Gary Inbinder writes about...

Feasting and Fun

One of the questions in Challenge 244 asks:

The characters in Gary Inbinder’s Noble Lies are frequently depicted as eating and drinking in tastefully decorated surroundings. What function do the visual and gustatory interludes have in the story aside from reminders of sybaritic pleasure?

I like the title “A Burger for the Patricians?”

“Heroic Appetites, Feasts and Fine Dining In Literature” could be an interesting topic for discussion. I recall quoting a famous passage from Tom Jones that alludes to classical heroes, and I believe you mentioned Rabelais. I also recall some great eating scenes in The Three Musketeers.

I think Mike Lloyd has already picked up on the James Bond references. Think of the “Bond image”: the Oxbridge-accented clubman in dinner jacket with his perfectly coiffed and made-up designer-dressed young lady on his arm entering a posh French restaurant where we know he’ll order the best of the best of the menu in perfectly accented French. After all, Luddy, like Bonaparte, is a bit of a social climber, eh what?

Copyright © 2007 by Gary Inbinder

Comparing Luddy to Napoleon reminds me of a very old but funny story. Well, I think it’s funny, anyway:

A university commencement speaker was entering the hall where he was to deliver a final exhortation to the graduating class. On the door, he saw the word “Push” and thought: “Aha! A perfect example with which to sum up the message of my speech. I’ll use it.”

Thus inspired, he concluded his oration in grand style: “The secret of success is inscribed on the very doors of this auditorium.” Everybody craned their necks to see it. The message they got: “Pull.”

And Luddy has started off with a whopping amount of “pull.” To be fair, he’s been trying to make good use of it, although he has entertained a disquieting moment of Nappy-like hubris at one point.

The “C” (for “chef” or “cook”) androids must be slaving away mightily in kitchens hopefully not in the least resembling that of Peter Greenaway’s The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover. And your comparison to James Bond in a French restaurant reminds me of another story. It’s undoubtedly apocryphal, but again, I think it’s funny:

While in England, Voltaire was riding with a friend in a stagecoach. His friend looked out the window and exclaimed, “What a magnificent English countryside!”

Voltaire replied, “Yes. It’s a good thing they can’t cook it.”

It’s one of those things Voltaire should have said, even if he didn’t.

As for the fine dining of which Luddy and his friends partake, the taste is great, and why should the insurgent comrades not indulge: Consul Finn conspires to make each meal their last. At least he finds new and ingenious ways to for them to work off the calories.

If you keep this up, Gary, the next chapters will send me waddling to the fridge.

Don