Food Porn & Explanation Literature & Language Coursework

Watch: “This is Water” on Youtube: https://www(dot)youtube(dot)com/watch?v=eC7xzavzEKY

Read: "Consider the Lobster," by David Foster Wallace



Due: Food Porn and Two Page Explanation (three parts).



Part One: Using the two food porn articles, This is Water, Consider the Lobster, create a food porn visual of your own. When approaching this, use process as way to understand and communicate something about the idea of food porn, and capture the definition on the front page of this Camino course. This may be a photograph, a video, or perhaps even a piece of art (drawing, painting, sculpture...). You decide. But definite credit goes to those of you who can manage to combine the real with fiction in order to make it look even better--for example, using Elmer's Glue in cereal to make it look creamy and delicious, or embracing "food in motion."



Part Two: When explaining your food porn project, use the texts, quote them, and describe both HOW you made the visual and WHY you chose to make it. What would you like it to say and represent? Most importantly: How did the process of developing it change or develop the way you think about the topic of food?



Part Three: At the end of this assignment, include a short, one paragraph description of a possible idea for Essay 1. Using "Consider the Lobster" as a model, each of you will choose either one food related detail, or a food-related event in order to create an argument about it (this may or may not have anything to do with your food porn visual). Wallace visits the Maine Lobster Festival and uses the detail of the lobster to represent a much larger criticism of food. So, you can choose a particular food, food related item (fork, straw, the message inside a fortune cookie...) or event that you attend or set up (a mukbang, going to the farmer's market, having a Zoom meal with your friends/date...) For example, if you decided to go on a first date to a restaurant, you might be observing how food, dating, relationships, and consumerism all blend together in that one place--and isn't it strange that on a first date it's so common to choose eating? Watching someone else stuff his/her face as you try to romantically connect? Why? If you chose a straw, for example, you might consider the frivolity of it, the impact on the environment, the function vs. feeling... Obviously, there are limitless possibilities in terms of topics, but keep in mind that the idea is to think about and observe food in some new way for you--something very detailed and specific. And choose something you can actually observe or do real time--not a memory. (1.1, 1.3, 1.4)