SPECULATIVE VISIONS AND IMAGINARY MEALS
2008; Routledge; Volume: 22; Issue: 3-4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/09502380802012500
ISSN1466-4348
Autores Tópico(s)Ecocriticism and Environmental Literature
ResumoAbstract As speculative visions, science fiction films reveal the dreams and the anxieties of the present. This essay focuses on food scenes in science fiction films depicting the future on a post-apocalyptic earth to explore the commentary they offer on the health of the environment (including humans). Familiar and unfamiliar foods, prepared, shared, denied, and eaten illuminate popular perceptions about nature, technology, and humanity. In this analysis, food is imagined not only as a necessary sustenance for corporeal needs, but also as a liminal cultural symbol of life and death, nature and culture, human and non-human. Such projections of food, whether dramatic or parodic, help illustrate competing claims of nostalgia, progress, failure, control, alienation, and excess. Keywords: foodscience fiction filmspost-apocalyticenvironmentliminalnostalgia Acknowledgements The author would like to thank Phaedra Pezzullo for her encouragement and many helpful suggestions from this essay's beginnings (at the 2003 National Communication Association Convention) to its final draft. Notes 1. These films, spanning a nearly 30-year time period, are #2. Star Wars ( 1977 Star Wars 1977 , Dir. George Lucas , Lucasfilm Ltd. and Twentieth Century Fox . [Google Scholar] ), #4. E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial ( 1982 E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial 1982 Dir. Steven Spielberg , Universal . [Google Scholar] ), #5. Star Wars: The Phantom Menace ( 1999 Star Wars: The Phantom Menace 1999 , Dir. George Lucas , Lucasfilm Ltd. and Twentieth Century Fox . [Google Scholar] ), #7. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King ( 2003 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King 2003 Dir. Peter Jackson , New Line Cinema . [Google Scholar] ), and #10. Jurassic Park ( 1993 Jurassic Park 1993 Dir. Steven Spielberg , Universal . [Google Scholar] ) (p. 229). 2. Kuhn (1999 Kuhn , A 1999 Alien Zone II: The Spaces of Science Fiction , Verso , London . [Google Scholar]) notes, 'overviews of the genre, for example, very often adopt a historical approach in which science fiction's thematic preoccupations are tracked alongside social events and attitudes prominent at the time the work first appeared' (p. 3). These preoccupations and concerns often take the form of explorations of environmental crises, matched to each era's own set of anxieties. In the 1950s, fears of radioactive fallout spawned mutants: It Came from Beneath the Sea ( 1955 It Came from Beneath the Sea 1955 Dir. Robert Gordon , Columbia . [Google Scholar] ), Them! ( 1954 Them! 1954 Dir. Gordon Douglas , Warner Brothers . [Google Scholar] ), The Incredible Shrinking Man ( 1957 The Incredible Shrinking Man 1957 Dir. Jack Arnold , Universal . [Google Scholar] ), The Attack of the 50 Foot Woman ( 1958 The Attack of the 50 Foot Woman 1958 Dir. Nathan Hertz , Allied Artists . [Google Scholar] ). By the 1970s, when nuclear holocaust seemed poised to extinguish all life on earth, films responded with opening shots of mushroom clouds and a world thrown into chaos: The Omega Man ( 1971 The Omega Man 1971 Dir. Boris Sagal , Warner Brothers . [Google Scholar] ), A Boy and His Dog ( 1975 A Boy and His Dog 1975 Dir. L. Q. Jones , Independent . [Google Scholar] ), Testament ( 1983 Testament 1983 Dir. Lynne Littman , Paramount . [Google Scholar] ), The Aftermath ( 1985 The Aftermath 1985 Dir. Steve Barkett , Nautilus Film Company . [Google Scholar] ), The Lathe of Heaven ( 1986 The Lathe of Heaven 1986 Dir. David Loxton and Fred Barzyk , Thirteen/WNET New York . [Google Scholar] ), The Terminator ( 1984 The Terminator 1984 Dir. James Cameron , Orion . [Google Scholar] ), Terminator 2: Judgment Day ( 1991 Terminator 2: Judgment Day 1991 Dir. James Cameron , Le Studio Canal + [Google Scholar] ). Biological weaponry ravaged cities and citizens in Twelve Monkeys ( 1995 Twelve Monkeys 1995 Dir. Terry Gilliam , Universal . [Google Scholar] ), The Postman ( 1997 The Postman 1997 Dir. Kevin Costner , Warner Brothers . [Google Scholar] ), and The Last Man ( 1999 The Last Man 1999 Dir. Harry Ralston , Lion's Gate . [Google Scholar] ). Widespread pollution forces the creation of the domed city that becomes both refuge and prison in Logan's Run ( 1976 Logan's Run 1976 Dir. Michael Anderson , MGM . [Google Scholar] ) and the spaceship greenhouses containing the last remnants of earth's forests in Silent Running ( 1971 Silent Running 1971 Dir. Douglas Trumbull , Universal . [Google Scholar] ). Pollution and overpopulation result in the grim New York cityscape of Soylent Green ( 1973 Soylent Green 1973 Dir. Richard Fleischer , MGM . [Google Scholar] ) and the dreary Los Angeles of Blade Runner ( 1982 Blade Runner 1982 Dir. Ridley Scott , Warner Brothers . [Google Scholar] ). Toxins causing widespread sterility refigure life in The Handmaid's Tale ( 1990 The Handmaid's Tale 1990 Dir. Volker Schlondorff , Virgin-Miramax . [Google Scholar] ). Greenhouse gases and global climate change altered the worlds found in Waterworld ( 1995 Waterworld 1995 Dir. Kevin Reynolds , Universal . [Google Scholar] ), Artificial Intelligence: AI ( 2001 Artificial Intelligence: AI 2001 Dir. Steven Spielberg , DreamWorks Pictures . [Google Scholar] ), and The Day After Tomorrow ( 2004 The Day After Tomorrow 2004 Dir. Roland Emmerich , Fox . [Google Scholar] ). 3. Scholarly attention to food in film only recently has begun to flourish. Telotte (1985 Telotte, J. P. 1985. A consuming passion: food and film noir', Georgia Review, 39. no., 2: 397–410. [Google Scholar]) argues the persistent images of food and appetite in film noir suggests an underlying critique of society in post-World War II America and an anxiety about consumerism. Boswell (1990 Boswell, P. A. 1990. "'Hungry in the land of plenty: food in Hollywood films'". In Beyond the Stars III: The Material World in American Popular Film, Edited by: Loukides, P. and Fuller, L. K. 7–23. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Popular Press. [Google Scholar]) concludes that the abundance of food popular Hollywood films is used to set up a direct contrast; it becomes a sign of 'spiritual famine,' exposing other yearnings that are not so easily filled. 'Hollywood's America,' argues Boswell, 'is forever the land of plenty, and Americans are forever uncomfortably hungry amidst an abundance of food' (1990, p. 21). Dorfman's (1992 Dorfman, C. 1992. 'The garden of eating: the carnal kitchen in contemporary American culture'. Feminist Issues, 12(1): 21–38. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) exploration of the 'carnal kitchen' in American popular culture examines scenes in which intimacy and seduction are entangled with food preparation and consumption. Barr (1996 Barr, T. 1996. 'Eating Kosher, staying closer'. Journal of Popular Film & Television, 24(3): 134–144. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) uses food scenes in films to explore ethnicity, specifically the ways in food choices and dining scenes help to relay information about Jewish identity, culture, and assimilation. See also Poole (1999 Poole, G. 1999. Reel Meals, Set Meals, Sydney, NSW: Currency Press. [Google Scholar]), Ferry (2003 Ferry, J. 2003. Food in Film: A Culinary Performance of Communication, New York: Routledge. [Google Scholar]), and Bower (2004 Bower, A. L. 2004. Reel Food: Essays on Food and Film, New York: Routledge. [Google Scholar]). 4. Not all science fiction films treat the subject of food, though such occasional absences are surprising. See Logan's Run ( 1976 Logan's Run 1976 Dir. Michael Anderson , MGM . [Google Scholar] ). 5. The role of technology in Americans' food system is visible as well in the technologies used to plant, cultivate, and harvest foods, as well as the extensive infrastructure used to transport and deliver food. See Berry (1997 Berry, W. 1997. The Unsettling of America: Culture & Agriculture, San Francisco, CA: Sierra Club Books. [Google Scholar]). 6. Forster (2004 Forster, L. 2004. "'Futuristic foodways: the metaphorical meaning of food in science fiction films'". In Reel Food: Essays on Food and Film, Edited by: Bower, A. L. 251–265. New York: Routledge. [Google Scholar]) raises a similar point, noting 'there are many points of convergence between food and science fiction, making food such a helpful point of illustration for metaphor and exemplification of social concerns' (p. 253). Forster identifies only two points of convergence: the body and technology. A third could be also added: the environment. The three are deeply entangled. 7. I have excluded futuristic science fiction films set in space or on distant planets. My interest lies in what films have to say about this planet and its environmental conditions – with food serving as one important means of measuring the health of natural conditions and technological systems. One exception is my discussion of Silent Running ( 1971 Silent Running 1971 Dir. Douglas Trumbull , Universal . [Google Scholar] ), for the plot is driven by the destruction of the earthly environment and the effort to preserve what remains of nature. 8. A detailed analysis of this scene is found in Cimagala (2005 Cimagala , B. 2005 'Why does everything taste like chicken? Food representation in The Matrix' , unpublished manuscript, April 2005 . [Google Scholar]). 9. Food scarcity and hunger offer films an opportunity to examine humanity on another level: teasing out what constitutes proper, or at least permissible, food. To assuage their hunger, characters ingest bugs (Twelve Monkeys), rats raw (Battlefield Earth), rats roasted over open fires (2019: After the Fall of New York), and canned dog food (The Road Warrior). 10. Tellingly, when the Robocop is injured, his partner nurses him back to health, bringing him three jars of babyfood. Though she willingly assumes the role of nurturing mother caring for a sick child, the Robocop refuses his part. He has regained memory of his past, and this humanizing element causes him to reject the food. Later, he sets the jars atop each other in a small pyramid and shoots them (and the smiling face of a young boy on their label) one by one. His childlike innocence has been lost. 11. The following two science fiction films also make reference to agriculture: Tank Girl ( 1995 Tank Girl 1995 Dir. Rachel Talalay , MGM . [Google Scholar] ) (a glimpse of a hydroponic garden helps explain the source of food) and Sleeper ( 1973 Sleeper 1973 Dir. Woody Allen , United Artists . [Google Scholar] ) (a comic garden of gigantic fruits and vegetables lying on bare ground, attached by hoses to a central source of nutrients). 12. Jefferson (1787/1954 Jefferson , T. 1954 Notes on the State of Virginia William Peden , W. W Norton & Company , New York . ( Originally published 1787 ). [Google Scholar]) argued, 'Those who labour in the earth are the chosen people of God, if ever he had a chosen people, whose breasts he has made his peculiar deposit for substantial and genuine virtue … Corruption of morals … is the mark set on those, who not looking up to heaven, to their own soil and industry, as does the husbandman, for their subsistence, depend for it on the casualties and caprice of customers. Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition' (pp. 164–165). 13. With fewer than two percent of the American population currently engaged in agricultural labor, Vic's understanding of farming may, in fact, parallel that of most contemporary Americans living at a distance from the farm fields and orchards which supply their food (and their cotton, wool, silk, linen, and hemp clothes). The mirror image of 'urban legends' may be the rural stories circulated among farmers about 'city slickers' who look for potatoes growing above ground, etc. 14. A more compelling reading of the logic of cannibalism is found in Fernandez-Armesto (2002 Fernandez-Armesto, F. 2002. Near a Thousand Tables: A History of Food, New York: Free Press. [Google Scholar]), who regards it as a 'ritual practiced not for a meal, but for its meaning' (p. 27). He argues that cannibalism arises out of a desire for self-transformation, in which human flesh – like many other foods – are eaten in the hopes that they will pass on their virtue. 15. For further reading on GMOs, see Teitel and Wilson (1999 Teitel, M. and Wilson, K. A. 1999. Genetically Engineered Food: Changing the Nature of Nature, Rochester, VT: Park Street Press. [Google Scholar]), Rifkin (1998 Rifkin, J. 1998. The Biotech Century: Harvesting the Gene and Remaking the World, New York: Putnam. [Google Scholar]), and Lappe and Bailey (1998 Lappe, M. and Bailey, B. 1998. Against the Grain: Biotechnology and the Corporate Takeover of Your Food, Monroe, ME: Common Courage Press. [Google Scholar]). 16. Recommended sources on the social consequences of contemporary agricultural policy and practices include Berry (1997 Berry, W. 1997. The Unsettling of America: Culture & Agriculture, San Francisco, CA: Sierra Club Books. [Google Scholar]) and Davidson (1996 Davidson , O. G. 1996 Broken Heartland: The Rise of America's Rural Ghetto , expanded edn , University of Iowa Press , Iowa City, IA .[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). 17. On links between food and health (especially obesity), see Nestle (2002 Nestle, M. 2002. Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. [Google Scholar]), Critser (2003 Critser, G. 2003. Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World, Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. [Google Scholar]), and Schlosser (2001 Schlosser, E. 2001. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. [Google Scholar]).
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