---

It is funny (and scary) how quick we become desensitized to the macabre, abject, and strange. Before this moment of desensitization, the slightest trace of horror might upset one. But after the moment of desensitization, the same scary and horrific moment no longer leaves a trace of fear. Desensitization, however, is not a instant moment, it is a slow progress, building up over time, and then it comes as if suddenly. The realisation is suddenly, a point in time, but the building up takes years and is a slow progress.

When I saw the book famished, a book of food and horror, published by a publisher who claims to publish "challenging literature", I knew this was going to be good. But in the end, the book did not leave a distinctive mark; almost like a substandard meal that you had soon to forget about it. Some things are just forgettable, mundane, and average.

This is not to say the book is not good, it was just not what I had in mind; my appetite demanded something different; I guess. Or perhaps, the book was not a challenging read. Given that the book is incredibly short, and each short story is about 3 pages long on average, this does not give the author much wiggle room to mess with our minds.

For example, some of the stories obviously hint at the grotesque, cannibalism, mixed in with food. But because it is so short, the author essentially always tells us the story. There is no suspense, no lingering haunting moments, merely the retelling of various stories. And these stories are good, but they read more like blurbs for longer pieces of fiction than short stories. Maybe this was the author's intent, or maybe through the process of translation some of the nuance of the author is lost. This is a real threat, as when you express yourself in one language, you cannot always carry over the same "feeling" across languages. I know for sure that my own short stories will never work in English, even with a good translator. So, in a very real sense, we might note that the work suffers from the translation problem.

But again the stories are told in a very procedural way, they are not created to linger in your mind. There are some good stories, with some good writing (translation), but the overall feel of the work is more akin to a quick fast food meal than fine dining. This is not to make the argument that the one is better than the other. Sometimes simple pleasures like a fast food meal hits you in ways that fine dining will never; it is simply impossible to compare a sloppy messy burger with a fine dining gourmet meal. Yet this book does not inhabit either of these "meals". It does not feel like a sloppy messy fast food burger, and it is not close to a fine dining meal that challenges your palate. It had all of the ingredients, but it could not follow through with the presentation.

The ideas in the book is worth taking up. There are some real crazy ideas in here. But there is no bite, at least for me. And this brings me back to the desentization issue. Maybe I wrecked my palate. Once you experience something in food (and drinks) you struggle to go back. Maybe I am just used to a form of horror and lingering suspense that makes all of the rest seem not to be so bad. And this is a problem. For example, the mention of really grotesque issues will unsettle the average reader. This book will unsettle some people. But for me it did not land that punch. It was hinting at it, but it did not allow itself to unfold into the dirty and dark recesses of our minds.

---

---

All of the musings and writings are my own. The opinions are also my own. The photographs are my own, taken with my Nikon D300.

The Fermented Philosopher's Library

🕮 The Book of Malachi	🕮 The Outsider	🕮 A Clockwork Orange	🕮 Perfume
by T.C. Farren	by Stephen King	by Anthony Burgess	by Patrick Suskind

🕮 The Uninvited	🕮 Life Is Elsewhere	🕮 Philosophy as a Way of Life	🕮 The Space Between the Space Between
by Geling Yan	by Milan Kundera	by Pierre Hadot	by John Hunt

🕮 Ezumezu: A System of Logic for African Philosophy	🕮 Adjustment Day	🕮 Philosophical Praxis: Origin, Relations, and Legacy	🕮 The Unbearable Lightness of Being
by Jonathan O. Chimakonam	by Chuck Palahniuk	by Gerd Achenbach	by Milan Kundera

🕮 Farundell	🕮 The Abstinence Teacher	🕮 All the Names	🕮 Tender Is the Flesh
by L. R. Fredericks	by Tom Perrotta	by José Saramago	by Agustina Bazterrica

🕮 Life Ceremony	🕮 Marcien Towa’s African Philosophy	🕮 The Book of Form and Emptiness	🕮 The Child of God
by Sayaka Murata	by Marcien Towa	by Ruth Ozeki	by Cormac McCarthy

🕮 A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing	🕮 Against Decolonisation: Taking African Agency Seriously	🕮 The Island of Missing Trees	🕮 Helpmeet
by Eimear McBride	by Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò	by Elif Shafak	by Naben Ruthnum

🕮 The Country Will Bring Us No Peace	🕮 Study for Obedience	🕮 A Short Stay in Hell
by Matthieu Simard	by Sarah Bernstein	by Steven L. Peck