Refusing to Eat
Sunday, March 13th, 2011
My sister has a ten-year-old who has always been a fussy eater. Perhaps there’s something firing in the synapses that keeps her from eating anything but macaroni, chicken and chocolate, or maybe she’s just figured out how to push her parents’ buttons. Who knows?
In Franz Kafka’s short story, “A Hunger Artist,” our main character puts himself on display with his amazing ability to go a month and a half without eating. He swears he can go longer, but the people who run the show won’t let him go past 45 days. Ah, what self control, what feats of strength. Or maybe he just doesn’t like food, and that makes the whole thing easy.
If only he had been introduced to macaroni, chicken and chocolate, his world would be so much better.