In Delicious in Dungeon, the revulsion shown by some characters at the consumption of monsters is a cultural one: monsters are not and cannot be “food.” In Pass the Monster Meat, Milady, by contrast, there are real health concerns at play: the meat can make you sick if not prepared carefully.

One immediate difference between this series and Delicious in Dungeon is that there is an immediate, technical distinction made between monsters and more traditional food animals (in this case, the presence of magical energy in monster meat that is not present in the meat of other animals).

-Slavoj Zizek, “Living in the End Times“

No one ends up a philosopher because they _like_ the thoughts they have

Engaging with unexpected food sources, whether in fiction or otherwise (one thinks of Andrew Zimmern’s “Bizarre Foods” reality television program) can offer valuable cross-cultural insights. More fundamentally, it can also awaken us (per Plumwood) to our own status as food for other beings.

It feels like every few months I read another article about how some beloved food is being endangered or disrupted by the concurrent ecological crises facing our shared world. In that context, the increasing creative engagement with the question of “what counts as food” becomes especially timely.

When robots discovery negative theology.

youtu.be/lNY53tZ2geg

An awesome presentation on a fascinating topic. I, for one, cannot wait to read more. And, as coincidence would have it, I recently came across the following classic cover that seems to fit the theme pretty well.