Kenneth Burke on Dinner

Kenneth Burke on Dinner

Consider a happy gathering of family and friends, seated about a table, joyously partaking of a meal ample and expertly prepared. Invariably, whenever I experience such a time of merriment and sociality, an uneasy outlaw imagining crosses my mind. I think of certain underlying biological ordeals that made the occasion possible. Not only is the succulent roast that is being carved a sacrificial victim. Even if you were the strictest of vegetarians, your salad would be a once living thing that was probably still in the process of being killed, even as you dined.  

From COMMUNICATION AND THE HUMAN CONDITION edited by Lee Thayer