bulimic cannibalism

I was tempted to title this blog "Fine Young Cannibals", which woulda been fitting, but not sure I'm a fan of clever, pop-cultural irony. Not sure if I'm a fan of being clever. But that's for another day and another blog. This one's about addressing hypercapitalism.

This one inspired and stimulated by Fruit Chan's Dumplings segment off of Three...Extremes. Dumplings follows an aging actress desiring to be 'young' again. She goes to a medicine woman who makes dumplings supposedly having regenerative powers. These regenerative properties derived from the primary ingredient of human fetuses and unborn babies. Disturbing, I agree. But, this is part of horror's appeal to me as a genre. Horror, more so than any other genre, carries the built-in capacity to depict us in our most polarized, barbaric and perverse incarnation. It reveals our greatest fears, but more so, the beast brimming within all of us. Great horror cinema is revelatory and searingly honest in that sense.

The thing about the grotesque, physical act of cannibalism, especially with unborn babies as depicted in Dumplings, is that we find this completely barbaric, uncivilized, and ugly - to eat another human being wholly inhuman. In the film, the aging actress does this to regain this illusive youth-lost, equating it to her waning physical appearance. Pursuing this vain concept of beauty at any cost, becoming less human with ever dumpling purchased, not understanding that space-time will never stop for the material, the physical. Fruit Chan undoubtedly commenting on the state of hypercapitalism, but more simply, the fruitless hunt for immortality.

But, as abstracted as this cannibalism may seem, are we not culpable for this same act? Merely glossed over, indirect, at a distance, as to not make us seem so grotesque and inhuman. We consume without conscience of repercussions. This hypercapitalistic beast we perpetuate making us into a bulimic cannibal addicted to acquisition and material compensation. Ironically, this pursuit killing people and unborn babies in far greater numbers than physical cannibalism ever could.

I understand the complications hindering us, I'm a product of this too. I understand it can't be done all at once. But something can be done. You don't have to boycott all fast food chains, just a couple. You don't have to boycott all large, discount department stores, just one. You don't have to boycott television, just the majority of FOX programming.