Philosophy of Food, 3rd period

[sharp_man]

Class had been asked to meet in the Danger Shop; when they arrived there, they would find Hannibal leaning up against a table at the front of the room; the table had a number of dishes on it, each neatly covered with a lid or cloth napkin. He nodded and smiled at the students he knew, and made note of the ones he did not. The room was set up with a number of comfortable chairs, some at tables and some not, a couch or two, and even a beanbag. When they had all arrived and settled in, he began.

"Good afternoon. I am Dr. Lecter; this is The Philosophy of Food. I trust you are all in the correct place." He called up a syllabus on a screen at the front of the room. "I will send you each a copy of this. You may sit in a chair, or on the floor, or wander the room; whatever makes you comfortable, so long as you pay attention." You could tell a lot about people from how they chose to interact with their space.

"You will not need to take any notes, although you may do so if you choose. As you can see," he nodded at the syllabus, "there will be a final project, no exams or quizzes. I have only two requirements for our classes: one, you must participate." He indicated the dishes. "You may choose to eat or decline anything presented here. You may choose to eat none of it; while I might be disappointed, it will in no way affect your grade. However, you must have opinions and speak them, and possibly be prepared to defend them." He smiled.

"The second rule – there will be no judging. There will undoubtedly be things you do not think of as edible, or even that you may have a cultural or religious bias against. There may be practices in the raising or creation of food which you may find objectionable. I expect you to say just that, and to be prepared to explain why. There will be no use of the term 'disgusting', no 'ew's or 'gross'es." He frowned. "That will affect your grade if I hear it, and quite negatively."

He made sure they understood, and nodded. "Now, introductions I believe are traditional, but I would appreciate a little more as well. Please tell me your name, where you are from, and any allergies – food or otherwise – and dietary restrictions you may have. It is my goal to make you think about your food and to expand your horizons, not to kill you from anaphylaxis." Though he did have medicines just in case; he'd never lost a student unintentionally yet, and had no plans of starting now.

Comments

Re: Class activity

[deathsmajesty]

Liliana had been a little thrown by the complete lack of cheese in the headcheese, but otherwise went through and tasted everything, before settling back with a glass of sherry. "I'm not tied to any specific definition of food; I come from a very different plane than this one, and have spent considerable time on others. Moreover, I've also spent a great deal of time with the powerful and ancient, for whom regular food has lost all meaning and so dined on a variety of outlandish things just for the sake of novelty. We did not have to eat for sustenance, and so meals became another way to show off and gain status points."

And had, at least in one memorable time in her life, been faced with the choice of 'eating what was available or not eating at all.' But we didn't talk about that time.

"But people have a great many reasons to declare some things food and other things not. Religious and cultural prohibitions often have very pragmatic roots: an inability to tell the difference between poisonous or able to be eaten, a fear of parasites or other issues, that kind of thing. It's hard to shake off those kinds of prejudices without reason."

Re: Class activity

[sharp_man]

Best to ignore those times in one's life, yes? Hannibal agreed.

He nodded. "Several religions on Earth have prohibitions that were originally based on safety issues. But once these things become written into law, they rarely are repealed, even once the issues have passed. Is it simply a matter of tradition?"

More interesting, though, "What forms do meals take when you have no need of food?"