Trinity answers “Why are reviewers not acknowledging the...”

A Goodreads user asked this question about Tender Is the Flesh:

Why are reviewers not acknowledging the fact that entire premise is utterly ridiculous? A virus that can get past the immune system of every animal except human? The idea that ANYBODY would want to eat people just because they can’t get their morning bacon or cheeky Nandos, let alone enough people to make cannibalism government policy?

Trinity you do know most dystopians tend to fall apart once you look too closely at them, right? the point isn't the plausibility of the actual scenario. but …moreyou do know most dystopians tend to fall apart once you look too closely at them, right? the point isn't the plausibility of the actual scenario. but consider how people accept what they are told. we even have recent events like the right-wing American politics telling people "the Corona Virus is a hoax" and people believe them and that's how people die en masse. not only that but systematic cannibalism is almost always used in literature as a commentary of classism. Jonathon Swift's "A Modest Proposal", the 1973 film "Soylent Green", etc... this novel seems to call back to these kinds of things. the point isn't the premise of HOW the system came about. it is that the system of processing humans as meat is a metaphor for how those who are not seen as human (the poor, the disabled, the elderly, the races who have a history of being persecuted and abused (the moments where they keep saying "we need more dark skin", etc)...) are treated by society.

think a little less literally when reading it. even if the whole thing seems absurd, that was how Swift called attention to the fact that the poor was used and abused--satire re: an essay that sarcastically suggests "Hey, instead of eating expensive meats, let's harvest the poor's children!" the point is to shock. not to make sense.(less)

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Paul Beardsley "you do know most dystopians tend to fall apart once you look too closely at them, right?"
Generally only the poorer ones in my experience. With the be ...more
Dec 05, 2020 03:02PM

Peter Agreed with Paul. It's one thing to talk about flying people or supernatural events and accepting suspension of disbelief .... but this reads like the ...more
Dec 07, 2020 01:59PM

Dna Nice reply.
Jul 10, 2021 10:51AM

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Tender Is the Flesh

by Agustina Bazterrica

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