AtdTDA: [38] pgs. 1082, 1083 Vegetariano

[János Székely]

Am I the only person who is reminded of the Holly Johnson hit (or flop)
'Americanos'?

Janos

2008/8/13 <robinlandseadel at comcast.net>

> One final "silly" song:
>
> Vege-tariano ...
>                  No ifs ands or buts-
>                  Eggs and dairy? ah no,
>                  More like roots, and nuts—
>
>                  Pot roast prohibido,
>                  Tenderloin taboo,
>                  why should my heart bleed o-
>                  ver the likes of you?
>                                             Never known-to-be
>                  Fond ...
>                  Of Chateaubriand ...
>                  Nor particularly close
>                  To chipped beef on toast—steaks and
>                  Chops, a-di-os!-Vege-
>
>                  -taria-no ...
>                  Outcast Argentine,
>                  Never could've gone "O-
>                  le!" for that cuisine ...
>                  Gauchos curse your name,
>                  Still you haunt my brain
>                  Somehow I'll carry on, oh ...
>                  Vegetaria-no!
>
> In all of Pynchon's writing, we find an overlay of anachronism
> embellishing these recovered alternate histories. Modern day
> anarchist activities, like Food not Bombs, comes to mind:
>
> http://www.foodnotbombs.net/
>
>                  In addition to the collection and distribution of surplus
>                  food to help solve this problem, Food Not Bombs
>                  encourages vegetarianism. If more people were
>                  vegetarian and demanded organically grown, locally
>                  produced foods, this would encourage organic farming
>                  practices and support smaller farms. This in turn would
>                  make it easier to decentralize the means of food
>                  production and to create democratic control over the
>                  quality of the food produced and the stewardship of the
>                  land. More people can be fed from one acre of land on
>                  vegetarian rather than meat based diet. The current
>                  meat-based diet eaten by our society allows for huge
>                  "agro-businesses", dependency on chemical fertilizers
>                  and pesticides, results in the declining nutritional value
>                   of the food produced, and destroys the environment.
>                  All massed produced meats in this country are full of
>                  chemicals, drugs, enhancers, and preservatives and
>                  all milk is contaminated with radioactive fallout.
>                  Vegetarianism would be better for the environment,
>                  consume less resources, and be healthier for us.
>
> http://www.foodnotbombs.net/bookwhy.html
>
> . . . .of course, in real life we have occasionally handed out
> milk/eggs based foodstuffs, like cakes & cookies. We're
> anarchist enough to avoid being that rigid.
>
> Seeing how often Buddhist ethics and practices are invoked in
> Against the Day, I turn to Buddhist ideas around vegetarianism:
>
> From: On Stopping Killing!
>
> An Essay By
> Great Master Lianchi Zhuhung 1535-1615:
>
>
>          People who eat meat often make the excuse that it is
>          natural to do so, that people were meant to eat meat.
>          They promote this idea, and then freely indulge in taking
>          the lives of their fellow creatures, thereby creating extensive
>          hatred and enmity-karma.
>
>            Over time, as their killing and consuming becomes a habit,
>          meat eaters no longer feel their killing is unusual.  They do
>          their evil deeds unknowingly, unaware of the consequences
>          of slaughter and the resentment it evokes.
>
>            As somebody in the past said, "It is a cause for tears and
>          sobbing, for wails and cries, for deep regrets, and mournful
>          cries."
>
>          In order to recount our confusion and point out our
>          attachments, I have formulated seven categories, and will
>          explain them below. . . .
>
>          . . . .PART SEVEN:
>          IT IS WRONG TO KILL FOR ONE'S OCCUPATION.
>
>          It is wrong to kill to make a living.  For the sake of clothing
> and
>          food, and in order to sustain their livelihood, some people go
>          hunting or fishing, or slaughter cows, sheep, pigs, dogs, and
>          the like.
>
>          Yet as I observe, those people who do not work at these jobs have
>          clothes to wear and food to eat all the same.  I've never seen
> them
>          die of hunger or freeze to death.  To kill a life in order to
> sustain
>          a life is something that gods most abhor.  You won't find one
>          person out of a hundred who becomes prosperous because of
>          the act of killing.  All those people who kill, however, do deeply
>          plant causes for rebirth in the hells, and surely will receive the
>          evil retribution in their future lives.  There is no heavier
> offense
>          than  this.  Why don't we simply find another way to make a
> living?
>
>
> http://online.sfsu.edu/%7Erone/Buddhism/BuddhismAnimalsVegetarian/onstoppingkilling.htm
>
> More on Buddhism and Vegetarianism:
>
>
> http://online.sfsu.edu/%7Erone/Buddhism/BuddhismAnimalsVegetarian/BuddhistVegetarian.htm
>
> These Ideas around mass slaughter and industrialized
> killing are found throughout Against the Day, most
> memorably early on [p. 53], with the Professor's and
> the Chums eye's view of the narrowing tracks carrying
> cattle towards the abattoirs:
>
>          "Yes here," continued the Professor, nodding
>          down at the Yards as they began to flow by
>          beneath, "here's where the Trail comes to its
>          end at last, along with the American Cowboy
>          who used to live on it and by it. . . ."
>
>          ". . . .the only weapons in view being Blitz
>          Instruments and Wackett Punches to knock
>          the animals out with, along with the blades
>          everybody is packing, of course, and the
>          rodeo clowns jabber on in some incomprehensible
>          lingo not to distract the beast but rather to heighten
>          and maintain its attention to the single task at hand,
>          bringing it down to those last few gates, the
>          stunning-devices waiting inside, the butchering and
>          blood just beyond the last chute-and the cowboy with
>          him . . . ."
>
> . . . .on the other hand, that "Grace" the chums are flying
> towards—another abattoir?
>
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