Wow. What an interesting and surprising story this turned out to be. I started this assignment by reading the first 50+ pages of The Physiology of Taste. It was horribly dry and boring, so my group decided to switch novels. And I'm so happy about that decision.
I had a hard time getting ahold of a copy of Five Quarters of the Orange. One person in my group borrowed the copy from Waldo, so I knew that wasn't an option for me. I didn't want to wait for it to delivered from Amazon and it wasn't available for purchase in stores at Barnes and Noble. With a packed-tight schedule during the week, I decided I would go to Parchment Public Library on Saturday since I would be in town that night. I went there to discover they didn't have a copy of the book. Since I had tickets to an event at the High School that night, I knew I would have to wait until Sunday to borrow the book from another library. Kalamazoo Public library is closed on Sundays, so Portage Public library was the one - and they had a copy! I waited until they opened at 1pm, standing anxiously at the locked doors. I walked up to the receptionist's desk to receive a library card, since I had never been there before. After providing my ID, the reception told me that since I did not live in the city of Portage, she would have to see my Kalamazoo Public library card first. I didn't have one, I had never been there either. "Oh, sorry. We have a reciprocal agreement with KPL which means that you can't have a library card here until you have a library card with them first. Sorry, you can't borrow anything today." I WAS FURIOUS! I didn't understand why that even made sense - does it? - and I didn't know how I was going to read the book. I ended up having to buy an ebook through Barnes and Nobel and reading the full novel, 335 pages, on my iPhone. I started reading at 2pm and didn't finish until after 2am. Oh, how I wish I had just selected this book from the beginning. Even with the exhausting and frustrating experience I had obtaining this text, I did actually enjoy the story. And here is what it's all about.
Framboise is the youngest of three children, to a mother who suffers from complicated "bad spells" or migraines that leave her debilitated. Framboise and her siblings, Cassis and Reine-Claude were adventurous young children. They conspired with German soldiers occupying their country after WWII. The children provided information to the soldiers regarding any actions people took that may have looked like resistance to the Germans. In return, the Germans provided the children with magazines, chocolates, chewing gum, cigarettes, and make-up, among other odd things. Framboise took a special interest to a particular soldier named Tomas. Tomas was very friendly to all of the children and had a special, charming way of relating to them easily. Boise loved him.
Framboise did whatever should could to avoid her mother. She hated her. Her mother was very distant and seemed uncaring. She used harsh words with the children and acted more as a dictator than a loving mother. The children's father died in war. The mother was forced to take over the farm and maintain the household by selling her baked goods and preserves. The mother suffered from severe migraines that left her bed-riden and sick. She sometimes wouldn't come out for days. The spells were usually prompted by the scent of oranges. Boise took advantage of this situation by placing oranges under the stove and in her mother's pillow case when she wanted her mother to go away for a while. Boise received the oranges from the soldier for information about resistors.
The mother kept an album of recipes and hand-written notes. The notes were written in a secret language created by the father. Framboise received this album after her mother's death. It wasn't until then that Framboise realized or understood all that her mother was going through.
The mother suffered with an addiction to morphine. She used the pills when she had the bad spells. Framboise's orange throughout the house gave her many migraines and the mother soon ran out of her supply of pills. She traded goods with German soldiers to receive more pills, and sometimes did other things to get her fix. Sometimes, it was revealed later on, she did these 'things' with Tomas, the soldier Boise loved.
Framboise is reading the album as an adult. She went back to her hometown after fleeing as a child. She renovated the home she grew up in that was destroyed by fire and attack. She started a small restaurant that was extremely popular. Boise is an amazing cook. Many of her recipes came from her mother's album but Boise has her own specialties as well. People all over the world come to her restaurant for the genuine experience and good food. Boise's nephew (Cassis's son) and his wife try to talk Boise into handing over the album so they can use the recipes in their restaurant across town. Boise fights against them and refuses to ever give up the album. The nephew and wife do horrible things to try to fail her business so they can get ahold of the recipes, and later, the story of Boise's mother.
Tomas drowns in the river trying to help Boise capture the legendary "Old Mother" pike she had been after for months. The children try to cover up his death, in fear of being accused themselves, by making it look like a resistor had shot him in the head. Framboise's mother, having had relations with Tomas, find out about his death and believes she may have killed him herself during one of her "bad spells." The town knew of her involvement with Tomas and her children's conspiracies with the German soldiers. After a mass execution of resistors in the town, a mob formed to attack the mother and her children. They burned the house down and the four of them barely escaped with their lives.
The mother moved away and changed her identity to start a new life on her own. The children were sent to an Aunt's home to live new lives of their own. Framboise had the urge to come back to her hometown and restored the home she grew up in. She kept her identity a secret to avoid banishment, until at the very end of the story, she revealed herself and her mother's story to a reporter.
Of course, there are many details included in this story that play a significant role in its overall meaning and theme, but I tried to create as brief of a summary as possible. The idea of food used to manipulate, bribe, and hurt people is a theme that catches my attention especially.
Monday, March 24, 2014
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
To be continued...
I couldn't stand to read any more from The Physiology of Taste so I decided Monday night to pursue reading a different novel, Five Quarters of the Orange.
Today, I intended on borrowing the book from the library to get started on the reading. However, after working from 7:30 am until 6 pm and then heading directly from work in Mattawan to the conference center in Lawrence for a two and a half hour training on Infant & Toddler development that lasted until 9 pm, I literally had no time left in the day to check out the book.
So, I've decided, I will do a summary of what I can collect from online sources about Five Quarters of the Orange until I can find the book tomorrow sometime in between classes. At that point, I will read as much as humanly possible within the next couple of days to catch up to the amount of reading everyone else has done.
Here's a summary from Amazon.com:
"When Framboise Simon returns to a small village on the banks of the Loire, the locals do not recognize her as the daughter of the infamous woman they hold responsible for a tragedy during the German occupation years ago. But the past and present are inextricably entwined, particularly in a scrapbook of recipes and memories that Framboise has inherited from her mother. And soon Framboise will realize that the journal also contains the key to the tragedy that indelibly marked that summer of her ninth year..."
This novel sounds interesting to me because I've always been very interested in WWII related stories. I'm not much of a history buff. I dislike talking about wars, kings, and colonization. However I enjoy learning about the personal, psychological, social, human perspective during times of great importance in history. The era of WWII is a time that sparks my interest so much because there are so many emotions that are tied to this war. I love hearing the stories of the people affected during this time and trying to get a glimpse of their life during those tragic years. I'm extremely intrigued by this type of information.
I also have a huge appreciation for recipes - especially old ones! I love cooking and baking. Some of my most favorite gifts have been cookbooks filled with recipes of all types. I like the idea of incorporating the recipes into a novel. I'm excited to find out how those tie in and I'm also curious about what types of foods were described in those recipes!
A very interesting paragraph about the book came directly from the author's website :
"Five Quarters, like Chocolat and Blackberry Wine, is a story about food as a metaphor for change, but in this case the transformation is not always benign. As a child Framboise deliberately torments her mother with the scent of the orange which brings on her migraines - food here is used as a weapon rather than an agent of kindness. It is only much later in her life that Framboise is able to understand her mother and to forgive her, and at the same time forgive herself. Food continues to be a source of pleasure, but here it is far from simple; it is politicized by the fact that much of it is in short supply; it becomes a means of bartering and blackmail, both during the war and in the present day; it becomes an expression of style (much to the elderly Framboise's disgust); a gateway into the past, a means of self-assertion and finally, the agent of a long-delayed reconciliation between mothers and daughters."
Food, as a weapon, it sounds unheard of but is entirely real, just as this scenario describes. Food shortage and inequality - topics we've talked about many times during class.
I'm very intrigued by the ideas shared about this novel. I can't wait to dive into it. I'm positive that it will be much better than my first pick of novel...phew!
Today, I intended on borrowing the book from the library to get started on the reading. However, after working from 7:30 am until 6 pm and then heading directly from work in Mattawan to the conference center in Lawrence for a two and a half hour training on Infant & Toddler development that lasted until 9 pm, I literally had no time left in the day to check out the book. So, I've decided, I will do a summary of what I can collect from online sources about Five Quarters of the Orange until I can find the book tomorrow sometime in between classes. At that point, I will read as much as humanly possible within the next couple of days to catch up to the amount of reading everyone else has done.
Here's a summary from Amazon.com:
"When Framboise Simon returns to a small village on the banks of the Loire, the locals do not recognize her as the daughter of the infamous woman they hold responsible for a tragedy during the German occupation years ago. But the past and present are inextricably entwined, particularly in a scrapbook of recipes and memories that Framboise has inherited from her mother. And soon Framboise will realize that the journal also contains the key to the tragedy that indelibly marked that summer of her ninth year..."
This novel sounds interesting to me because I've always been very interested in WWII related stories. I'm not much of a history buff. I dislike talking about wars, kings, and colonization. However I enjoy learning about the personal, psychological, social, human perspective during times of great importance in history. The era of WWII is a time that sparks my interest so much because there are so many emotions that are tied to this war. I love hearing the stories of the people affected during this time and trying to get a glimpse of their life during those tragic years. I'm extremely intrigued by this type of information.
I also have a huge appreciation for recipes - especially old ones! I love cooking and baking. Some of my most favorite gifts have been cookbooks filled with recipes of all types. I like the idea of incorporating the recipes into a novel. I'm excited to find out how those tie in and I'm also curious about what types of foods were described in those recipes!
A very interesting paragraph about the book came directly from the author's website :
"Five Quarters, like Chocolat and Blackberry Wine, is a story about food as a metaphor for change, but in this case the transformation is not always benign. As a child Framboise deliberately torments her mother with the scent of the orange which brings on her migraines - food here is used as a weapon rather than an agent of kindness. It is only much later in her life that Framboise is able to understand her mother and to forgive her, and at the same time forgive herself. Food continues to be a source of pleasure, but here it is far from simple; it is politicized by the fact that much of it is in short supply; it becomes a means of bartering and blackmail, both during the war and in the present day; it becomes an expression of style (much to the elderly Framboise's disgust); a gateway into the past, a means of self-assertion and finally, the agent of a long-delayed reconciliation between mothers and daughters."
Food, as a weapon, it sounds unheard of but is entirely real, just as this scenario describes. Food shortage and inequality - topics we've talked about many times during class.
I'm very intrigued by the ideas shared about this novel. I can't wait to dive into it. I'm positive that it will be much better than my first pick of novel...phew!
Monday, March 17, 2014
"The Physiology of Taste"
You are what you eat, as the saying goes, and this is what The Physiology of Taste is all about. When I first started looking at the reading (it was translated from French and appeared on Gutenberg.org ) I was instantly overwhelmed.
The book is divided into "Meditations" which are similar to chapters and there are twenty-eight of them. Each of which are divided into subcategories talking about different aspects of food. Since the reading is online, I had a hard time determining what exactly would equal fifty pages, so I read through the first seven meditations with the idea that the book has a total of two hundred and twenty pages; that makes approximately four sections of fifty pages; twenty eight divided by four is seven.
The Physiology of Taste was originally published in France in 1825. I know very little about France during this time frame but hope to find out more about it on Wednesday. The language used in this book is clearly representative of the time. I cannot help but wonder if everything was translated perfectly or not.
Brillat-Savarin talks first about the senses. He caught my attention by saying that there are six senses instead of five. The addition sense mentioned in the passage is called "the genesiac sense" which is responsible for romantic loving feelings - driving humans to reproduce. He moved on to talk about taste and its function. The ideas of appetite, flavor, hunger and thirst are introduced. All topics important and necessary when discussing food.
When reading this passage, I felt as if I were reading from an old science text book. My interest faded quickly. My attention span felt shorter than ever before. I was distracted constantly and found myself skimming through more sections than I feel comfortable admitting. I absolutely do not enjoy this book. The description said it a hilarious classic, one of the most famous books ever written about food. I was intrigued at first. Now, unfortunately, I'm regretting my decision to read this book.
I may be changing my book selection to Five Quarters of the Orange. I'm looking for a book that is more modern, interesting, and easier to relate to and follow.
Sunday, March 9, 2014
The Hunger Games Part II
As I read the second portion of The Hunger Games, I couldn't help be feel all sorts of emotions. I was angry, upset, surprised, anxious, devastated, and nervous. As we follow Katniss and the other tributes through this difficult journey, we have to remember that they are doing this for pure entertainment. People are watching them as they are fighting for their lives. And they're fighting to have food sent to their District so the people they love can avoid starvation.
This made me think that maybe The Hunger Games are not so disconnected from modern day society after all. Sure, the book is pure fiction, but I don't think it is too far fetched to say that there are some connections to be made to the way society is constructed now.
People are starving all over The United States of America, and even worse in other parts of the world. The people that are starving are the ones at the very bottom of society - the sick, injured, disabled, the laborers, the people holding the jobs others don't want to have, the people just working to get by and support themselves and their families. Then, there are the people at the top of society, the 1%. These are the CEOs and large business owners, the people who inherited huge lump sums of old money from past family members, the people who are sitting pretty in their mansions without a care in the world. Of course, these are generalizations and I cannot claim that all people that fit into these economic categories are all the exact same. However, for these purposes, they are very different groups of people. The rich and the poor. The rich flaunt their money and extravagant life styles while the poor are just hoping to make it to tomorrow.
In The Hunger Games, the rich make a spectacle of the poor by watching the games. They think of it as great entertainment. They are desensitized to the death of these innocent people because they know their fate will not affect them at all. Just like some of the richest people on earth could care less about a homeless man begging on the street because they know his life doesn't affect theirs.
People are not united, they are separated and made out to be opponents. Sometimes, even the biggest enemies can come together for the common good, like Katniss and Rue, but there will still always be people out there against them. Why does this cruelty exist in this story and in the real world?
This made me think that maybe The Hunger Games are not so disconnected from modern day society after all. Sure, the book is pure fiction, but I don't think it is too far fetched to say that there are some connections to be made to the way society is constructed now.
People are starving all over The United States of America, and even worse in other parts of the world. The people that are starving are the ones at the very bottom of society - the sick, injured, disabled, the laborers, the people holding the jobs others don't want to have, the people just working to get by and support themselves and their families. Then, there are the people at the top of society, the 1%. These are the CEOs and large business owners, the people who inherited huge lump sums of old money from past family members, the people who are sitting pretty in their mansions without a care in the world. Of course, these are generalizations and I cannot claim that all people that fit into these economic categories are all the exact same. However, for these purposes, they are very different groups of people. The rich and the poor. The rich flaunt their money and extravagant life styles while the poor are just hoping to make it to tomorrow.
In The Hunger Games, the rich make a spectacle of the poor by watching the games. They think of it as great entertainment. They are desensitized to the death of these innocent people because they know their fate will not affect them at all. Just like some of the richest people on earth could care less about a homeless man begging on the street because they know his life doesn't affect theirs.
People are not united, they are separated and made out to be opponents. Sometimes, even the biggest enemies can come together for the common good, like Katniss and Rue, but there will still always be people out there against them. Why does this cruelty exist in this story and in the real world?
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