Bibliopath #22: In which we are always a tramp
Dear reader,
The internet can still be good sometimes. I came across our topic sentence on a meandering through the Internet—from a Twitter stream of recommended books (one book for one like), which led me to a book on food writing, which led me to reviews of said book, which led me to unfavourable comparisons of that book to M.F.K Fisher, which led me, finally to Fisher's writing.
There is a mistaken idea, ancient but still with us, that an overdose of anything from fornication to hot chocolate will teach restraint by the very results of its abuse.
W.H. Auden said of Fisher, "I do not know of anyone in the States who writes better prose", this, despite Fisher being female (gasp) and a food writer (double gasp).
This sentence comes from a New Yorker article on forbidden foods, "Once a Tramp, Always ...", or perhaps not so much forbidden, but comfort foods, looked down on as vulgar. The potato crisp between two slices of bread comes to mind. Each has their own.
Our topic sentence gains its eloquence from ideas that might begin to be familiar to regular Bibliopaths: the equivalence through comparison of the unspeakable act of fornication with the unspeakable decadence of hot chocolate; the parenthetical "ancient but still with us" that increases the scope of our opening statement, while also broadening its mistakenness; "by the very results of" keeps us hanging on for the end, while also following the proverbial form of the sentence as a whole; and that punchline of a closing word—"abuse" and the idea that abuse should ever teach us anything of anything is itself her point.
The whole article is worth reading, if Fisher is new to you, as she was to me. If she's not new to you, I suspect you don't need convincing.
Lastly though, finding out about Fisher's writing, though a joy, also brings dual worries: how many writers of a former age do we lose because of the steamroller of having to push what is popular, what is new, and how many laudable writers do we not read because of a label—"Oh, but she's just a food writer!".
Somewhere in the commas,
Guan
ps. Apologies for the break in writing—it's been a busy time inside my head.