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Stuff I’ve been reading lately. 6 September 2007 4:39 am

Posted by Tracy in : books,cheese,eating,friends,garden,recipes,vegan,vegetarian , trackback

Um, on the book front: this entry is late (yes, that time stamp is correct even if I changed the date) because Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold completely ate my brain today (by which I mean Thursday, on into early Friday morning in part because I could not stop reading but also because I was trapped under not one but two cats). One more not really food-related thought, while I’m on the feline subject: Penny‘s cat Samantha died recently and her friend Sheyna has set up a memorial tattoo fund and I know my birthday was last week and I didn’t ask for anything (after all, I did get a repainted house and a lunar eclipse) but I’m sure no one would mind if you gave to this good cause, either on my behalf or not. Anyway. On to some of my recent food readings.

In food books, I had to return Colin Spencer’s The Heretic’s Feast: A History of Vegetarianism to the University of Oregon library last month, but I did make it almost halfway through by that time. I liked that Spencer makes the distinction between what he calls voluntary and involuntary vegetarianism, and in so doing acknowledges that there are a lot of people who don’t eat meat simply because they can’t afford it, not because of any other reason for that choice. Choosing not to eat meat is only a meaningful decision if it’s actually an available option, doncha know. On the other hand, Spencer seems to dismiss some people who didn’t eat meat for religious reasons not directly or obviously pertaining to animal rights — early Christian ascetics, for instance — and I thought that was a little odd. If I ever get back to this book, I will be most intrigued to read his take on vegetarianism for environmental and/or personal health reasons, oh yes. The Heretic’s Feast‘s altogether too brief appendix about the history of vegetarian cookery books implies that he doesn’t really approve of vegetarian cookbooks written by meat-eaters, which of course was sort of a bummer to this not even vegetarian avid writer of veg*n recipes (y’know, me). On the whole, however, I was glad to have checked this book out, and not just because it inspired me to dig up my copy of Famous Vegetarians and Their Favorite Recipes: Lives and Lore from Buddha to the Beatles by Rynn Berry. I’m looking forward to trying the spiced green bean dish attributed to Mahavira, founder of Jainism, and not just because it’ll use green beans and tomatoes from my garden.

Speaking of my garden, I have been reading Food Not Lawns by Eugene’s own Heather Flores, but I keep having to stop because of all the doom and gloom about how my affluent Western industrial world lifestyle is destroying everything. File all that under stuff I don’t need to be reminded about, okay? Tell me more about how my insane level of privilege is like a superpower that I can use for good, and tell me more stories about people and things that make the world suck less. It’s a good thing gardening counts, or there’s no way I’d have made it as far through this book as I have.

But speaking of people and things that make the world more awesome, in honor of my Everything2-flavored weekend, and in eager anticipation of whatever Ella ends up writing in response to the mac ‘n cheese challenge (my favorite sexy mac versus Annie’s shells and cheddar versus just a quick read of the ingredients on the Kraft box because buying it would have been too traumatic and cooking it was right out), I have been reviewing E2′s offerings on the macaroni and cheese front:

Also I have added Butterfly Soup to TracyFood’s blogroll and my Google Reader, in an effort to keep better track of Chris. Which brings me back into the realm of not-really-food where I started this entry, and on that note I’ll finally be heading to bed. Sheesh.

  • http://soy.dyndns.org/comics Penny

    Spencer seems to dismiss some people who didn’t eat meat for religious reasons not directly or obviously pertaining to animal rights

    I don’t think that’s odd – it sounds more like an acknowledgment that obeying religious edicts or beliefs is something different than making a considered ethical decision. But of course I would think that, even though I’m okay with just about any reason for reducing human consumption of meat.

  • http://www.tracyfood.com Tracy

    Some of the crazy ascetics who ate nothing but lentils or whatever generally did seem to have some kind of ethical structure behind their food choices, though, and some of them were more reasoned than “because it’ll make me super-holy.” And I don’t have the book in front of me anymore but there were a few other cases, less obviously all about religious mania, where Spencer dismissed some meat-avoiders because they made their food choices for non-animal rights-related ethical reasons, and that was weird to me. I didn’t finish the book, but it was unclear to me how Spencer was going to address ethical reasons for avoiding meat besides animal rights, or whether he was going to lump the environment and so on into “other reasons for vegetarianism” like health concerns or whatnot. Also I am feeling like a big dweeb for not checking the table of contents to see if he had a whole chapter about Peter Singer.