Foodies Make My World a Lonely Place
"...something something you're in the ruling class."
"What? I'm too poor to be in any ruling class!"
"But your background is entrenched in the petit bourgeois, regardless of what you've done in recent months."
"Well, that might have been true for the last few years, and maybe that's all that counts - though I was broke as hell as a grad student - but for the majority of my life I had to struggle just like everyone else."
"Yeah, but you grew up in the 'model minority,' which amounts to the same thing as the petit bourgeois."
How grim, if true. The world is a cold and lonely place with no escape. I was having dinner with some foodies yesterday, and I kept thinking, I have GOT to get me some new friends! Then I thought, where would these new friends come from? and I remembered my friend AP's pronouncement about my being entrenched in the ruling class. True, the people I was dining with yesterday were technically not REALLY my friends (time made them a distant memory, and the others were friends of friends), but I recalled that the way society works, you can't pick only the people you're compatible with to be your friends. Friendship is a group venture, and you're not allowed to blow off friends of friends - and essentially all this means that you have to associate with and be defined by people you don't really like. The other alternative is to damage your social life...which often doesn't bother me (eg last night I would have preferred to hang out by myself than a bunch of petit bourgeois), but then I was made to feel bad about that choice, as one of my old/former friends waxed operatic about her theory of "diversifying" her social circles so that on any given Friday or Saturday she'll have 5 or 6 different engagements, and never have to be alone...
...and normally I'd write that kind of policy off as bullshit, but I'm starting to recognize a certain utility to "critical mass" when it comes to socializing - both for business and for pleasure. And that critical mass really isn't possible unless I make that effort to let more people in than would qualify as real kindred spirits. That is, unless I diversify.
So the conclusion of last night was that life isn't always about my druthers, and one of the things I'll have to learn to deal with is the petit bourgeois society that I find extremely uptight, boring, and silly - but unavoidable.
Take these foodies, for example, who seem to be everywhere I'm entrenched. Some of them I'd even consider genuine kindred spirits (foodieism notwithstanding), and maybe there's nothing so bad about liking something (like food) a lot - in fact, I'll concede it's human nature to "get into" stuff - but still, foodieism exemplifies everything I hate about my trapped and lonely world. First, it's the first sign of a decaying society. No, really. How, you ask? It's the indicator that just precedes the disappearance of a middle class. I may not be an expert on the culinary arts, but I do happen to be something of a cultural historian on foodies, as I spent a FULL YEAR researching this topic called "gastronomy," or the art and science of cooking and eating. I thought it was a silly project at the time, and I still hold that opinion now, with increased conviction. And it was as true in Roman times and imperial European times, as it is true today: people start acting like snobs about food when easy living has made physical pleasure an end in itself. When self-improvement is reduced to "having more class" than the next person, and when humanity's improvement is done not at all, or dilettantishly, like just another hobby. Helping poor people? Writing the great epic to capture and commemorate our Zeitgeist? Equivalent to knowing which cheese finest, and how to age it!
It's not that I don't enjoy tasty meals, like the next person, or even that I don't like watching the Food Network, like the next person. Sure, good food is always better than rank food, and it's worth some effort to get that at as many meals as possible. But it becomes totally ridiculous when, oh I don't know...
1. You're willing to drop a couple grand on an "expertise," whether it's wines or cheeses or truffles or steaks or whatever.
2. When you purchase a few ounces of dried tea for $50.
3. When you announce, with pride, "I have no problem dropping, like, two hundred on a meal, if the food is THAT good."
4. When said meal is so tiny that you have to fill up on the free bread to feel like you've actually eaten.
5. If your response to a story about a dining adventure involving different wines for each dish, and the way the combination really made the flavors tingle on your tongue, is: "You are describing my wet dream."
6. When I, your non-foodie friend, have to eat some unspectacular, salty-ass prosciutto pizza, instead of a nice Hawaiian one from Dominos, and am expected to ooh and ahh about how good it is, just because we're at a restaurant whose decor is appropriately bourgeois and Pottery Barn.
7. Anything having to do with PINKBERRY. Period. Exclamation point! I hear that shit isn't even natural like it pretends to be. They just made it "taste natural," ie like shit, so that people will ascribe to it healthiness it doesn't have, and justify buying an $8 ice cream.
DECAYING SOCIETY! I'm telling you.
So much for uptight and silly. Boring, I expect is pretty self-explanatory. I wish I could be around people who are fun (but don't engage in drugs or other self-destructive behavior). I had it once, and could still have it, maybe, if I hang out with younger kids. But then I'm also feeling this distinct pressure that it's time for me to grow up, and stop being so egocentric, and be a part of this ruling class because I know I'm too good to piss away my life as someone else's bitch. Sigh. The world is a lonely place.
"What? I'm too poor to be in any ruling class!"
"But your background is entrenched in the petit bourgeois, regardless of what you've done in recent months."
"Well, that might have been true for the last few years, and maybe that's all that counts - though I was broke as hell as a grad student - but for the majority of my life I had to struggle just like everyone else."
"Yeah, but you grew up in the 'model minority,' which amounts to the same thing as the petit bourgeois."
How grim, if true. The world is a cold and lonely place with no escape. I was having dinner with some foodies yesterday, and I kept thinking, I have GOT to get me some new friends! Then I thought, where would these new friends come from? and I remembered my friend AP's pronouncement about my being entrenched in the ruling class. True, the people I was dining with yesterday were technically not REALLY my friends (time made them a distant memory, and the others were friends of friends), but I recalled that the way society works, you can't pick only the people you're compatible with to be your friends. Friendship is a group venture, and you're not allowed to blow off friends of friends - and essentially all this means that you have to associate with and be defined by people you don't really like. The other alternative is to damage your social life...which often doesn't bother me (eg last night I would have preferred to hang out by myself than a bunch of petit bourgeois), but then I was made to feel bad about that choice, as one of my old/former friends waxed operatic about her theory of "diversifying" her social circles so that on any given Friday or Saturday she'll have 5 or 6 different engagements, and never have to be alone...
...and normally I'd write that kind of policy off as bullshit, but I'm starting to recognize a certain utility to "critical mass" when it comes to socializing - both for business and for pleasure. And that critical mass really isn't possible unless I make that effort to let more people in than would qualify as real kindred spirits. That is, unless I diversify.
So the conclusion of last night was that life isn't always about my druthers, and one of the things I'll have to learn to deal with is the petit bourgeois society that I find extremely uptight, boring, and silly - but unavoidable.
Take these foodies, for example, who seem to be everywhere I'm entrenched. Some of them I'd even consider genuine kindred spirits (foodieism notwithstanding), and maybe there's nothing so bad about liking something (like food) a lot - in fact, I'll concede it's human nature to "get into" stuff - but still, foodieism exemplifies everything I hate about my trapped and lonely world. First, it's the first sign of a decaying society. No, really. How, you ask? It's the indicator that just precedes the disappearance of a middle class. I may not be an expert on the culinary arts, but I do happen to be something of a cultural historian on foodies, as I spent a FULL YEAR researching this topic called "gastronomy," or the art and science of cooking and eating. I thought it was a silly project at the time, and I still hold that opinion now, with increased conviction. And it was as true in Roman times and imperial European times, as it is true today: people start acting like snobs about food when easy living has made physical pleasure an end in itself. When self-improvement is reduced to "having more class" than the next person, and when humanity's improvement is done not at all, or dilettantishly, like just another hobby. Helping poor people? Writing the great epic to capture and commemorate our Zeitgeist? Equivalent to knowing which cheese finest, and how to age it!
It's not that I don't enjoy tasty meals, like the next person, or even that I don't like watching the Food Network, like the next person. Sure, good food is always better than rank food, and it's worth some effort to get that at as many meals as possible. But it becomes totally ridiculous when, oh I don't know...
1. You're willing to drop a couple grand on an "expertise," whether it's wines or cheeses or truffles or steaks or whatever.
2. When you purchase a few ounces of dried tea for $50.
3. When you announce, with pride, "I have no problem dropping, like, two hundred on a meal, if the food is THAT good."
4. When said meal is so tiny that you have to fill up on the free bread to feel like you've actually eaten.
5. If your response to a story about a dining adventure involving different wines for each dish, and the way the combination really made the flavors tingle on your tongue, is: "You are describing my wet dream."
6. When I, your non-foodie friend, have to eat some unspectacular, salty-ass prosciutto pizza, instead of a nice Hawaiian one from Dominos, and am expected to ooh and ahh about how good it is, just because we're at a restaurant whose decor is appropriately bourgeois and Pottery Barn.
7. Anything having to do with PINKBERRY. Period. Exclamation point! I hear that shit isn't even natural like it pretends to be. They just made it "taste natural," ie like shit, so that people will ascribe to it healthiness it doesn't have, and justify buying an $8 ice cream.
DECAYING SOCIETY! I'm telling you.
So much for uptight and silly. Boring, I expect is pretty self-explanatory. I wish I could be around people who are fun (but don't engage in drugs or other self-destructive behavior). I had it once, and could still have it, maybe, if I hang out with younger kids. But then I'm also feeling this distinct pressure that it's time for me to grow up, and stop being so egocentric, and be a part of this ruling class because I know I'm too good to piss away my life as someone else's bitch. Sigh. The world is a lonely place.
posted by Rex at 2:31 PM
5 Comments:
that kind of foodie shit pisses me off, because it's so masturbatory. I like food and I think I've actually eaten a wider range of food than most people, but I'm not all, flaunting my "taste" which is totally based on some other expert's opinion, for all to see. And I think if you ask a chef what kind of food he likes, he'll give you something very basic. So yeah, that is annoying, especially in the context of rising food costs for staples like rice all over the world. BTW, I've started to contemplate hoarding rice. But that's because i'm borderline insane.
Word on the masturbation. Times like this I really miss the our old no-bullshit world in AA. At least WE used to ostracize people who acted like assholes :-D And yeah, you are crazy for hording rice. My dad said he used to do the same thing, residually from his post-war refugee days.
Rex, just make sure you don't hang out with these people too much, or before long you'll find yourself examining the locally-grown organic eggplants at a farmer's market, which you will eat to provide energy for the next day's half-marathon.
(Disclaimer: I have nothing against farmer's markets or half-marathons!)
I do. Oh, and that whole eggplant thing is just more bullshit, because apparently they have very little nutritional value. That and portobello mushrooms. Another perfect example of foodieism: eating empty foods, for leisure instead of sustenance.
One word - DITTO! I feel ya on every point made. The world is lonely, foodies suck, society is decaying! This is exactly why I'm trying to travel more - its not so much for the fun and leisure as much as its a way for me to scope out a new country of residence! I'm going to defect like Madonna and Johnny Depp! Ok, maybe I won't live as lavishly, but people are too insane for words these days.
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