ludicrous stories from a dim person who wrote a bad book

August 11, 2000

....Katherine Aoki, a San Francisco-area artist, wrote and designed a book titled

How I Lost My Vegetarianism. It explores the decisions of 14 different women who

have reverted to meat eating...

....Last summer, I broke down and gorged on greasy chicken fingers -- complete

with plum sauce -- at a roadside drive-through. None of my vegetarian friends

was there to chide me. Suddenly meat did not seem so bad, in spite of the nasty

stomach ache it gave me...

....According to Aoki, many young people who go vegetarian eventually give in to

a conventional diet because it is so much easier. " Convenience is a big deal, "

she says. " You finally figure out vegetarianism is good for you when you have

the least amount of time to follow through. " ...

....Not that my eating habits have improved since I found my way back to the

bone; I simply have a more complete unhealthy diet now... I still hate those

chewy bits of cartilage in white meat, but I simply swallow them instead of

chewing...

....In the market district where I live, I watch live chickens being hauled into

the poultry store in tiny cages. I see the butchers using a blowtorch to clean

the meat. It does not stop me from pushing those pathetic squawks out of my

head, ordering flesh and carting it home.

Aoki says ignorance is crucial to being able to eat meat again. " Sometimes when

I'm eating meat, I think about the fact I didn't have to kill the animal. If I

had to wring a chicken's neck, it would be a lot more difficult for me, " she

says. " I don't know enough about all the bad things the meat industry does --

like using up all this farmable land for feed or whatever, or cutting down rain

forests or something -- to feel guilty.

" But if I were in a situation where I had a better understanding pushed on me, I

might be more serious [about vegetarianism]. But I'm a woman of the '90s. I can

just just block that part out -- easy. "

Recommended Posts