by I have always been shocked and amazed when people we know and love take time and effort to publish — what they’re about to turn into poop — on the public interwebs. Yes, I’m taking about the infectious internets viral phenomenon we’ll call… “Food Imagery and the Mastication Memorial.”
What is the point of taking a picture of your food before you eat it and then publishing it on the web?
Do those folks find spiritual satiety in preserving the very essence of life right before they shovel it all into one hole — only to have it later expressed out another?
Our very own Gordon Davidescu recently celebrated his ongoing mastication ritual with this image published on his Livejournal homepage.
Why, Gordon, WHY?
Even our admired and respected Movable Type expert Byrne Reese recently memorialized his Tuna Melt infatuation on his blog.
Why, Byrne, WHY?
If you’re really going to follow through on publicizing your eating habits —
aren’t you also required to provide the end image of the successful result, too?
Why
wouldn’t the world want a pork chop and chitterlings “before and after” if one truly wanted to
celebrate the percolating body?
Gordon and Byrne are not alone in the food fetishism — yet it is still our want to always wonder — “Why?”
Eeeeeek!!! TMI!!!
Actually david, the “before” looks delicious than the “after”…. 🙂
Katha!
I agree the before is more agreeable than the “after” — or even the “during” — but should we choose aesthetic over reality? If you’re going to publicize the first step, aren’t you required to complete the cycle of imagery?
Ummm…
David, I think at times the “aesthetic” should take over the “reality” – mostly when the reality is brutally “real”… 🙂
I also think we share what we enjoy the most…it shows who is driven by what I guess…
playing a devil’s advicate, may I ask – what’s wrong in it?
Katha —
Your argument reminds of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. We send our troops out to fight all bright and shiny — but, in the end, when they come home bruised and battered and in caskets, we hide that harsh reality from public view because it’s “too real” to be publicly masticated. The ugly end is all part of the process — but only the aesthetic bits are allowed for public consumption.
I don’t understand the point of taking a picture of your food and publishing it on the web as content for other eyes because it adds to the overwhelming noise and fills the void with nothingness. I also don’t understand hair ribbons on dogs or Twitter streams that announce what people are watching on TV.
David,
I did not intend to compare “hiding the caskets” incident with whatever we were discussing here – neither do I agree with the argument.
I understand you don’t agree or understand publishing a picture of someone’s food – neither do I but I let it go as a sign of someone’s enjoyment…
I don’t follow twitter…so I am no good judging it.
The argument I’m making, Katha, is that a celebration should be circular and not just have a start without an ending — even if that finish is unseemly.
The way I eat, it always looks the same at the end. 🙂 The reason I posted that photo was that it was the end result of adding different food items each day until I had the amalgamation that I digitally captured. I was wondering if anyone would be curious as to how I made it so they could make it, too.
Alas, nobody was curious.
I’m curious, Gordon! Write us up a pictorial step-by-step for one of our blogs and then we have a context in which to celebrate the end result… which then becomes your image in this article! SMILE!
How about this : Next week I will try a similar experiment and document that. Last week’s experiment is currently fertilizer, alas. 😛
Ha! I love your inventiveness and willingness to play along with a provocative argument, Gordon! SMILE!
Hi David,
My point is we know good thing do not last long…we do not really need to put it on a display.
@ Gordon – ufffff!!! disgustingly grotesque!!!