Oryx and Crake and the New Nostalgia for Meat

Abstract

Recent years have seen the development of a new trend in gastronomic discourse toward acknowledging and even valorizing the role of animal slaughter in meat production. Th is development problematizes some of the ideas of infl uential theorists of meat such as Fiddes (1990) and Adams (1991): namely, that the animal in (post)modernity has been rendered invisible in the process of meat production and consumption (Adams, 1991), and that meat itself is a commodity with a declining reputation (Fiddes, 1990). Th is paper analyzes the role of nostalgia in this trend toward do-it-yourself (or at least witness-it-yourself ) slaughter, and takes these developments in cultural tastes and feelings as a context within which to analyze the special significance of meat in Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake. In identifying this burgeoning nostalgia for meat and contextualizing it within a risk-refl exive, consumer-driven, dystopian near-future society of the author's own devising, Oryx and Crake foregrounds and illuminates these real-world developments in the meanings of meat.

Vegetarian Utopias: Visions of dietary patterns in future societies and support for social change

“…For example, Parry (2009) discusses Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel, Oryx and Crake, in which the future population consists of a new engineered type of human who is effectively vegetarian. Parry (2009) suggests that the author constructs the few remaining 'real' humans (in contrast to the 'new' humans) as naturally desiring meat.…”

“…Parry (2009) suggests that the author constructs the few remaining 'real' humans (in contrast to the 'new' humans) as naturally desiring meat.…”

Cows on Facebook and Instagram

“…Intimately intertwined with this development is another development identified by Parry (2009Parry ( , 2010, K. Gillespie (2011), Cole (2011), Stanescu (2014, Tiengo and Caffo (2012), and Gutjahr (2013). These authors all describe a new trend in gastronomic discourse seen in books, documentaries, TV shows, and advertising, where the animal in meat production is acknowledged.…”

“…It does so by focusing on the happiness of animals and on the producers of animal food products being aware of and respecting the animals' emotions, and caring for their quality of life up until the day of their "humane slaughter" (Cole 2011;Stanescu 2014). Instead of responding to the moral philosophical debates on the problem of animal agriculture (Midgley 1983;Singer 1990), these happy animal discourses define the problem of animal agriculture as a problem of industrialization and rationalization, and of people being disconnected from the realities of food production (Cole 2011;Parry 2009Parry , 2010. Hence, if only industrialization can be rolled back, the ethical issues of using animals for food will be resolved.…”

Benevolent technotopias and hitherto unimaginable meats: Tracing the promises of in vitro meat

“…Here, a more dystopian discourse surfaces, with Atwood inspiring account's questioning the desirability of the technological interventions that cultured meat production entails and the authenticity of the resulting products (cf. McHugh, 2010;Parry, 2009;Sanderson, 2013 …”