Tastes of Paradise

If you have ever found yourself wondering why we drink so much coffee, love chocolate, and go out drinking in taverns rather than stay at home, I can recommend Wolfgang Schivelbusch's Tastes of Paradise. A Social History of Spices, Stimulants, and Intoxicants. It's on my reading list, and, being the good boy that I am, I managed to read the thing yesterday (there's a good deal of pictures in it, which helps). The book is full of interesting and unexpected insights, such a this one: "The taste for pepper [in the late Middle Ages] showed symptoms of having become an addiction. Once habituated to the spices of India, Europe was ready to do anything to gratify its craving. In the ensuing quest for a sea route to India, land of pepper, the discovery of the New World was, more or less, a by-product."

Indeed, that's the kind of thing I get excited about, these days - what else would you expect; yesterday, I actually overheard a pub conversation beginning with the memorable line "So what do you think of Foucault's biopolitics?" This is the kind of place where people like myself join reading groups like "Agamben's Gorges" (there are no less than two spectacular gorges actually on campus, and "Ithaca's Gorges" is a widely favoured T-shirt slogan in these parts). I also heard that this summer course is nicknamed "theory boot camp" by the local university staff - which makes one imagine drill sessions involving sit-ups with a copy of Phänomenologie des Geistes behind your head. Must remember that idea for next year's teaching.