Date: Mon, 1 Jun 1998 11:46:28 -0400 (EDT) From: Howard Hastings <hhasting-AT-osf1.gmu.edu> Subject: PLC: cooking with sartre (fwd) More enlightenment. Selections from Sartre's lost diary have been discovered. hh ..................................................................... ---------- Forwarded message ---------- October 3 Spoke with Camus today about my cookbook. Though he has never actually eaten, he gave me much encouragement. I rushed home immediately to begin work. How excited I am! I have begun my formula for a Denver omelet. > October 4 Still working on the omelet. There have been stumbling blocks. I keep creating omelets one after another, like soldiers marching into the sea, but each one seems empty, hollow, like stone. I want to create an omelet that expresses the meaninglessness of existence, and instead they taste like cheese. I look at them on the plate, but they do not look back. Tried eating them with the lights off. It did not help. Malraux suggested paprika. > October 6 I have realized that the traditional omelet form (eggs and cheese) is bourgeois. Today I tried making one out of cigarette, some coffee, and four tiny stones. I fed it to Malraux, who puked. I am encouraged, but my journey is still long. > October 10 I find myself trying ever more radical interpretations of traditional dishes, in an effort to somehow express the void I feel so acutely. Today I tried this recipe: Tuna Casserole Ingredients: 1 large casserole dish Place the casserole dish in front of a cold oven. Place a chair facing the oven and sit in front of it forever. Think about how hungry you are. When night falls, do not turn on the light. While a void is expressed in this recipe, I am struck by its inapplicability to the bourgeois lifestyle. How can the eater recognize that the food denied him is a tuna casserole and not some other dish? I am becoming more and more frustated. October 25 I have been forced to abandon the project of producing an entire cookbook. Rather, I now seek a single recipe which will, by itself, embody the plight of man in a world ruled by an unfeeling God, as well as providing the eater with at least one ingredient from each of the four basic food groups. To this end, I purchased six hundred pounds of foodstuffs from the corner grocery and locked myself in the kitchen, refusing to admit anyone. After several weeks of work, I produced a recipe calling for two eggs, half a cup of flour, four tons of beef, and a leek. While this is a start, I am afraid I still have much work ahead. > November 15 Today I made a Black Forest cake out of five pounds of cherries and a live beaver, challenging the very definition of the word "cake". I was very pleased. Malraux said he admired it greatly, but could not stay for dessert. Still, I feel that this may be most profound achievement yet, and have resolved to enter it in the Betty Crocker Bake-Off. > December 1 > I have been gaining twenty-five pounds a week for two months, and I am now experiencing light tides. It is stupid to be so fat. My pain and ultimate solitude are still as authentic as they were when I was thin, but seem to impress girls far less. From now on, I will live on cigarettes and black coffee. >From Free Agent , (a Portland Oregon alternative newspaper). --- from list phillitcrit-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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