Recently, in another venue,\u00a0 a writer posted a link to her blog post on feasts in epic fantasy, considered in a sociological way–her point being the feasts were always expressions of power, and that fantasy (and actually any genre) often\/always failed to consider the power differentials, the role of a feast in showing off the giver’s wealth and power, and so on.\u00a0 Some feasts certainly are exactly that–overt demonstrations to the attendees that the giver is richer, more powerful, than the guests, deserving of adulation and (even more) obedience, submission.\u00a0\u00a0 Feasts can be competitive in that way: “Prince A gave us as much beef as we could choke down, and distributed the rest to the castle servants…”\u00a0 “Well, Prince B gave us beef AND venison AND ham AND stuffed peacocks!\u00a0 And the leftovers fed the whole castle and village for a week!!!”\u00a0 But–always the c0ntrarian in the details–I didn’t agree that feasts in epic fantasy were always like that, or that epic fantasy always ignored the kitchen workers, the woodcutters, the shepherds, etc.\u00a0\u00a0 In fact, I don’t think all feasts (as experienced) are like that.<\/p>\n
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So…when is food a feast?\u00a0\u00a0 I remember a cold (for central Texas) sunny day in February when two couples went hiking in Pedernales Falls State Park, before it got tarted up with a paved road in.\u00a0\u00a0 I had seen a bald eagle earlier that week and our friends were hoping to see it themselves.\u00a0 We brought lunch:\u00a0 a round loaf of homemade brown bread, peanut butter, honey,\u00a0 a plastic bag of carrot and celery sticks,\u00a0 and either brownies or gingerbread (I forget which).\u00a0 And water.\u00a0 We hiked around, finally saw a young bald eagle (and I now forget which year-old it was…but I have the picture somewhere.)\u00a0 Big thrill.\u00a0 We sat down finally to lunch, good and hungry, and that meal, eaten with good friends, after seeing the immature eagle (and other birds), felt like a celebration meal…a feast.\u00a0\u00a0 We all had enough to eat–were happy with the food and the amount of food.\u00a0 Was there a power differential among us?\u00a0 No–my having seen an eagle earlier that week didn’t give me any power, except to give evidence that eagles were there.\u00a0\u00a0 I made the bread, but I liked to cook…we all knew we could’ve bought store bread for sandwiches.\u00a0 But why, with an eager bread-baker in the group?<\/p>\n
When I was a child, we had a special breakfast on Christmas morning: waffles and bacon.\u00a0 My mother bought a quarter pound of real butter once a year, for Christmas, and the taste of that butter on the waffles, with syrup, and bacon on the side still says Christmas to me.\u00a0 The rest of the year we had margarine.\u00a0 Later she could afford a half pound of butter, and finally a whole pound, but I remember the years it was butter at Christmas only.\u00a0 That was a feast: my mother and I, and my step-grandmother.\u00a0\u00a0 She did Thanksgiving dinner, again with my step-grandmother and usually a much older family friend and sometimes someone else…though the room was small and the table sat six only with an effort.\u00a0 And that was a feast, too.\u00a0 More food, and bigger portions, than ordinarily.\u00a0\u00a0 My mother (with my help later) did all the cooking–made the stuffing from scratch (no mixes or bags of premade stuffing mix then), baking the turkey and the pies, cooking all the vegetables.\u00a0 She and I did all the cleaning up, of course.\u00a0 And it was a feast…everyone there wanted to be there, the food was good and abundant, there were exotic touches not seen at other times of the year (black and stuffed olives!\u00a0 Little tiny pickles!\u00a0 Celery stuffed with pimento cheese–one of my first tasks as a small child was swiping the cheese mix into the hollow of the celery stalk.)\u00a0\u00a0 But…a claim to power?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 She enjoyed cooking, and she enjoyed feeding people on happy occasions particularly.<\/p>\n
Of course, growing up I did see some feasts that seemed more about display than anything else: wedding receptions, for instance, could get competitive, as could Bar Mitzvah receptions.\u00a0\u00a0 A family wanted to put on a good showing…but in part so their friends would enjoy themselves.\u00a0 Back then, store-bought party foods were rare (though there was a bakery that specialized in wedding cakes.)\u00a0 The hard-working cooks weren’t serfs…they were women proud of a particular special food they made for each special occasion in the life of someone they cared about.\u00a0 On our block we had a woman who made a sour-cream chocolate cake everyone else loved (and couldn’t replicate, it turned out.)\u00a0 Another made incredible pies (lemon and coconuts in particular) with towering meringue topping.\u00a0\u00a0 My mother made a widely-envied white cake (and apple pies and sugar cookies.)\u00a0\u00a0 The woman two houses down, on the corner, made “ambrosia” (something I’ve never liked but a lot of adults thought was wonderful).\u00a0\u00a0 Some things had to be catered (many pounds of boiled shrimp on ice.\u00a0 No mother of the bride was going to stink up her kitchen boiling shrimp the day before the wedding!)<\/p>\n
Big family gatherings, and church “dinner on the grounds” were always feasts in terms of “as much food as you could eat, in more variety than usual.”\u00a0 And in some families, this did involve servants.\u00a0 I remember a wealthy (relative to most–not in the 1%) who had a cook most of the time and always on holidays.\u00a0 We went there one year–as a girl child I was always allowed into the kitchen and the lady of the house was mostly giving directions (including to me, as was usual: “Here, dear, take this out and put it on the table next to the centerpiece…”)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Church dinners were always cooked, served, and cleaned up after by the church members.\u00a0\u00a0 But the word feast wasn’t limited to organized functions…I heard adults say “My, this is a feast!”\u00a0 on picnics, at home, anywhere that they were with people they liked, the food was good, and there was enough of it.\u00a0 So my childhood model of “feast” was “people getting along happily and eating stuff they like until they’re full.”<\/p>\n
Not Trimalchio’s feast, and not Henry VIII showing off both amount and fanciness of his offerings to impress his nobles.<\/p>\n
When was food not<\/em> a feast?\u00a0 It wasn’t a feast if children (and even adults) were warned that something was running short, or told that no, they couldn’t have another piece because someone else hadn’t had their share yet.\u00a0 It wasn’t a feast if something had gone wrong and the food didn’t taste good (at all!) and you were supposed to smile and chew and swallow it down anyway to be polite.\u00a0 It could go from “feast” to “disaster” quickly if someone started a quarrel and everyone’s stomach clenched, or someone got sick (or worst case, died suddenly.)\u00a0\u00a0 Whiny, quarreling, rude children could ruin a feast (and were scolded “You ruined the feast for everybody!!”)\u00a0\u00a0 For individuals it wasn’t a feast if you were forced to go for some reason (power differential there)\u00a0 or had to pretend to like food you didn’t like.<\/p>\n Anyway–back to fantasy feasts.\u00a0 Are they all of the Trimalchio\/Henry VIII type?\u00a0 I don’t think so…though some definitely are.\u00a0 Most of the feasts in LOTR are “friends\/companions celebrating something or enjoying a meal after a difficult time.”\u00a0\u00a0 I suspect that many of the “show off” feasts are there because the writers know that’s accurate for the period in which they’ve set the story–based on the competitive feast-giving that certainly did occur.\u00a0\u00a0 And in Paksworld?\u00a0\u00a0 There are celebratory feasts (after a battle or a season of war) quite different from ordinary military mess, and friendly meals that I think seem feast-like to those participating, regardless of the fanciness of the food.\u00a0 In OATH OF FEALTY and the related story “A Parrion of Cooking” there’s a clear depiction of the situation in a bad feudal household, where the serfs are “cattle” to the nobles…and clear depiction of what could be better, even in a thoroughly class-divided society, once Dorrin takes over as Duke Verrakai.<\/p>\n Any writer’s conception of their work’s setting will be based, at least in part, on their own experiences (as well as things they’ve read.)\u00a0\u00a0 What kinds of “feasts” have you experienced in your life?\u00a0\u00a0 Did your parents ever consider a meal at home a “feast?” because of a special food?\u00a0\u00a0 Or a certain number of guests?\u00a0\u00a0 Or were feasts always somewhere else?\u00a0 Could a paid-for meal be a feast, or only one to which you were invited?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Recently, in another venue,\u00a0 a writer posted a link to her blog post on feasts in epic fantasy, considered in a sociological way–her point being the feasts were always expressions of power, and that fantasy (and actually any genre) often\/always failed to consider the power differentials, the role of a feast in showing off the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,61],"tags":[108,62],"class_list":["post-2692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-background","category-craft","tag-background","tag-craft-of-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2692"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2692"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2693,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2692\/revisions\/2693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}