Future Facts Of Food

Nicholas van Rijn, Dominic Flandry and many of SM Stirling's characters understand the true value of food. In Theater Of Spies, Stirling addresses the much less humorous issue of war-time food supplies or lack thereof. This has made me focus on the physical act of eating. Years ago, when eating a meal with my family, I suddenly thought and said, "Eating's funny when you think about it: putting things inside yourself through a hole and liking it." I got a surprised laugh from my sister, because she had been doing something all her life and had heard it described for the first time, and a shocked response from my father which was as much as to say, "Certain things may very well be true but that is no excuse for saying them!"

The Venerians in Robert Heinlein's Space Cadet and one race of Neptunians in Olaf Stapledon's Last And First Men would no more eat in front of others than most of us would have sex in front of others. Some young Neptunians almost starve because their elders are too embarrassed to tell them the facts of food. Each child must find his/her way into a private eating cubicle and deduce what it is for.

Discussing food, we have referenced:

Anderson's Technic History;
Heinlein's Juvenile Future History;
Stapledon's Last Men future history;
Stirling's current alternative history trilogy -

- and what more could we ask for?

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