I like this as satire and critique, but also just really love the rhythm of this graff:
With the advances we have made in pain management, prosthetics and ergonomic furniture, there isn’t a compelling reason not to become a Center-of-the-Plate contributor to the next course of global food mania. Write off that leg with the bad knee on your taxes; then hack it, cryo-vac it, ship it to a tycoon in Hong Kong who needs something rare to serve his guests at the executive dinner. It’s a win-win for din-din!
—Stephen Trouvere, “A Modest Proposal Regarding Office Veal“
Pairs well with Agustina Bazterrica’s Tender Is the Flesh (translated by Sarah Moses). My thoughts on that novel:
Straight talk: this book is a little like heavy metal poisoning. Its impact is pernicious, deep, and likely permanent. You’ll be powerfully tempted to pigeon-hole this as an allegory (about world-wide overconsumption of meat, about climate change, about patriarchy, about the deadly tendency to humor wealthy idiots)—but, jeez, don’t. That’s just a defense mechanism, your brain’s white blood cells trying to contain and thus destroy an interloper. Don’t cop out like that. Just let the story fully in, let it blossom and consume you.
It’s really a helluva book.
