Calling out thenewgreen and humanodon specifically in this post. Both of you were gracious enough to try listening to the podcast on which I featured even if you didn't make it through. Anyway, this is the poem I read about 45 minutes into the podcast. I don't think either of you made it that far and I had recorded it as independent audio, so I thought I would put it up so you could check out some original content without having to listen to the rest of the podcast for any reason. Hopefully you enjoy!
For some reason, cannibalism often came up while I was teaching. I think you can get more out of the parts where different preparations are mentioned and that this could get much more grotesque and ridiculous. It's true that people tend not to find cannibalism amusing but what if the two people in the poem were to discuss it further, if the one suggesting that they eat the arm actually convinced the other one that it was the thing to do? I can't remember what comic it was that I read, but there's a character who is knocked unconscious and awakes in a cave. He is horrified to realize that his leg is missing. A man comes in and on seeing that the character is awake, the man begins to ask what he remembers, etc. Then, the character asks after his leg, thinking that he was grievously injured and begins to thank the man for saving his life. The man says not to make anything of it and that the man's leg was quite delicious and that they had prepared it but cutting slits in it and stuffing them with garlic and rosemary and that they were eager to try some other recipes as well. I believe the character escapes and that this comic was French (though translated into English). Anyway, the setup was horrifying and funny and laughing about it led me through an odd arrangement of thoughts and feelings about what it is to be indebted to someone who has saved one's life and then realizing that one's life has been saved outside of the assumed intent. I think that cannibalism is interesting territory, because it's so often represented as something inhuman, which, given the application of "cannibalism" to humans, makes little sense to me.
This poem also subtly (and honestly, at first, accidentally) critiques "Communism" - "Why keep for one what would better serve two?" "Big Red," and part of the play in it is that it's taking Communism to a crazy extreme level, where it's like "Oh your body should go to feed everyone, it's selfish to keep your limbs to yourself" but I'm not sure how successfully that comes through here honestly. You don't mention it in your comment which makes me think maybe it doesn't. Well, I think prions are a problem.
Ah, but I do: You could take Communist (or a more particular ist like Leninist, Stalinist, Maoist, etc.) rhetoric and reshape it into something a silver-tongued cannibal would say, no? Cannibalism and Communism do have this quality of self-consumption which always makes me think of Ouroboros, which is traditionally a cyclical system, but if you look at the creature itself, a snake or a dragon (drake?) it becomes clear that it can't really be cyclical, since it will eventually eat itself. Also, if it lays eggs, it will eventually do so into its own stomach. Prions are a problem and I think that metaphorically they are present in many ideologies. For example, I lived in a Communist country for a while and it became clear shortly after moving there that very, very few people had read The Communist Manifesto. Instead, they were told things about Marx and his work by people who were also told about the work, but had never read it and that this had been repeated several times. Thus, their beliefs and ideas about what Communism should be in theory and in practice were formed by an (most likely intentionally) imperfect transmission of the the original ideas.part of the play in it is that it's taking Communism to a crazy extreme level, where it's like "Oh your body should go to feed everyone, it's selfish to keep your limbs to yourself" but I'm not sure how successfully that comes through here honestly. You don't mention it in your comment which makes me think maybe it doesn't.
but what if the two people in the poem were to discuss it further, if the one suggesting that they eat the arm actually convinced the other one that it was the thing to do?
Ah okay! To be frank I'm not familiar with Communism and certainly not the more particular ists but Wikipedia could help me with that. This would become an interesting dramatic monologue if I took it in that direction I think! Maybe the Ouroboros survives by eating its own eggs :) | Instead, they were told things about Marx and his work by people who were also told about the work, but had never read it and that this had been repeated several times. Thus, their beliefs and ideas about what Communism should be in theory and in practice were formed by an (most likely intentionally) imperfect transmission of the the original ideas.| I've been listening to a history podcast about Martin Luther and the printing press and how monumental all of that was at the time. What you are saying makes me think of that; it's like a modern-day version in a way, just with of course The Communist Manifesto instead of the Bible. Don't trust people to interpret words for you. Eventually, someone will twist them to their advantage. (This is not pointed specifically at you, more of a general 'you.') I'd try not to trust anyone who told me I was too dumb to understand a book, too...which I think was a tactic used by the Catholic church back before Martin Luther and the translation of the Bible into common tongues. Wasn't it Orwell - All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others?