[UA] TABOO

[David M Jacobs]

At 04:44 PM 19/04/02 -0400, Eric Eves wrote:

>On a bit of the aside, am I the only one who doesn't get the big
>revulsion thing with cannibalism?
>
>I mean, sure, it's unsanitary, and it's obviously unethical if you're
>killing people for the meat.  But if they're already dead, what harm
>does it do?  After all, it's not like anybody /else/ is using the body
>anymore.  I know I wouldn't mind if somebody ate /my/ corpse.

This reminds me of a conversation that I had with a good Catholic friend 
just before Easter.  (I was in one of my moods, okay?)

ME: So, you're not supposed to eat meat on Good Friday?

HER: No.

ME: What if you're really hungry, and there's nothing else in the 
house?  It's happened to me a few times.

HER: You just put up with it, or go buy something that isn't meat, like at 
a 7-11 or something.  And anyway, you're not Catholic.

ME: What if I was, though?  What if I was locked in and starving, and could 
only draw sustenance from some sort of meat product?

HER: Well, I guess it'd be okay, but you'd have to do penance or something.

ME: Okay.  What if that meat was human, then?

HER: Ewww!

ME: Hey, it's Good Friday!  Christ dies for my sins; you die for my 
lunch.  I see a certain symmetry in that.

HER: You mean that you'd _actually_ eat a person?

ME: Well, maybe not a whole one.  And it depends on the circumstances.

HER: Like what?

ME: Is there anything else in the fridge?

HER: No.

ME: Not even a marinade?

HER: Ewww!

A couple of hours later, we stumbled across a place that sold cheap 
oysters.  As she and her boyfriend settled down to polish off a plate, I 
excused myself to go outside for a cigarette.

HER: Don't you like oysters?

ME: No, I can't stand them; they make my stomach turn.  You won't eat 
people, I won't eat oysters -- and at least I wouldn't eat people _alive_.



David M Jacobs
dmjacobs at zipworld.com.au
http://www.zipworld.com.au/~dmjacobs/
ICQ UIN: 17027598

"'Kevin,' David interrupted, 'what the Germans should have done
was show the Russians a dead cat and ask them to explain it.'

"'That would have stopped the Soviet offensive right there,' I said.
"Zhukov would still be trying to account for the cat's death.'"

— from Valis, by Philip K Dick


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