Fictional Foodstuffs: The Snacks Of Science Fiction

From Science Fiction in the News:

Does food play an important role in science fiction books and movies? "Science Fiction in the News" has the list. A recent paper by Jean P. Retzinger titled Speculative visions and imaginary meals: Food and the environment in (post-apocalyptic) science fiction films (published in Cultural Studies) has gotten me thinking about science-fictional food. Helpful Pasta&Vinegar has offered three short quotes (under the "fair use appetizer" clause, no doubt). Unfortunately, this essay costs serious money to download (I could easily purchase take-out for the family with that much cash), so I decided to prepare my own article out of the ingredients at hand in my own little database. Here's the first excerpt: "Familiar foods serve as an anchor in an altered world (evoking both nostalgia and parody), whereas unfamiliar food may become one of the clearest measures of how far we have journeyed from the present." No one went further for food than Lazarus Long and the Howard Families. In Heinlein's Methuselah's Children, mysterious aliens offer genetically modified plants with incongruously familiar flavors: Lazarus was exploring alone some distance from the camp. He came across one of the Little People; the native greeted him .. and led Lazarus to a grove of low trees still farther from base. He indicated to Lazarus that he wanted him to eat. Lazarus was not particularly hungry but he felt compelled to humor such friendliness, so he plucked and ate. He almost choked in his astonishment. Mashed potatoes and brown gravy! ". . . didn't we get it right? - . ." came an anxious thought. "Bub," Lazarus said solemnly, "I don't know what you planned to do, but this is just fine!" (Read more about genetically modified food) And nothing demonstrates tongue-in-cheek "unfamiliar food" better than this image from Galaxy Quest, in which the eager-beaver engineers of Thermia have created foodstuffs for the different crew members based on the "historical documents," which turn out to be episodes of a television show.

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