I have a review of John S. Allen’s new book–The Omnivorous Mind–up at Books & Culture.
via Harvard University Press.
from the review:
Crucial to Allen’s theory of food is the idea that humans are more than omnivores: we are superomnivores; we exercise a certain “cultural capriciousness” in deciding what (or what not) to eat that’s not really to our advantage in terms of survival. Consider the story Jonathan Safran Foer tells in Eating Animals. As his grandmother fled the Nazis, she was starving and was offered some pork by a Russian farmer:
“He saved your life.”
“I didn’t eat it.”
“You didn’t eat it?”
“It was pork. I wouldn’t eat pork.”
“Why?”
“What do you mean why?”
“What, because it wasn’t kosher?”
“Of course.”
“But not even to save your life?”
“If nothing matters, there’s nothing to save.”
Read it all here! Lots of other people did:
Most read? Even ahead of something with “naked” in the title? That’s nice.
Nice job on the review, Rachel. “… changing foodways is hard.” Yes it is, and it seems like such a slow process too.
The quote you brought out from Foer’s mother was another gem: “If nothing matters, there’s nothign to save.” Words to live by.