and banana jam and banana bread, and bananas flamed in ancient brandy Pirate brought back last year from a cellar in the Pyrenees also containing a clandestine radio transmitter ..."

In "V." Pynchon introduces a painter named Slab who paints only cheese Danishes.

[pattimw]

Oh my goodness too many to list ... children's books certainly, especially (for me) the Betsy-Tacy books, and Mr. Ray making onion sandwiches on Sunday nights and Anna the cook's beginning to teach Betsy (later, after Betsy and Joe were married) how to cook, and on and on. Betsy, Tacy, and Tib Go Over the Big Hill, and find -- Middle Eastern food in MN. And on and on.

And a third, or fourth or fifth, for the Little House books ... Farmer Boy, Alamanzo's family story, inserted a dish, Apples & Onions, into my repetoire that remains to this day. I can remember eating baked potatoes with only salt, as the Ingalls did during The Long Winter. And in the same book Pa sussing out that there was wheat (seed wheat) behind a false wall in the Wilder's store, and later Ma grinding it in the coffee grinder to make coarse bread.

And the Anne of Green Gables series, lots of evocative food moments.

Much later, excellent foodage in The Buddha of Surburbia, by Hanif Kureishi, and tea too, a bonus.

Betsy-Tacy books.....I loved those as a kid. I'm going to have to go back and re-read them, if not only for the food references, then for how much fun they were to read....

I also loved the baked goods references in Peter Rabbit, the muffins that Peter's mother sends them off with.

[Mayhaw Man]

Confederacy of Dunces. If you've never read this, check it out. One of the funniest novels I've ever read. Takes place in New Orleans. Did he ever sell a hot dog out of his cart? Seems like he ate them all.

Oh, my pyloric valve...

Yes. He did vend a few of Clyde's franks to passersby. Mostly to vagrants who, according to Ignatius's letter to The Mynx, followed him when he was transferred from the Central Business District to the French Quarter. Local residents of the Quarter, according to Ignatius, were often unavailable to purchase his offerings due to the fact that he worked in the daytime and the denizens of the Quarter were sleeping off the previous evening's assortment of vices. (This letter contains one of the most hilarious descriptions of the life and lifestyle of the average French Quarter resident ever written. As a former full time resident (now part time) I can vouch for his observations).

The addition of a plastic cutlass and a scarf (an attempt at looking like a pirate) did garner some attention from the tourists, but no increase in sales.

Fortuna did not smile on the working boy often.

[fimbul]

As far as drink goes, I remember Flann O'Brien making much of a "pint of plain."

Samuel Beckett's description of Belacqua's lunch in "Dante and the Lobster" has always made me long for a sandwich of burnt toast and blue cheese. Likewise, his description of Murphy's biscuits (in Murphy) is wonderful.

Many good food scenes in Dona Flor and her Two Husbands by Jorge Amado.

[bloviatrix]

There's a wonderful short story in Boccaccio's Decameron about a man who murders his daughter's lover - so she takes the heart out the body, and cooks it for her father's dinner. Sounds gruesome, but it was incredibly romantic.

This reminds me of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus, where he feeds Tamora a meat pie made of the blood and bones of her sons Chiron and Demetrious. In this case, it was to avenge the rape of his daughter.

[Andrew Fenton]

There's a wonderful short story in Boccaccio's Decameron about a man who murders his daughter's lover - so she takes the heart out the body, and cooks it for her father's dinner. Sounds gruesome, but it was incredibly romantic.

This reminds me of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus, where he feeds Tamora a meat pie made of the blood and bones of her sons Chiron and Demetrious. In this case, it was to avenge the rape of his daughter.

A good trope, and one borrowed from classical antiquity (especially Ovid and Seneca's tragedies), where youngsters are forever getting turned into vengeance dinners.

I'm also a big fan of all the food in Petronius' Satyricon, especially dishes that look like other dishes (the best being a roast pig stuffed with sausages. When it's carved, they spill out like guts): Petronius anticipates El Bulli by two thousand years...

[fimbul]

There's a wonderful short story in Boccaccio's Decameron about a man who murders his daughter's lover - so she takes the heart out the body, and cooks it for her father's dinner. Sounds gruesome, but it was incredibly romantic.

This reminds me of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus, where he feeds Tamora a meat pie made of the blood and bones of her sons Chiron and Demetrious. In this case, it was to avenge the rape of his daughter.

The house of Atreus in Greek myth seems plagued by this sort of, erm, mischief. Iirc, Tantalus killed and cooked his son as an offering to the gods (with fava beans and a chianti, perhaps). Later, Tantalus's grandson Atreus killed his nephews and fed them to his brother (their father) to punish the brother's dalliance with Atreus's wife.

I had a tutor in college who kept writing the school paper to enquire after the recipe for "Atreus Surprise."

[fimbul]

edit: stupid fingers. stupid double posts. stupid cannibals. stupid crossing posts with andrew fenton.

Edited January 20, 2004 by fimbul (log)

[bloviatrix]

On a lighter note, there's Calvin Trillin's Tepper Isn't Going Out which has some very funny writing on smoked fish.

Edited January 20, 2004 by bloviatrix (log)

[Andrew Fenton]

edit: stupid fingers. stupid double posts. stupid cannibals. stupid crossing posts with andrew fenton.

Great minds, eh?

[alikat]

Which Laura Ingalls Wilder book featured a kid getting burned by an exploding baked potato? I was actually potato-phobic for a while as a kid because of that. And do you remember Pa bringing them horehound candy from town? I still don't know what that is but I remember wanting it as a kid because her description of it was so great.

[fresco]

Which Laura Ingalls Wilder book featured a kid getting burned by an exploding baked potato? I was actually potato-phobic for a while as a kid because of that. And do you remember Pa bringing them horehound candy from town? I still don't know what that is but I remember wanting it as a kid because her description of it was so great.

Think I've seen horehound candy for sale in a candy shop in Banff, Alberta, but it is offered other places as well if you are really curious:

http://www.chocolatevault.com/_sweetsuite/...s/horehound.htm

[MRX]

I remember the potato! And Horehounds (which aren't very good imho, but I haven't tried one in two decades).

[fimbul]

I'm remembering a truly terrifying bit on the effects of tv dinners in Daniel Pinkwater's Lizard Music.

And wasn't there a Calvino story about Mexican food? "Under the Jaguar Sun"?

[Pan]

I haven't seen any mention of poems so far (not counting plays in verse). The first one that came to my mind was William Carlos Williams: "I ate the plums that were in the icebox..."

There are many traditional Malay pantun (poems with 2 rhyming couplets) that include food in them.

And in the Bible, the Song of Songs has references to food and wine "The kisses of my beloved are sweeter than wine," etc. If any of you haven't read the Song of Songs, read it. It's one of the most beautiful books of erotic poetry ever written.

[chezlamere]

Just about anything by Hemingway reeks of food and booze.

you should read "found meals of a lost generation"

[fifi]

I think this one is now considered politically incorrect, but when I was a kid, I had a favorite Golden Book... Little Black Sambo. The story went somehow that Sambo got these tigers running around and around a tree and they all turned to butter. Then his momma made pancakes and they had butter on their pancakes. I think that book started my life long love of butter. I loved that book and I loved Little Black Sambo. He was so cool.

I also kept wondering what the tea tasted like that Peter Rabbit's mother gave him after his traumatic experience. Was it chamomille?

[maggiethecat]

I loved that book and I loved Little Black Sambo. He was so cool.

Yes, he was! I loved him. Thanks for reminding me of the amazing illustrations ---that vortex of butter.

Does anyone remember that other Golden Book "The Tawny Scrawny Lion?" I seem to recall that the message was world peace through carrot soup.

[Pan]

You're reminding me of the tale of the Stone Soup, Maggie.

[ludja]

One of the more vivid food gathering and eating scenes in a book for me was the "catching of the eels" and the subsequent obssessive overeating of eels and other smoked fish in the The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass.

You may or may not want to read it; so I've attached the sections as links to make it optional:

fishing for eels

and

obsessive fish eating

edited to note: Gunter Grass won the Nobel prize for this book; it's an interesting read if you've not read it. A good movie was also made from it.

Edited January 21, 2004 by ludja (log)

[mpav]

1. The Golden Books had one title which I think had a lasting effect on me: Pantaloon the Baker. It was about a French poodle, in France, who wanted to be a baker. The litle fat moustached stereotype of a pasty chef would chase him away, but finally Pantaloon comes to the rescue when the baker needs a hand (I think the baker was injured). I can still see that poodle on his bicycle carrying trays of pastries through the cobbled streets. Great read. I must locate a copy. It woke in me a thirst to go to France for the pastries, which I eventually did, of course, and to turn out beautiful pastires myself. Still working on that technique.

2. Confederacy of Dunces - I recall Ignatius lying in bed sucking the filling out of a box of jelly doughnuts.

3. Iris Murdoch "The Sea, the Sea" An Englishman lives by the sea, natch, and makes much of what he is cooking and eating, despite the fact that most of it seems to be dreadful. I could never make out whether the local shops didn't carry better choices. Can't recall the details, just the yuck factor as he prepared his meals.

[cakewalk]

1. The Golden Books had one title which I think had a lasting effect on me: Pantaloon the Baker. It was about a French poodle, in France, who wanted to be a baker. The litle fat moustached stereotype of a pasty chef would chase him away, but finally Pantaloon comes to the rescue when the baker needs a hand (I think the baker was injured). I can still see that poodle on his bicycle carrying trays of pastries through the cobbled streets. Great read. I must locate a copy. It woke in me a thirst to go to France for the pastries, which I eventually did, of course, and to turn out beautiful pastires myself. Still working on that technique.

I used to read "Pantaloon" to my younger sister over and over and over again. We both absolutely loved that story. Oh that big white cake with all the icing and flowers! A couple of years ago I found an old and battered copy, and bought it. I meant to give it to my sister as a present, but, well ... true confessions time ... I couldn't bear to part with it! (If I find another copy I will give it to her. Really.)

[Alex]

Heartburn, by Nora Ephron. The so-so movie version was on We last night.

[TrishCT]

KimWB beat me to it...The Nero Wolfe mysteries by Rex Stout are terrific. The mysteries themselves are interesting and the food references are sublime. There is a Nero Wolfe Cookbook which provides recipes for the dishes named in the books. Good fun.