Hi, folks! Welcome to Lit 101: Life is Meals!
Please review all the side link on this blog.
For homework, please read, print and annotate the following essays (found in the Reading folder to on the right-hand side of the blog):
1. The Rhetoric of Food Writing (Bloom)
2. Identifying Foods, Identifying Selves (Lim)
Then, for EACH essay, please leave 100-word comment on this blog post, responding to that essay in some way.
Thanks!
Anna
“Identifying foods, Identifying Selves”
ReplyDeleteShirley Geok-lin Lim review
Lim’s review on food was an interesting take, but I didn’t enjoy it. I think that she covered way too many topics that fall under food in too few pages. Reading the article felt like a never-ending tangent that she had in her head and then decided to put it down on paper. I think that each individual topic she covered would have been done very well if they were in separate essays. It would have flown better and she could have gone more in depth.
Content wise, I agree with Lim on almost everything. The one part that bothered me was how she compared life in Singapore (family, friends, food) to life in the U.S. (friends and fornication). Lim did that to reach a wider range of American readers by comparing Singaporean life to U.S. TV shows, but one can’t compare the two because TV shows aren’t real. TV shows are called sitcoms to entertain viewers, not to display how the average American lives his/her life. Food is very much important in the daily life of every American; the only difference is that Singapore is a lot less diverse than America making it harder to define what those things mean to Americans. Granted, Singapore does have a high concentration of Chinese, Malays, and Indians, but it does not even compare to the diversity found within the U.S. The U.S. has been built off of immigrants from all over the world, giving it a much harder definition of family, friends and food. There are many more cultures and traditions that come into play which do not and cannot fall under one definition of what friends, family and food mean to Americans.
I wanted to comment, and agree with Samantha’s initial critique of how the author covered too many topics in too few pages. I felt that the article did not have a specific thesis as the author jumped around discussing topics that had little in common, except their relation to food. The author started with comparing American food to food she had in Singapore and Malaysia, then jumped to talking about the traditions of food and how it’s enjoyed in different parts of the world, then to discussing “the contrast between eating to live and living to eat", just to finish it off with critiquing the modern idea of how a woman should look. All in under eight pages. With that, the article got very confusing for me, especially with the lack of concise separation of ideas. It seemed like the author tried to create a mosaic, but with huge pieces, that do not share much in common, in very little space.
ReplyDeleteTalal Barazi
Bloom
ReplyDeleteBloom makes many points that I agree with. She states that food is ingrained in almost every form of writing and goes on to list the many books and genres that contain elaborate food descriptions. The fact that there are so many college writing classes on food is undeniable, especially at AU. Bloom explains the different aspects of writing about food from values to context to vocabulary and organization. She explains how each aspect relates to the reader and how the reader views the food because of it. One recurring theme is a quote that appears on the first page and later on in the essay. “Our three basic needs, for food and security and love, are so mixed and mingled and entwined that we cannot straightly think of one without the other. – M. F. K. Fisher.” The main purpose of this essay it seems is to evoke a sense of understanding and community about food and to persuade readers away from an indifferent view on writing about food.
Lim
ReplyDeleteMy main problem with Lim’s article is that she is basing American culture purely off of sitcoms that do not show the entirety of the average American lifestyle. She may be “a writer who is particularly interested in representations and studies of food,” to quote her own words, but she seems to be focusing on the wrong aspects of what she thinks is American culture. It is true that when asked, foreigners think of McDonalds and Coca-Cola and not families gathered around a wonderfully prepared feast. However that doesn’t mean that they don’t happen. Food is a fast growing trend in America. There a bloggers, writers, and even college courses solely on food. Not to mention American culture itself is such a mesh of culture and traditions that it is unthinkable to try and accurately document how important food is to a person or community.
Identifying Foods, Identifying Selves
ReplyDeleteLim’s article, although lacking a concentrated thesis, seemed to have many good points in my opinion. It was interesting to see how in one segment, a woman stated that food and family brings comfort to others in times of distress, rather than psychologists or therapy that more privileged Americans grasp to when in need of solace. I also liked how Lim brought up the factor of how in other cultures, especially developing countries, food is more celebrated and cherished since it is in such high demand with its citizens having inadequate amounts for themselves and their families. Meanwhile in the developed world, we tend to slightly shun away from the joys of food and associate it with fat, ugliness, and obesity. As a result, it seems to me that people in developing countries are happier with their lives because they have adapted to having little to nothing at all, while some classes in the United States have more unsatisfactory lives, because of their having an overabundance of food.
Gabrielle Glashen
Rhetoric of Food Writing
ReplyDeleteI loved Bloom’s outtake on how food reading and writing can affect one’s state of being. It never really occurred to me how food can give us feelings of recollection of a certain time and setting and can bring us a sense of security when written and read about. I always had the feeling that when cooking, one must do it with love, but not with the writing of cooking as well. It was interesting when Bloom noted how important when writing about cooking, authors always take into consideration to be more personable to their audience, so that as a result the reader can identify with the author and enjoy the experience of making a specific meal as well. I also liked the line when Bloom stated “food writing by the skinny is not to be trusted” (351). It goes to show how talking about food in excess seems to make things more carefree and comforting, bring about feelings of family and togetherness, while talking about food in shortage brings about tension and can make one feel more stressed, as well as think about more international affairs rather than the simple joy of eating a good meal.
On The Delectable Rhetoric of Food Writing
ReplyDeleteWhen I began reading, I applauded Bloom’s lengthy discourse about food. The fact that she could expand so much on the topic of food and keep me (the reader) interested was pretty impressive. I would like to admit that I am concerned with exactly that: writing and expanding enough about food.
Moreover, she claims that food is a genre of its own. I was able to understand her claim when she used Como agua para chocolate (Like Water for Chocolate), by Laura Esquivel, as an example. I remember presenting on the book in my Spanish Literature class in high school. In the book, the protagonist Tita uses her love for cooking as a means of expression. But, I never realized its actual importance. I was more focused on plot summary (love at first sight/forbidden marriage because of family traditions). I can even recall reading recipes at the start of every chapter. I see now how these subtle descriptions of how she prepared each meal, the particular ingredients used, helped set the tone throughout the story.
-Riky Jimenez
On Identifying Foods, Identifying Selves
ReplyDeleteI agree with most of my peers’ criticisms on the structure of the Lim reading. She did go off on a tangent often. I was immediately captured by the imagery of the different fruits of Southeast Asia. I wanted to hear more about the differences between Singapore and Malaysia fruit and vegetables, from American fruit and vegetables. I feel like there was a possible research component when she used the words “fructose”, “fecundity”, “glucose”, and even “pulp”.
Different from Bloom, Lim used her experience with food in Singapore to explain global capitalism and politics. In her writing, Bloom says that writing about issues such as abundance, obesity, famine, takes away from the actual theme of food, and becomes a book more on politics, history, international relations, etc. Lim believes that food quality and quantity can help explain societies and the consumers in them.
-Riky Jimenez
On Identifying Foods, Identifying Selves
ReplyDeleteWhat I found to be most interesting in Lim’s piece what how he touched on the acceptability of food as found on american tv sitcoms that emulate the American cultures social regularities, and how it is typically not glorified. Sex on the other hand, a practice that is more dangerous then over indulging in food, is also more popular and accepted within these American shows. People have become so opposed to gaining weight and overeating that they do not appreciate the guise of family bonding and recreation; nor do they desire it. Food has been removed from acceptable American social scenes to the extent that the only words left associated with food are social and psychological diseases such as binging, obesity, and anorexia.
Bloom’s article was very eye opening to me in many ways. First off, Bloom talks a lot about food writing, a genre of literature that I did not know was as big as it is, and as integrated into many important writings as it actually is. Moreover, Bloom made me think about how food is not just about taste, but also brings “security, and love” to the dining table. I also found it interesting how Bloom defined the literature genre of food as the “genre of hospitality, plenty and pleasure” characteristics I never thought could be attributed to food. In conclusion, Bloom opened my eye to the pleasures of food beyond the succulent chicken breast you enjoy, or the juicy New York Strip you indulge on.
ReplyDeleteTalal Barazi
Identifying Foods, Identifying Selves by Shirely Goek-lin Lim
ReplyDeleteIn the article, the author has shared his experience for his trip to Malaysia and Singapore. After returning to California, the author started to compare between foods and lifestyle of Americans with other nations. He criticized American eating habits and lifestyle while sharing his experience in Singapore and Malaysia with his friends, family and food. Lim is quite impressed with the friendly and familial feasting in Singapore and Malaysia that is hard to find in the Americans society nowadays. One the other hand, in mainstream America, food has become erased and only discussed if someone needs to research on obesity and psychological problems. Three Fs dominate in Singapore and Malaysia was friends, family and food while two Fs are dominant in America that is friends and fornication. By identifying food the author has identified the selves of Americans. Lim indicated that the concept of family and food in the American popular imagination has now diminished and they are occupied in the complexities of relationships. From the experience of his visit to Asian countries, the author has found that Americans are now only thinking about abundance of resources, sex and friends. Few Americans have hold most of the world’s resources while leaving rest of the world in crisis.
Consuming Prose: The Delectable Rhetoric of Food Writing by Lynn Z. Bloom
ReplyDeleteThe article mainly deals with the different methods and techniques of writing about food in the most effective manner. The author has described in the article that in order to write well about food, the writer should have a good appetite. The author has presented many terminologies of food and how they are used in different cultures. The author also presented surveys about many features of contemporary food writing. In the article, the author has not only identified technical features of food writing but also showed ways in which such text shape and how certain response can be achieved from the readers. The author has identified several important features of food writing. He suggested that food writing is “evocative”, full of human emotion, sensory details and sensuality so an author should give special consideration to the style of writing for presented attractive piece of writing to readers. Secondly, vocabulary is another important component that has to be clear and precise especially in recipes. Next important thing about food writing is the organization of content which represents writer’s mood and mode. All these features of food writing are essentially to be incorporated by the writer in order to engage readers fully in the write-up.
The Delectable Rhetoric of Food Writing review
ReplyDeleteLynn Z. Bloom
8/28/13
I really liked this article by Lynn. What I was especially impressed by was her style of writing. It was relaxed and happy all while being an informative scholarly paper. It wasn’t like those horribly boring scholarly pieces that are extremely difficult to get through without falling asleep. Lynn was able to talk about many topics relating to food without loosing track of her main argument. What made the article really nice was her lighthearted humor every now and then, “Writing this has made me so hungry that I have to stop for an early lunch. Care to join me?” (Lynn, 348) and “Food writing by the skinny is not to be trusted” (Lynn, 351). Those sentences made me laugh a little. Another thing that I enjoyed about Lynn’s style of writing was that she was able to be informative without giving off the tone that she knows everything about the topic. I think that Lim struggled with that in her piece. Lynn also incorporated various writers’ work into her article really well without taking away from her own writing. Personally, I find that is difficult to do in papers and articles. I wouldn’t mind reading more of her stuff in the future.
Bloom's article, Rhetoric of Food, details the significance and ubiquity of food in all cultures across the world. I thought many of Bloom's analyses were interesting, including how the types of food people eat are determined largely by where one is born, and what culture one is born into. The foods that a person eats may indicate a lot about that person's socio-economic and cultural background. There's a considerable difference between someone who has a diet based mainly off rice and beans, etc. . ., and someone who eats mainly processed foods like cereal and Jell-O. Indeed, the foods one eats comprises a large part of a person's identity, often more so than we realize.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I also felt that the article was too broad. It tried to cover way too much ground at once, seeming to aspire to give an all-encompassing introduction to the importance of food and food writing. I felt like the writing in the article was highly indulgent and gave way more details than I cared to know about. Sometimes the writing also felt a little pretentious in my view. The author is constantly trying to do too much, even quoting MacBeth in the first few paragraphs. I feel like her level of excitement about the topic far exceeds that of the reader, and she doesn't seem to realize that. Granted, she does make many interesting and valuable points about food and food writing; however, trudging through her discursive article may be less than enjoyable for some.
In the article, "Identifying Foods, Identifying Selves," Lim makes an interesting analysis of the food culture in different places around the world. Lim compares the food culture of Singapore to the food culture of the United States. This article, in my opinion is able to achieve a much more satisfying experience for the reader than the one by Bloom. As opposed to Bloom's article, I can relate a lot more, and am more intrigued by, the descriptions of various foods. I feel that Lim has a skill for descriptive prose. The excerpt in the beginning where he describes the various fruits he ate in Singapore was excellent. Lim calls on so many different human senses when he is describing food to evoke a rich and flavorsome image in every reader's mind.
ReplyDeleteRhetoric of Food Writing
ReplyDeleteWhat Lynn Bloom explores in her essay Consuming Prose: The Delectable Rhetoric of Food Writing, is the unique idea that food of a nation is a lot like the language of a nation. Bloom writes, “[n]ative eaters, like native speakers, learn from birth the cultural grammar of the language and employ it automatically in a host of contexts,” here her description likens the food culture almost to a secret shared amongst the people, something that cannot be understood unless you have experienced it. She goes on to make the point that is thought provoking if nothing else. She talks about how food can be a hobby and an indulgence, but also a necessity. Her account of POWs in Japanese camps hit home for me as my grandfather was a teenager held in a camp in Java, Indonesia. The stories he’s told me of malnutrition and how it stunted his growth put a new light on what food really means to us, something that I’m sure we’ll explore later in the class.
When reading “Consuming Prose: The Delectable Rhetoric of Food Writing” by Bloom, I surprisingly found myself fully engaged with the mouthwatering words on the page. Never before had I read about food in this way, where ones favorite dish can identify cultural traits and provide a stranger with an understanding that was not expected to be found. I now find myself with the idea that food is simply not for eating but instead is shared as art, conveyed to display love, and enjoyed to rediscover a piece of home. “Food acquires full expressive capacity” where one consumes delectable knowledge by simply reading a cookbook (Montanari). However, as I found Bloom’s article engaging it also left me longing for more, as I daydreamed of the many scrumptious dishes described in the seemingly brief piece.
ReplyDeleteBloom’s article “The Rhetoric of Food Writing” mainly discussed the importance of food writing and the way the writer should approach this topic. I think she did that in such a remarkable way that emphasizes on the most important principles of food writing, such as the context in which writers should always include social events that include family and friends to make it more delightful for the reader, and she also made it clear that precise and clear vocabulary use, the energetic style of writing, sensory details and the organization of the article are all very important matters that should be carefully attended to be the writer. I think the way she incorporated various examples of different texts made this article more enjoyable.
ReplyDelete“Identifying Foods, Identifying Selves” by Lim had a very capturing style at the beginning of the article where she discussed the difference between the American and the Fareast Asia countries was very interesting, especially mentions the 2 and the 3F’s. However after that I felt that she integrated more than one issue and the article became a bit dull focusing on humanitarian and social issue such as hunger. Mainly discusses the distinction between scarcity and excess, and the relationship between hunger and freedom.
Tara Saleh
It was interesting to hear examples of when food writing goes beyond nonfiction. Upon first mention I would typically classify food writing as recipe writing or restaurant reviews, but Bloom clearly outlines the many ways novelists have included food writing into their works. I understood this more after reading deeper into the article and learning about the 3 pinnacles of food writing, value, ethos, and context. Bloom’s writing makes it clear how food can bring something far more to the table than just nutritional value. This basic idea can transform food writing from explanatory to expository, with the ability to outline relationships and values of those enjoying it.
ReplyDeleteI found there was a stark contrast between Bloom’s and Lim’s articles. While they both wrote about the unifying community rituals and values that food brings, Lim also brought up some dark truths about overconsumption in the western world. Bloom outlined the ethos of food writing, and the necessity of abundance and indulgence when truly appreciating food. However, Lim focused more on deriding of hunger and satiety, ultimately describing American women as “material substances, shaped by social forces,” whether or not they partake in willful starvation or consume with gross abundance.
In “Identifying Foods, Identifying Selves” I feel that Lim makes a great point when emphasizing the effects of hunger. This made me appreciate the food availability American University has on campus. Additionally Lim states “Living in hunger for a stretch of time, with no assurance to the end of that condition does something peculiar to the imagination.” This brought the thought to my mind as to, when have I really been hungry? I can recall times my family would have to use powdered milk for cereal which made me realize then that the delicious two percent was to not be taken for granted. I found that Lim’s article conveys a meaningful message where the reader is almost forced by text to realize many humanitarian evils in the world. In comparison to Bloom’s article I feel that this passage has much more substance in order to aid in one fully understanding the significance of family, friends, and food.
ReplyDeleteBloom’s article was interesting because I realized how writing about food can lead to discussing so many different topics. Food is so universal that it can be used to segue into almost any other topic. The depth and breadth of writing about food also surprised me; Bloom had numerous examples of writing about food in classic literature, research books, nonfiction books, and others. Bloom’s work showed me that food writing is not just a “niche” writing style that only a few writers practice, but rather that it is in all types of writing, and using food in a novel or book effectively can make a significant impact on the reader.
ReplyDeleteI loved how Lim wrote about food in a cultural context, and how different countries and cultures think about food. It was interesting how she talked about how some countries look down upon the United States because of the obesity epidemic when there are so many starving people in the world. However, America is also facing a problem with anorexia and deliberate starvation. Lim did a great job addressing the different cultural issues surrounding food within the United States and internationally, and the article gave me some insight into the into the way people see food both domestically and abroad.
“Identifying Foods, Identifying Selves”
ReplyDeleteShirley Geok-lin Lim
Although this article tended to jump from place to place quite frequently, I relatively enjoyed it. Lim has a great way of describing where she’s been and the emotions she felt throughout her journey. To me, personally it feels like her own personal experience with foreign foods enlightens her point of view of the world. An area that I found particularly interesting was when Lim talked about the relationship of food with community. In one of the articles she uses for her piece it states “[Singaporeans] our people culture, history, food and lifestyles are linked inextricably.” She then goes on to give examples in the United States on how food brings us together as well. Whether it’s through family dinners or big receptions, food brings everyone together in more ways than one.
The Rhetoric of food writing
Lynn Z. Bloom
What I really enjoyed about this article was how Bloom discussed food as something so Universal that it’s not just essential for our well-being but for so many other things as well. At the beginning of the article Bloom puts in a quote by M.F.K Fisher which states, “Our three basic needs, for food, security and love, are mixed and mingled and entwined that we cannot straightly think of one without the others.” To be honest, I think that quote was my favorite part of the entire article. Bloom talks about how food writers have this devotion for the work that they produce. For food writers, it’s not just a job, but a passion that they wish to share with the rest of the world.
Bloom discussed in his piece how food writing is a multifaceted area which writers use artistically to supplement their characterizations, plot, mood, and tone. Before hearing this viewpoint, I had little to expect when reading an article about food in literature. I Imagined food writing to be much more utilitarian; as when a writer creates a cookbook or reviews a meal as a critic. I never imagined, or truly noticed, how much of an impact food writing makes on literary pieces, and how crucial they can be to a stories plot. Bloom also mentions how food writing can be a signifier of culture, and I connected this with how during war efforts, countries try to ration soldiers foods that are familiar and comforting. For example, the United States spent millions of dollars to make unorthodox canned food products like spaghetti taste genuine to Italian soldiers during WW2. Although it seems unnecessary, food culture, especially within the Italian culture, is extreme important to a soldiers morale, and basic human instinct.
ReplyDeleteLim
ReplyDeleteI think everyone above has pretty much gotten it right with the Lim article, there seems to be an order and a rhythm, but there still seems to be the issue of too much going on in such a short article. There is, however, a very interesting viewpoint being brought forth, one that makes us as Americans question the lineage and the diversity of the foods we eat. Obviously our location and access to certain foods has a huge impact on what we eat, and the cultures that our respective ancestors have come from also plays a huge role. In the end, our diet is what we make it, but for those of us not willing to venture out and experiment with different styles and types of food, we are relegated to the foods we were raised on, generally a more bland version of what is abroad.
Lim
ReplyDeleteAlthough I was really into the descriptions of food Lim was using throughout the article, I wasn’t as crazy about the actual context of what she was saying. Throughout the article, Lim made me feel ashamed of living in the US and unconsciously engaging in the lifestyle that everyone has become so used to (eating fast food, buying cheap food, eating extensively). Based on what was strictly said in this article, it seems like Malaysia has a much greater appreciation for food that the US. But I don’t think that’s necessarily the case. Although they harvest a variety of fruits and vegetables that America doesn’t I don’t see how that translates into the Malaysian people caring more about food culture. I think the fact that, so much of the time, Americans base gatherings and reunions off of the presence of food is a huge factor to look into when you're discussing one’s true appreciation.
Bloom
Where do I begin… For some reason I’m consternating over this one line in Bloom’s article where she says, “Food writing emphasizes abundance.” Not always, Ms. Bloom, not always. So much of food writing is about not just the scarcity of food but also the psychology of food. Eating, for many people, male and female, is one of the most difficult dilemmas they face each day. I do however like how she relates eating to literary terms.
The biggest problem that I had with Bloom and Lim’s articles was that they both revert back to the “Eat, Pray, Love” relationship that everyone seems to have with food. Food, obviously, affects everyone differently. Some associate food with religion, some with their passion for their significant other and some with the pleasure that food brings to all of the senses. I'm waiting for a food writer to bring something new to the table!
Lim,
ReplyDeleteI contest with the criticism that Lim received by my colleagues. I thought Lim did a good job with the grasping description of the fruits. It made me crave them. I felt lost several times while reading, Lim lacked clear transitions between points. I could relate to what Lim had to say about the importance of food and the role it plays a mean to bring people together at all times, because we have a similar thing back home. Food plays a big role in our day-to-day life. Lim did bring light to important things such as the phenomena of hunger and how severe it is something I usually forget when I’m picky with my food. Also the effect of social media and social on norms on what we put into our bodies, social constructs play such a big role in determining the food we consume. Starvation vs. hunger was also a very appealing point. Overall, I feel the way Lim wrote this article by trying to say too much without giving each point its full right with explaining it made me eager to go research and find out more about the role of food around the world.
Bloom
“Readers don’t have to know much about food (though writers do) to enjoy reading about it” this phrase stood at to me the most since I enjoyed reading Blooms essay but know very little about food; mainly, because the author brought her work to life with the energy that was expressed in the writing. I liked how Bloom used Fishes, quote to highlight the importance of food and show how intertwined it is with love and security. What surprised me the most was the amount of literature that is written about food writing and its popularity. I do agree the type of food we eat does have to do with our geographical area and location. Culture also plays a big role so does the socioeconomic status; in a way what we eat is who we are. I must say that the point of the essay got delivered loud and clear; food writing is important!
Yazan Matouk