Actually the analogy pretty much fails in today's society. Forget filling a theater with a plate of food. Today we have entire cable channels devoted to food and people taking pictures of their food and posting it on facebook. Food Porn is a thing.
Actually the analogy pretty much fails in today's society. Forget filling a theater with a plate of food. Today we have entire cable channels devoted to food and people taking pictures of their food and posting it on facebook. Food Porn is a thing.
Lewis is probably spinning in his grave.
Chef Alton Brown talked about this a bit in a Hot Ones interview (in case you're unfamiliar with it, Hot Ones is where a host interviews famous guests while they both eat increasingly hot wings). He points out how he sort of regrets being part of the whole food culture thing in America, or rather, he regrets how the Food Network spun it from being about cooking good food to what it is today, which is essentially food porn.
I see the whole culture of it as a weird over-correction to the American diet pre-90s. From about, what, the 40s to the 90s America had a horribly bland and heavily processed diet that mostly came in boxes, cans, and frozen packaging. In the 90s we saw the advent or the spreading of a number of premium brands, and an interest in exotic foods. At the same time the whole micro-brew thing started as well as the middle class growing interest in finer wines as opposed to boxed stuff, wine coolers, and Bartles and Jaymes. The health and organic movements really ramped up. Major "health food" stores like Whole Foods started franchising. It all seemed to happen all at once, and I loved it. Having all of those options, and eating fresh food was like a color blind man seeing the full range for the first time. But yeah, it's become obsessive at this point, and we've swung so far the opposite way that it's become unhealthy again.
To specifically get to why any of this is wrong and what separates it from art per se, you need a theology of art (which the church has had a mixed view of in its history).
"I am not angered that the Moral Majority boys campaign against abortion. I am angry when the same men who say, "Save OUR children" bellow "Build more and bigger bombers." That's right! Blast the children in other nations into eternity, or limbless misery as they lay crippled from "OUR" bombers! This does not jell." - Leonard Ravenhill
To specifically get to why any of this is wrong and what separates it from art per se, you need a theology of art (which the church has had a mixed view of in its history).
Chef Alton Brown talked about this a bit in a Hot Ones interview (in case you're unfamiliar with it, Hot Ones is where a host interviews famous guests while they both eat increasingly hot wings). He points out how he sort of regrets being part of the whole food culture thing in America, or rather, he regrets how the Food Network spun it from being about cooking good food to what it is today, which is essentially food porn.
I see the whole culture of it as a weird over-correction to the American diet pre-90s. From about, what, the 40s to the 90s America had a horribly bland and heavily processed diet that mostly came in boxes, cans, and frozen packaging. In the 90s we saw the advent or the spreading of a number of premium brands, and an interest in exotic foods. At the same time the whole micro-brew thing started as well as the middle class growing interest in finer wines as opposed to boxed stuff, wine coolers, and Bartles and Jaymes. The health and organic movements really ramped up. Major "health food" stores like Whole Foods started franchising. It all seemed to happen all at once, and I loved it. Having all of those options, and eating fresh food was like a color blind man seeing the full range for the first time. But yeah, it's become obsessive at this point, and we've swung so far the opposite way that it's become unhealthy again.
I never got the whole taking photos of your food and posting it to facebook thing. Sure if you made something cool and want to show off your cooking skill, then it is OK, or if you are sharing a recipe. But a lot of people just take a photo of their regular dinner plate and post it, or when they eat out. Seems just weird. I don't go over to my friends house and show them snapshots of the food I ate that week.
I never got the whole taking photos of your food and posting it to facebook thing. Sure if you made something cool and want to show off your cooking skill, then it is OK, or if you are sharing a recipe. But a lot of people just take a photo of their regular dinner plate and post it, or when they eat out. Seems just weird. I don't go over to my friends house and show them snapshots of the food I ate that week.
I do it every now and then if I've had something amazing, and I want to show others how amazing it was. I also DO go over friends houses and show them snapshots of food I ate. Also do it with co-workers (and they do the same). Like I'll be, "dude, I just went to this AMAZING burger joint in Detroit, check out the pictures of how big and amazing this burger is!"
I do it every now and then if I've had something amazing, and I want to show others how amazing it was. I also DO go over friends houses and show them snapshots of food I ate. Also do it with co-workers (and they do the same). Like I'll be, "dude, I just went to this AMAZING burger joint in Detroit, check out the pictures of how big and amazing this burger is!"
"I am not angered that the Moral Majority boys campaign against abortion. I am angry when the same men who say, "Save OUR children" bellow "Build more and bigger bombers." That's right! Blast the children in other nations into eternity, or limbless misery as they lay crippled from "OUR" bombers! This does not jell." - Leonard Ravenhill
Oh, well, I was just thinking about the posts condemning "food porn", but I was wondering, for the sake of argument, what made it any different from going to an art gallery and looking at depictions of other things.
"I am not angered that the Moral Majority boys campaign against abortion. I am angry when the same men who say, "Save OUR children" bellow "Build more and bigger bombers." That's right! Blast the children in other nations into eternity, or limbless misery as they lay crippled from "OUR" bombers! This does not jell." - Leonard Ravenhill
Oh, well, I was just thinking about the posts condemning "food porn", but I was wondering, for the sake of argument, what made it any different from going to an art gallery and looking at depictions of other things.
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