[UA] Re: UA Digest, Vol 5, Issue 172

[F. A. R.]

> Symbolic Tension: People over-glamourise and worship
> food. From the kingdoms of golden deep-fry fastfoods
> to the aesthetics of starvation meals with high
> cuisine priesthoods. It's just bunchs of chemicals
> glommed together.
>
> How's that?
>
> C.
>

This is a bit of a rant, so I apologize if I'm overstepping politeness,
but I believe that anyone working on a school needs to keep a few things
in mind.

As much as I like the idea of gustomancy, I have problems with the
proposed symbolic tension. First of all, I've seen this exact tension
somewhere else: Obsessive item A is placed on some kind of pedestal, but
it's really just mundane. You could make that argument for any material
thing! I remember hearing it for fumomancy, for instance. I don't like the
idea that a central paradox can come bottled and pre-packaged. "Oh, no
paradox? Here, use mine!"

In fumomancy, at least, the paradox fit somewhat. What I mean is, food is
NOT just chemicals glommed together. It is one of the things universally
necessary for life on this planet. Just like water and breath (which also
have ritual and mystical histories), food *really does* have importance to
every person.

I can imagine several ways that a food school could operate. Take Japan:
presentation is everything. Symbolic tension? The presentation is exactly
what ISN'T important about food: once it's in your belly, only the
nutritional value matters and it looks like crap anyway. Or, let's say
that you have a school based on eating things that ought not to be eaten
(like Gustomancy's sig charge). Symbolic tension? Food is for nutrition,
and they charge up by eating things that have no actual nutritional value;
they get power by eating things that can't power their bodies! (I know of
one guy who actually does this, one Monsieur Lotito, whose meals include a
Cessna 150
<http://edition.cnn.com/WORLD/europe/9806/11/fringe.mr.eat.everything/>.)
There. Enjoy. But please, can we have some symbolic tension that's
actually tense? And symbolic? This is a far cry from the examples set by
Entropomancy and Personomancy. We may not be Tynes or Stolze, but that
doesn't mean we ought to lower our standards even a single notch.

Thanks for reading the rant.

 - F.A.R. out

-- 

The voyage of the best ship is a zigzag line of a hundred tacks. See the
line from a sufficient distance, and it straightens itself to the average
tendency. Your genuine action will explain itself, and will explain your
other genuine actions. Your conformity explains nothing.
 - Ralph Waldo Emerson