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Britons must abandon their obsession with food, says Will Se
http://www.x404.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=17939		 Page 1 of 2
Author:  Amnesia10 [ Sun Dec 30, 2012 9:18 pm ]
Post subject:  Britons must abandon their obsession with food, says Will Se
Britons must abandon their obsession with food, says Will Self

Quote:
The author said that Britain is the “most food-obsessed nation in Europe – if not the world” and urged people to undergo a “major lifestyle change in the year to come”.
Mr Self said that the country has become a “foodie’s paradise” in recent decades. However he urged people to “forge a new relationship with whatever we happen to find on our plates” and said that the large number of charity ‘food banks’ in British towns shows that hunger is still a deep-rooted social issue that should not be ignored.
“We really could do with paying a bit less attention to what’s on the end of our forks, and a bit more to what’s at the end of our roads,” Mr Self said.
The author said that food “has become the defining attribute of both class and culture in 21st century Britain”. However he argued that Britons’ love of gastronomy has not come about due to a “refinement of the collective palate”, but rather by people’s desire to be seen as middle-class.

He makes sense. Especially with more people needing help need the help of food banks.
Author:  jonbwfc [ Sun Dec 30, 2012 9:43 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Britons must abandon their obsession with food, says Will Se
Amnesia10 wrote:
He makes sense. Especially with more people needing help need the help of food banks.

Will Self hardly ever makes sense. And there's a world of difference between 'foodie culture' and food banks. There are many people in the UK who are an arse about food (especially in the capital) but none of them are getting food from food banks. The people getting food from food banks are doing so to get sustenance, not an experience.
Author:  Amnesia10 [ Sun Dec 30, 2012 10:01 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Britons must abandon their obsession with food, says Will Se
You are right. The two groups do not overlap in any way. Though I think he was criticising the foodie culture when so many are dependant on food banks.
Author:  tombolt [ Sun Dec 30, 2012 10:23 pm ]
Post subject:  Britons must abandon their obsession with food, says Will Se
You might as well castigate people for having money when other people don't. Oh wait, he is.
Author:  pcernie [ Sun Dec 30, 2012 11:27 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Britons must abandon their obsession with food, says Will Se
There's people in my work who seem to acheive orgasm when eating something as simple as a steak :roll:

And yes, quite a few of them would like nothing more than to be middle class.
Author:  Amnesia10 [ Mon Dec 31, 2012 6:34 am ]
Post subject:  Britons must abandon their obsession with food, says Will Se
I love the odd steak but that does not make me a foodie. While I now have a very good food mixer I use it mainly for simple recipes like bread and soup. Mainly to get rid of the added salt and sugar in processed foods. It also saves money because I do not pay super market mark ups on processed food.


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Author:  HeatherKay [ Mon Dec 31, 2012 9:49 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Britons must abandon their obsession with food, says Will Se
When you can't turn on the telly without some food-orientated show on it - I'm looking at you, Channel 4. "Come Dine With Me"? What the actual f*** is that all about? - I can sort of understand why Self might think we're obsessed by food in the UK.

The thing is, people might sit their lardy behinds on the sofa, munching snacks and swilling sugary drinks or alcohol, while they watch these shows but I am willing to bet 99% of them never bother to try and cook the food they see.

It's the media obsessed by food. It always has been. Fanny Cradock and the Galloping Gourmet were regular features of the schedules in the 1960s and 1970s. It's just the food p0rn aspect has got more obvious now.
Author:  ProfessorF [ Mon Dec 31, 2012 10:16 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Britons must abandon their obsession with food, says Will Se
All Self seems to be saying is that perhaps we should be more socially aware that while some of us take food to new heights of luxury (we can pick and choose any number of weird and wonderful ingredients and ready meals from the supermarket shelves) many still struggle to feed themselves. We're one of the most developed nations, yet we struggle to feed everyone. I suppose, in some ways, it was ever thus. The fat creamy middle lust over Heston's latest concoction when the lean survive on hand outs.
And he's right, it is a terrible thing that the economic down turn has led to people surviving on food hand outs to survive. This shouldn't be happening, perhaps a more socially aware society wouldn't let it - but then we still haven't solved homelessness or any other number of economically induced hardships.
Leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
Author:  JJW009 [ Mon Dec 31, 2012 10:52 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Britons must abandon their obsession with food, says Will Se
ProfessorF wrote:
All Self seems to be saying is that perhaps we should be more socially aware...

I think we would all agree with that, but it's not what he actually said.

While it is clearly tragic that some people are starving while others dine in luxury, such TV shows do nothing to take the food out of the mouths of the hungry and more than they do to feed them. Such shows are simply irrelevant.

Perhaps an episode of "Come Dine" should be set in a soup kitchen, with a £1.50 per text donation "shout-out" running across the screen. That would help leverage the undeniably common obsessions with food and self-publicity for a good cause.
Author:  ShockWaffle [ Mon Dec 31, 2012 6:19 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Britons must abandon their obsession with food, says Will Se
Is the problem our obsession with food, or Will Self's obsession with class? He seems to have a pan-fried pommes fritte on his shoulder about declining standards of middle class aspiration.
Author:  ProfessorF [ Mon Dec 31, 2012 6:35 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Britons must abandon their obsession with food, says Will Se
You don't think it's permissible to be in his position and use it point out these things?
Author:  Amnesia10 [ Mon Dec 31, 2012 8:53 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Britons must abandon their obsession with food, says Will Se
ShockWaffle wrote:
Is the problem our obsession with food, or Will Self's obsession with class? He seems to have a pan-fried pommes fritte on his shoulder about declining standards of middle class aspiration.

Yes but the middle classes are poorer now than they were ten or twenty years ago. The wealth has been sucked away from the middle classes by the banks. You might have a house worth a million but most have their kids still living with them because they cannot afford to move out and a massive mortgage to boot.
Author:  tombolt [ Mon Dec 31, 2012 9:17 pm ]
Post subject:  Britons must abandon their obsession with food, says Will Se
ShockWaffle wrote:
Is the problem our obsession with food, or Will Self's obsession with class? He seems to have a pan-fried pommes fritte on his shoulder about declining standards of middle class aspiration.


The upper middles are always concerned about the middle middles and the lower middles standards.
Author:  Amnesia10 [ Mon Dec 31, 2012 9:48 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Britons must abandon their obsession with food, says Will Se
tombolt wrote:
The upper middles are always concerned about the middle middles and the lower middles standards.

They aspire to be upper class and to maintain that superiority over the middle middles and lower middles.
Author:  tombolt [ Mon Dec 31, 2012 11:07 pm ]
Post subject:  Britons must abandon their obsession with food, says Will Se
Absolutely.
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