I am become Death.... warmed over

[domarzione]

I don't get sick often -- major stuff, yes, but I don't really catch cold at a rate commensurate with my cramped exposure to other humans on the NYC subways. I'm sick now, however, and I (for values of the person behind DMZ) have had an utterly devastating week otherwise, so... frivolity it is.


* Infinity War was trending on twitter the other day and apparently it was because it went up on Netflix. I'm all set to watch Steve's five minutes of screen time once I finish the current season of GBBO. 


* I have been getting a ton (for me) comments on Maqqaba over the last fortnight and I know it wasn't because I put it on tumblr. So, whoever it was that recced it and sent people who comment my way, you have my earnest gratitude. Especially because it's Yuletide season and most folks are off reading that.


*Speaking of reading:



(L) I have a graduate degree in history of science and technology and a love of food, so this book was pretty much written for me. So far, it's a lot of fun. It's broad rather than deep -- considering much more than the fork rather than just the fork -- but I don't think that's a problem here. It's a social history more than a history of product design (although that gets covered, too) and rightly addresses class and gender issues as part of the tale. For example, smooth and finely textured food has gone from aristocratic fare (they were the ones with the laborers to pound something for hours) to proletarian (enter the food processor!) while 'rustic' and textured food has become fancy because now it's what proves the human labor that is the actual valued bit. Also the fun stuff, like how eating eating meals with a fork was at best odd and at worst a sign of moral deviancy until fairly recently.

(R) The actual mystery's a bit of a let-down for the way it resolves because it's pretty good until that point, but it's really a terrific depiction and exploration of a particular time and place and the way it addresses race and racism from all perspectives and how very clearly cut it was not. Who associates with whom and why and how and a pointed exploration of 'passing' and what comes with it, both the privileges and the price. But it's not a lecture or a harangue, it's a story and one worth reading.


* What're you all up to?

Comments

[brithistorian]

Consider the Fork sounds interesting - it caught my eye on the "Latest Things" page because I just started reading Chopsticks: A Cultural and Culinary History by Q. Edward Wang (It's good so far, but "so far" is only up to page 7, so too soon to say for sure.)

[domarzione]

Oh, do report back on that one. I recently realized that I can sub-sort NYPL's food and cooking e-books by history, so I pretty much went down the list and went 'that one and that one and that one....' and so I have, um, thirteen food history books on my NYPL to-do list, but not that one. But I love nagging them to order books (they occasionally tell me to stop), so I will throw that one at them if you feel it worth the effort.

[kiratael]

I enjoyed Consider the Fork a few years ago, though I wish there had been more photos or even line drawings/diagrams. But learning how recently the whisk, for example, was invented gave me pause. Sugar that came in hard loaves that needed to be ground down, same. I don’t have many electric kitchen appliances (besides the toaster) and didn’t really realize that it wasn’t just electricity and imported ingredients that separated me from yesteryear.

The weather conspired to give us the perfect conditions for murderously slippery sidewalks here overnight and work is quiet, so I stayed home and am cleaning the house for the new year.

[kiratael]

Oh! And (maybe?) something up your alley - reading The Day of St Anthony’s Fire, a true story about a village in France poisoned by flour accidentally contaminated with ergot back in the 1950s.

[domarzione]

Oh, I love St. Anthony's Fire -- the effect, not the book, which I have not read but will look for. (Uhm, edited to clarify that I am not in favor of poisoning anyone or people dying. Just as a scientific and public health phenomenon.)

But, yeah, pictures or diagrams in Consider the Fork would have been hella helpful. Especially with the spoons.

[musesfool]

I enjoyed "Consider the Fork."

I also recced Maqqaba in my December pre-Yuletide recs!

[domarzione]

Aha! Well, then thank you because that's been such a mood-brightener. Really, really.

[musesfool]

<3

[perspi]

I've just borrowed Consider the Fork to my kindle from our library because it sounds interesting!

And I've been sewing today, which is nice whole it's snowing outside. :D

Feel better soon!

[domarzione]

I hope you enjoy the book! It seems to be popular in this space, so that's definitely something better than my rec alone. :)

And thank you. I am still going through tissues at a rate that Greenpeace is going to cite me as a leading cause of deforestation.

[bratfarrar]

In answer to your closing question--I've been making the most of my time off, and by that I mean spending too much time playing the very silly RPG "West of Loathing". This year has been pretty brutal, so it's nice to be able to focus for a few days on nothing more fraught than killing evil cows and skeletons and the occasional clown.

But I'm trying to plan out how to get more writing done in the new year--I've really slacked off over the last 8 months or so.

[domarzione]

There is no such thing as evil cows. There are only lovely cows and those who would corrupt them.

[bratfarrar]

One of the quest lines is to track down the source of the cow corruption and put a cork in it.

(My dad grew up on a dairy farm, so one of the things I like to do is send him cow pictures when I need a small break at work.)