the inherent horror of being evil vs the inherent horror of being holy
See you get it.
Eating is a scandal at the heart of human life. On the one hand because eating implies dismemberment and destruction of that which is consumed: we live by making other beings die. On the other hand because eating reveals a contradiction in the basic structure of human desire. We long to be united with objects and beings outside ourselves, and eating—actual incorporation of an object into our own substance — constitutes the ultimate form of union.
Alec Irwin, "Devoured by God: Cannibalism, mysticism, and ethics in Simone Weil." CrossCurrents (2001): 257-272.
I am the food of strong men; grow, and you shall feed upon me; nor shall you convert me, like the food of your flesh, into you, but you shall be converted into me.
God in St Augustine of Hippo's Confessions (Book VII, 10)
In a notebook, along with passages from the Gita, Weil had copied a fragment from Heraclitus: "'Mortals are immortals and immortals are mortals, living each other's death and dying each other's life."' Weil's exegesis: "To live the death of a being is to eat it. The reverse is to be eaten. Man eats God and is eaten by God" (OC VI.2.,454). A year and a half after writing these lines, Weil herself was dead, consumed by mycobacterium tuberculosis, by self-starvation, perhaps by the God she yearned to encounter in the depths of affliction.
Alec Irwin, "Devoured by God: Cannibalism, mysticism, and ethics in Simone Weil." CrossCurrents (2001): 257-272.
What good is it to abstain from food if you devour your brother.
St John Chrysostom
Christian Cannibalism is sooooo fascinating because it resists the desire to corrupt eros into the consumption of the Other, but through asceticism trains us to learn to love without consuming and instead to offer up our lives to be consumed. It is right to say that cannibalism is a love language, to say it is erotic. Of course it is: to love someone is to love God by loving them, to worship God by offering yourself to them, to gift yourself as a "thing-bringing-near" (qorban; this is the word "offering" in hebrew) and place your being upon the alter to be consumed. To love someone is to drink their blood and eat their flesh; to love someone is to offer our blood and offer our flesh. To love someone is to engage in mutual eating. God unmakes himself because he loves us and wants to be part of us, to nourish us: in being consumed by him, we too are unmade. Humanity eats God and is eaten by God. Theophagy is only possible and cannibalism is only made-holy because of God's self-emptying, because God becomes the qorban, the thing which brings near, first by becoming human, and then by becoming bread and wine.
“Liquid-Life: Eroticism and the Ancient Israelite Roots of Christian Cannibalism”
Bread for myself is a material question. Bread for my neighbor is a spiritual one.
Nikolai Berdyaev
I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh, and they shall be drunk with their own blood as with wine. Then all flesh shall know that I am the Lord your Saviour, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.
Isaiah 49:26 NRSV
At their core, all fairy tales have one universal theme: they’re always about hunger. […] Fairy tales are about hunger because they are always, always about something the main protagonist lacks. All forms of hunger are about longing [eros]: When I say that all fairy tales are about hunger, I mean that these stories communicate something universal: the core desires of the human heart. Basic drives like food, sex, companionship, and the pursuit of power are all representative of hunger if you stop to think about it. Protagonists are dead set on fulfilling their hearts’ desires. Conceiving a child. Winning a beautiful maiden’s hand in marriage. Rescuing a village. Defeating monsters. Raising their station. Or even just going to a ball to be free of drudgery and dreariness for a night or two. We’re all looking for something in life. And I can’t think of anything more universal than seeking to satisfy our appetites, whatever form they come in. Wanting to fill an empty belly is the most basic human need there is. That’s the real reason fairy tales rely on food as symbolism. These tales can be incredibly tasty.
Sara, “WHY ALL FAIRY TALES ARE ABOUT HUNGER”













