Trips Travel and All That Jazz: Pea soup

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Pea soup

Now why is it that pea soup tastes so funny? And the smell... All I want is to fill my newly-proclaimed vegetarian belly with something warm, healthy and enjoyable. Why do the makers of pea soup have to do this to me?

The fridge and the flat stink of whatever horrific products they put in pea soup. OK, so at 1 dollar per can, you can't complain much. But I'm complaining anyway. For the love of God/Allah/Jehovah/Mcdonald's/Buddha please add something artificial and unhealthy which gives the illusion of eating an actual organic substance. As the song says

"Fool me, fool me, go on and fool me"

Give me artificial colouring, artificial taste, artificial anything over the pungent odour of pea soup which currently infests the flat from curtain rod to bed leg.

1 comment:

Ele said...: Hello David,
This post makes me think of the different approches to food that I have encountered in folks I meet. The two ends of the spectrum I have dealt with are:
1. Each meal is a celebration, and should be composed of only the freshest, most delicious morsels one can find/muster up in whatever situation one is in (financial, geographical, etc.)
2. Food is fuel. Period.
Sounds like this pea soup would fit in the latter end of the spectrum.
May this find you well.
Eileen; November 5, 2007 at 8:05 PM

Post a Comment

Book Review: The Accidental by Ali Smith

My friend Chris got me this book in the Oxfam on Durham's Elvet Bridge. It saw me through a week of lazing about Montenegrin beaches.

Each chapter is narrated from the point of view of a different character. The opening chapter is a bit dense, and takes some getting used to, as it's narrated by the 12 year-old daughter Astrid, and is full of her quirky streams of consciousness seasoned with insecurity. She films everything and sees the world with a filmmaker's eye, which is important later on.

Essentially this is the story of a middle-class family, two children and an adoptive father, which breaks down due to an outside character, Amber, who stays with them. The father-in-law, Michael, is a professor of English. He falls in love with her, although this is mitigated by his string of affairs with students, and starts to make mistakes in his affairs because of Amber, thus showing up the gaping holes in his marriage. His wife Eve is an author who popularizes history by fictionalising the lives of deceased war victims in spite of their families. She is clearly in a dry spot with her writing and welcomes Amber as a potential friend. Amber's interests in the families are dubious, although she initiates the couple's son, Magnus to his sexual awakening, and sparks Astrid to self-confidence by shattering her camera.

The novel culminates in a full-circle cycle with Eve taking on Amber's role, but this is not really giving away the ending as it doesn't really have one. The narrative is shaped but not really defined, and nobody should read this book expecting a satisfying ending. It is brilliantly written, and suckered me in by weaving a sort of history of film for dummies into the content and the characterisation of the novel itself. It's not a million miles from Don DeLillo in its social commentary and style. But Smith's style is definitely his own, which is what makes this novel a definite five out of five.

All in all, it's hard to put my finger on what I liked best about this novel, except that it kicked me out of my summer comfort zone without giving me the impression I had to work too hard for it. If you're stuck for a copy, borrow mine, if you don't mind the smell of sea water on its crumpled pages.

Trips Travel and All That Jazz

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Pea soup

1 comment:

A Limerick on Limericks

Book Review: The Accidental by Ali Smith

Mouthwatering musical musings

Blog Archive

About Me