{"id":29372,"date":"2020-10-19T06:00:18","date_gmt":"2020-10-19T05:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/a-desk.org\/?p=29372"},"modified":"2023-07-09T14:45:37","modified_gmt":"2023-07-09T12:45:37","slug":"neither-raw-not-cooked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/en\/magazine\/neither-raw-not-cooked\/","title":{"rendered":"Neither raw nor cooked"},"content":{"rendered":"

To start a conversation about consumption is to venture onto a slippery-slope. The term \u2018consumption\u2019\u00a0is the subject of countless debates, and constitutes in itself a semantic Pandora’s box into which we\u00a0propose to slip for a brief moment.\u00a0The notion of consumption tends to convey ambiguous meanings that are reflected, for example, in\u00a0expressions such as \u2018consumerist society\u2019, which implies waste, accumulation and passivity; or in figures\u00a0of speech such as \u2018consumed by loneliness\u2019 or \u2018consumed by desire\u2019, which reinforce societal norms,\u00a0rules of conduct, and suggest a potential loss of control. Here, to consume inhabits the threshold space\u00a0in between restriction and embrace, unhinged desire and discipline, gluttony and diet: could one be\u00a0\u2018consumed by life\u2019?<\/p>\n

The perspective of being consumed, dissolved, is met with a certain disgust that can perhaps be\u00a0sought in the fear of getting lost, of being contaminated or absorbed into something else. As if the\u00a0act of consuming was a threat against a supposedly finite self. And yet, to consume is to complete a\u00a0transaction, an exchange: to change and be changed. The act of consuming is never neutral and it bites\u00a0its own tail: consuming is also to be consumed. In the end, we always consume more than we literally\u00a0ingest, be it ideas or proteins, energy or kilobytes. Because for something to be consumed somewhere,\u00a0something has to be secured and transformed elsewhere. In other words: there is nothing disembodied\u00a0or ideal in what we ingest.<\/p>\n

To produce or consume a cultural item such as a poem, for instance, requires a great deal of energy,\u00a0including the food for the poet and audience, or the ability to store \u2013 whether in one\u2019s memory or on\u00a0analog or digital media \u2013 notes and verses to which to return. Such resources are tangible and imply\u00a0labor, transport networks, a variety of techniques such as husbandry, accounting, as well as a thriving\u00a0mind. Inspiration is not just a brilliant spark but the harvest and the winds, the markets and the electric\u00a0lines. It is the very expression of millions of bacteria that collaborate to sustain life.<\/p>\n

Take these lines:<\/p>\n

\u201c Como las brasas que arden \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u201cLike embers that burn<\/em><\/p>\n

mientras Ariel y Calib\u00e1n \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0while Ariel and Caliban<\/em><\/p>\n

sostienen la soledad del muro oeste. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0hold up the solitude of the western wall.<\/em><\/p>\n

Acuclillados uno frente al otro. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Crouched down, one in front of the other.<\/em><\/p>\n

Como quien busca su rostro en el coraz\u00f3n \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Like someone looking for his face<\/em><\/p>\n

de la cebolla. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0in the heart of an onion.<\/em><\/p>\n

Hurgando, hurgando \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Poking, poking<\/em><\/p>\n

pese al fr\u00edo y los gases: \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 despite the cold and fumes:<\/em><\/p>\n

Un abrigo de fantas\u00eda.\u201d \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0a blanket of fantasy.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

These verses come from a poem entitled \u201cNi Crudo ni cocido” [Half-Cooked] written by Roberto Bola\u00f1o\u00a0in the 1980s. Inspired by The Tempest \u2013 perhaps the last play written by Shakespeare as a single writer\u2013,\u00a0it is used by Bola\u00f1o to summon his everlasting disenchantment for a Latinamerica consumed by its own\u00a0paradoxes. There have been at least two seemingly unrelated events that made these lines possible. On\u00a0the one hand, Salvador Allende had to rise to power only to be overthrown by a military coup in 1973:\u00a0an event that would greatly shape the universe in which the poet nurtured his imagination. On the other\u00a0hand, the figure of the cannibal had to have settled in the collective imagination. Ambiguous figure\u00a0oscillating between an emancipated slave and an uncivilized glutton: Caliban the cannibal \u201cholding up\u00a0the solitude of the western wall\u201d.<\/p>\n

The cannibal \u2013 and all its metaphorical palate \u2013 is perhaps an inevitable companion when we venture\u00a0into a discussion about consumption. Neither fixed nor single, they gladly exist in the fringes between\u00a0culture and nature \u2013 devouring, revoking arbitrary divisions, one bite at a time. Such a character helps us\u00a0acknowledge that life entails above all a sort of relentless-cannibalia in which humans and non-humans\u00a0are inextricably involved.<\/p>\n

The title chosen by the poet, \u2018Half-Cooked\u2019 \u2013 neither raw nor cooked \u2013, suggests a liminal state:\u00a0half-done we remain, always in transit, insatiable. As if Allende\u2019s aborted project and the Haitian\u00a0revolution had become ingredients fermented by time, fetched across the oceans, flavored in someone\u2019s\u00a0mind, preserved in data servers: which we consume today by chance.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
(Featured Image: Visible ship tracks in the Nothern Pacific, on March 4th 2009)<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Note<\/p>\n

1. Roberto Bola\u00f1o, Los perros rom\u00e1nticos , \u2018Ni Crudo, Ni Cocino\u2019 (Kutxa Fundazioa, 1994). Translated into English by Laura Healy,\u00a0The Romantic Dogs<\/em> (New York: New Directions, 2008).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To start a conversation about consumption is to venture onto a slippery-slope. 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