blog Eating Habits & Social Impacts

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Black Dragon submitted a new blog post:

Eating Habits & Social Impacts

This article is by Adam Bassett.

Worldbuilding has the unique opportunity to be profound even in what are often mundane details, such as eating and drinking. Consider the chocolate frogs from Harry Potter or the Xeno-Iguana from Stargate (which apparently tastes like chicken). Each of these items help the characters learn about the worlds they have been suddenly introduced to and help the audience learn about the cultures in them. Even ordinary items like a strawberry set in a different world can mean a great deal more. When viewing the first episode of the television show Firefly we see a man buy passage with just a small amount of money and some fruit, including a strawberry. From this interaction, and the reaction of the woman who received the berry, we can infer that this common food to us is extremely valuable in the world of Firefly.

The way that we show our characters eat can help inform the audience about who they are, the way they grew up, perhaps even their social status or ability to fit in with the society around them.
Continue reading the Original Blog Post.

 

[adamcbassett]

Hey, I wrote this!

Thanks again to Mythic Scribes and the Black Dragon for being such a great friend to us at Worldbuilding Magazine. It's been nothing but a pleasure to work with you.

 

[adamcbassett]

That's absolutely something you can do!

My best advice would be to give the food/drink meaning just as you would any other meaningful item. If it's mythological in nature (for this example let's go with wine), maybe have people recite a verse from a religious text which mentions wine. Have the religious leaders drinking it and giving it out to those who attend their religious practices. If it's really important, maybe have somebody explaining the drink's significance to a recent convert or a child. That cements the wine as important to their beliefs, and when it's brought up later (hopefully) that mindset sticks with the people you're telling the story to.