A celebration of FANTASY FOOD

[pmmg]

Well...if you are what you eat, and one only eats cookies, and then someone eats them....what have they eaten?

Maybe we are all just cookies.

 

[Finchbearer]

Werecookies. A new fantasy race of human-turned cookies who only eat other werecookies. Just follow the trail of crumbs…

 

[Orc Knight]

So, that's what the gingerbread man really is.

 

[Jackarandajam]

So, that's what the gingerbread man really is.

Ha! 100% trying to make gingerbread men with little peppermint stick bones inside for the holidays this year

 

[A. E. Lowan]

I don’t know…I’m a vegetarian and yet I would blindly shove one of those in my mouth. One, or five.

Five, absolutely. This is the Way. It is known.

 

[EscapismwithEverly]

Yes, I mention food, but it's mostly sweet treats. My favorite one though was a goldenberry galette. I guess it resonated with me so much, I ended up writing about it in the same chapter three different times.

 

[Not_Alice]

My daughter made gingerbread men for Christmas. She cut off their heads, made blood-colored icing to smear onto the stumps of their necks, and arranged them so each gingerbread man would carry his head under his arm.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

My daughter made gingerbread men for Christmas. She cut off their heads, made blood-colored icing to smear onto the stumps of their necks, and arranged them so each gingerbread man would carry his head under his arm.

Love it! Now that's a girl who belongs in the Books of Binding!

Come on, kiddo. Let me show you around... the school we're building? (How old is she? lol) "Come with me, and you'll see, a world of our imagination!"
(Couldn't fit "warped" in there, darn it.)

 

[A. E. Lowan]

My daughter made gingerbread men for Christmas. She cut off their heads, made blood-colored icing to smear onto the stumps of their necks, and arranged them so each gingerbread man would carry his head under his arm.

Also, we have therian rabbits. A lot of them. Bunnies in groups are called bevvies. So I just had to pull this out. I should be stopped.

 

[Finchbearer]

So, that's what the gingerbread man really is.

Do you know, I really didn’t think of gingerbread men. Stop being so clever.

 

[Not_Alice]

So I just had to pull this out. I should be stopped.

You know... I do have this YA series where the main character's name is Alice, and her uncle sometimes for funsies shifts into white rabbit form... Playing the rabbit behind the wheel is totally something he would do. I might use it at some point in the future

 

[A. E. Lowan]

You know... I do have this YA series where the main character's name is Alice, and her uncle sometimes for funsies shifts into white rabbit form... Playing the rabbit behind the wheel is totally something he would do. I might use it at some point in the future

That would be great fun. Always love to see more buns out in the world.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

I'm terrible and must be stopped.

https://www.amazon.com/Serve-Man-Cookbook-People-ebook/dp/B07YYVXB16/

 

[Jackarandajam]

"So you started a conversation about food in fantasy novels... and all anybody wanted to talk about was cannibalism."
The therapist clicked her pen and laid it on her yellow notepad, looking over her glasses at Jackarandajam.
"Is there anything else you'd like to say about that?"

 

[Orc Knight]

Easy, it's where all food topics eventually lead in such places. If all is meat and the monsters eat it, nothing is off the menu.

 

[Jackarandajam]

Ha, makes me wanna go watch the movie Doomsday for about the millionth time.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

We're writers. All conversations arrive at food, eventually. Chuck in that we write speculative fiction, and suddenly it's all okay, who's got the big slow cooker?

 

[Jackarandajam]

Easy, it's where all food topics eventually lead in such places. If all is meat and the monsters eat it, nothing is off the menu.

"Looks like meat's BACK on the menu, boys!"

 

[Jackarandajam]

"Looks like meat's BACK on the menu, boys!"

Interesting random, slightly connected thought:
As much food as was in Tolkiens books to begin with, every instance of food Jackson ADDED to the script had negative, ominous connotation:

1. Aforementioned cannibalism
2. The famous cherry tomatoes
3. Himself being creepy with a raw carrot

Tolkien himself, other than mentioning the nasty orc draft and a general exhaustion with elven hardtack, didn't ever use food in this way.

It makes me want to experiment with writing out the denethor meal scene and see if I can get it to showcase the same horror that it did in the visual medium.

Having a character eating something that induces a cringe from the reader, based on the reader mentally drawing a line between it and something going on in the story, would be a very cool and pretty fancy trick.

EDIT: Particularly if the food is something otherwise nondescript. The trick would be better as a sinister wink than an on-the-nose gross factor.

 

[Finchbearer]

Interesting random, slightly connected thought:
As much food as was in Tolkiens books to begin with, every instance of food Jackson ADDED to the script had negative, ominous connotation:

1. Aforementioned cannibalism
2. The famous cherry tomatoes
3. Himself being creepy with a raw carrot

Tolkien himself, other than mentioning the nasty orc draft and a general exhaustion with elven hardtack, didn't ever use food in this way.

It makes me want to experiment with writing out the denethor meal scene and see if I can get it to showcase the same horror that it did in the visual medium.

Having a character eating something that induces a cringe from the reader, based on the reader mentally drawing a line between it and something going on in the story, would be a very cool and pretty fancy trick.

EDIT: Particularly if the food is something otherwise nondescript. The trick would be better as a sinister wink than an on-the-nose gross factor.

I think that is a fantastic scene. There’s a lot being played with from my perspective. There are some Christian themes such as Denethor having the qualities of gluttony, sloth and greed whilst his kingdom falls around him. His descent into madness could also be attributed by one detail that I read about Jackson almost certainly referencing how when tomatoes were first introduced to Britain in the early 1500’s, the wealthy would cook and eat them from pewter plates or pots, but the acidity in the tomatoes would leach out the lead in the pewter, and we see Denethor eating from a pewter plate and drinking from a pewter cup, that could also have attributed to his symptoms of madness.