September 28, 2014

"Lamb is more Nutritious than any kind of Poultry, Mutton than Lamb, Veal than Mutton, and Beef than Veal; But Pork is more Nutricious than any of these..."

"... for the Juices of Pork, which is more like Human Flesh than any other Flesh is, are more adapted to the Nourishment of a Human Body than the Juices of any other Flesh." 

IN THE COMMENTS: BDNYC points out that I've blogged this before. I'd forgotten! I wonder how often I do such things. I'd like to think this is the first time. Perhaps not. It's interesting to see that I blogged it exactly the same way — except for the placement of the line break — even though I contemplated doing some different things with it, including discussing the chapter titled "A Short Digression on the Pig; or, Why Heaven Hates Ham" in Christopher Hitchens's "God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything."
[O]ne may note that children if left unmolested by rabbis and imams are very drawn to pigs, especially to baby ones, and that firefighters in general do not like to eat roast pork or crackling. The barbaric vernacular word for roasted human in New Guinea and elsewhere was “long pig”: I have never had the relevant degustatative experience myself, but it seems that we do, if eaten, taste very much like pigs.

This helps to make nonsense of the usual “secular” explanations of the original Jewish prohibition.... trichinosis....

There must therefore be another answer to the conundrum. I claim my own solution as original, though without the help of Sir James Frazer and the great Ibn Warraq I might not have hit upon it. According to many ancient authorities, the attitude of early Semites to swine was one of reverence as much as disgust. The eating of pig flesh was considered as something special, even privileged and ritualistic. (This mad confusion between the sacred and the profane is found in all faiths at all times.) The simultaneous attraction and repulsion derived from an anthropomorphic root: the look of the pig, and the taste of the pig, and the dying yells of the pig, and the evident intelligence of the pig, were too uncomfortably reminiscent of the human. Porcophobia—and porcophilia—thus probably originate in a nighttime of human sacrifice and even cannibalism at which the “holy” texts often do more than hint. Nothing optional—from homo-sexuality to adultery—is ever made punishable unless those who do the prohibiting (and exact the fierce punishments) have a repressed desire to participate. As Shakespeare put it in King Lear, the policeman who lashes the whore has a hot need to use her for the very offense for which he plies the lash.

Porcophilia can also be used for oppressive and repressive purposes. In medieval Spain, where Jews and Muslims were compelled on pain of death and torture to convert to Christianity, the religious authorities quite rightly suspected that many of the conversions were not sincere. Indeed, the Inquisition arose partly from the holy dread that secret infidels were attending Mass—where of course, and even more disgustingly, they were pretending to eat human flesh and drink human blood, in the person of Christ himself. Among the customs that arose in consequence was the offering, at most events formal and informal, of a plate of charcuterie. Those who have been fortunate enough to visit Spain, or any good Spanish restaurant, will be familiar with the gesture of hospitality: literally dozens of pieces of differently cured, differently sliced pig. But the grim origin of this lies in a constant effort to sniff out heresy, and to be unsmilingly watchful for giveaway expressions of distaste. In the hands of eager Christian fanatics, even the toothsome jamón Ibérico could be pressed into service as a form of torture.

Today, ancient stupidity is upon us again. Muslim zealots in Europe are demanding that the Three Little Pigs, and Miss Piggy, Winnie-the-Pooh’s Piglet, and other traditional pets and characters be removed from the innocent gaze of their children....

17 comments:

bleh said...

Haven't you posted this before? I recall reading this quote a few months ago. Possibly somewhere else.

bleh said...

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2014/04/lamb-is-more-nutritious-than-any-kind.html?m=1

I knew I wasn't imagining it.

Ann Althouse said...

Whoa! I didn't remember posting that.

Funny to see I posted it exactly the same way, even though I had several ideas.

SomeoneHasToSayIt said...


Bacon. It just doesn't get any better than that.

Ann Althouse said...

No… wait… I did the line break at a different place.

bleh said...

It's a great line. I love pork so much that it doesn't even faze me. It only makes me curious.

iowan2 said...

Get over it. We are flesh eaters. Its evolution.

Fernandinande said...

Homer: Are you saying you're never going to eat any animal again? What about bacon?
Lisa: No.
Homer: Ham?
Lisa: No.
Homer: Pork chops?
Lisa: Dad, those all come from the same animal.
Homer: Heh heh heh. Ooh, yeah, right, Lisa. A wonderful, magical animal.

Wince said...

"more adapted to the Nourishment of a Human Body than the Juices of any other Flesh."

Those "precious bodily fluids"!

William said...

There was an anthropologist who speculated that since pigs were used by those with a settled way of life, they were anathema to nomadic tribes.

Sam vfm #111 said...

Pigs are the most efficient animal at turning feed into meat. Plus you can use every part of the pig except for the squeal.
I had bacon for breakfast and a ham sandwich for lunch. Love my pork.

traditionalguy said...

Turkey is better than them all. For which I give thanks.

Michael K said...

Pork has the added advantage of repelling Muslims.

rcocean said...

Sorry, nothing is better than an inch think Porterhouse steak.

Pork is 2nd best.

Lewis Wetzel said...

"Nothing optional—from homo-sexuality to adultery—is ever made punishable unless those who do the prohibiting (and exact the fierce punishments) have a repressed desire to participate."

So Hitch secretly wanted to enforce religious laws? Mr. Hitchens sometimes (but not always) lacked in necessary introspection.

Bad Lieutenant said...

Inch thick, rc? are you mental? Two inches, inch and a half at least if you're like that, but how are you supposed to cook a wafer like that rare, while still getting a nice sear? That's a breakfast steak and not much of one.

Lewis Wetzel said...

The problem with all of these "just so" stories is that not consuming pork is not a significant survival characteristic.