Food in Gothics (and reader suggestibility)

[Penfeather]

Okay, I know this is a trivial thread. But am I the only one who is susceptible to the power of suggestion when authors describe food in stories?

I remember when I first became aware of this phenomenon: I was reading At Bertram's Hotel by Agatha Christie in which Miss Marple savors a hot buttered [English] muffin. I was overcome by an irresistible craving for one myself, and it's not something I usually eat. I had to make do with a slice of hot buttered toast and a cup of coffee, but it just wasn't the same. I think Agatha waxed gluttonous about this muffin for at least sixteen pages, or so it seemed.

I'm presently reading The Winter Bride by Carola Salisbury, and I find myself drooling over the descriptions of Victorian feasts. Sideboards groaning under mounds of succulence, multiple courses, rich aromas of roasting meats wafting from the kitchen . . .

I have learned that the old maxim about shopping applies equally well to books: Never read while hungry. You might stumble on a description of an ortolan flambéed in brandy and now where would you get that?

-- Penfeather

[Bellatrix]

It's not trivial, it's a good thread.

I love descriptions of food and/or weather in the stories. While I often don't feel a compulsion to prepare and eat what's described, yep...my appetite often gets whetted, lol.

One thing I don't ever crave is "tea and toast." Egad, that's already old. ;p

In "Reception at Hightower," the heroine basically never eats. She's recuperating from a nervous breakdown, is in a hostile environment (of course), is quite possibly teetering on the edge of another nervous collapse...and all she consumes are coffee and cigarettes. No wonder she's half anemic and hallucinatory...

I can't help wondering how much of the authors' own attitudes towards food factors in; probably quite a bit. Some of them must have been flat-out anorectic.

A really good Gothic with lots of food references is We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. Someday I'm going to make a 2-layer cake [1 chocolate, 1 vanilla] decorated with pink frosting and golden foil leaves about the edges, and call it "The Merrycat Cake." And no, it won't contain any..."additives"...such as that found in certain sugar bowls - lol.