On page 137 of Written on the Body, the narrator likens Louise to an olive tree, detailing the pleasure they experience from eating the fruit from the tree that is Louise. While olives are not a significant recurring symbol throughout the novel, the narrator frequently likens Louise to food. At times, Louise is soup, other times she is a fig or honey. Perhaps in likening Louise to food, the narrator is emphasizing their need for her. The narrator does not simply desire, miss, or admire Louise, but instead holds a sort of obsessive connection to her. As any living creature must eat, the narrator seems almost as miserable without Louise as they might be without proper nourishment. The absence of Louise’s love drives the narrator into an almost crazed state of loss, each of their senses heightened by thoughts and memories of her. The narrator is unable to detach themselves from Louise, unable to live without the thought of her, unable to sustain a proper quality of life without feeding off of her love.
These food-related metaphors also emphasize the importance of lust, desire, and physical intimacy the narrator holds in their relationships. These food-related metaphors are often used to describe scenes or memories of very physical interactions between Louise with the narrator. The narrator clearly has a certain “taste” for Louise, but it is one that seems to be primarily physical despite their clear infatuation with her and their relationship. The comparison between Louise and an olive tree offers is not as descriptive and clear as some of the other earlier comparisons, but despite this, it is still one that clearly emulates the dynamic of their relationship. The narrator notes that “It is my joy to get at the stone of her” (137) and the section revolves around taste. Mentions of mouths, tongues, taste, and other sensations provide a slightly sexual undertone to the passage, especially in comparison with other moments from the novel; however, this moment is much less detailed and instead reaches a broader audience. The narrator begins to address an unidentified “you” in the third paragraph of this page, where they detail the bursting of an olive upon the initial bite into the fruit. The address to a third party seems to invite an outsider to relate to what the narrator speaks of, especially since this passage is riddled heavily with metaphor and lacks personal details of Louise or the narrator. This allows the metaphor of food to move away from descriptions of physical desire into a tone that is much more hopeful and emulative of the relationship as a whole. The “burst of an olive” might be compared the the start of a relationship, where feelings of solitude and uncertainty can be left behind as a promising new relationship begins. As the narrator wishes to reach Louise’s stone, she recognizes that the fruit will be eaten until there is nothing left, but makes it clear that to have Louise’s stone, or perhaps Louise at her most raw and exposed, is a welcome trade. The narrator tastes not just the fruit of Louise, but her inner self. This was, and clearly is still, a strong desire planted in the narrator that they cannot seem to let go of.
I think it’s interesting how you say that the narrator is happy to eat the olive, so to speak, until there is none left, just “the stone.” In doing so, what happens to Louise if the narrator consumes her until she is at her most vulnerable, as you put it? It doesn’t seem like a healthy or balanced relationship to me, even if the food metaphors initially feel romantic or sexual, at a closer read they have a deeper meaning, an insight into how obsessive the narrator is.
I agree with you how the frequent linking of Louise to food resembles an obsessive fixation that the narrator has with Louise. When first reading the part “It is my joy to get at the stone of her. The little stone of her hard by the tongue. Her thick-fleshed salt-veined swaddle stone”, I interpreted it in a sexual way, as a reference to the narrator and Louise having oral sex. After some thought, I more and more think this is also a sign of an obsessive, controlling behavior towards Louise by the narrator, like it is also mentioned in other blog posts and in lucifer’s comment.
It is really interesting that you bring up this idea about food and its role it plays as a way to interpret the intense feelings for Louise. It is also no surprise that certain foods like chocolate and oysters have a certain sexual feel to them, and I also do agree that the narrator uses these other foods like, figs and soup to do that same notating. I also kid of read the food analogies similarly to how you would read sign of ‘cuteness aggression’ in which you love the (person,object,thing) and become overwhelm with thoughts of aggression stemmed from a place of love/cuteness. It is through the overwhelming feelings that you get these more intense reactions.
I love how you call attention to these two subjects. I wonder if it’s possible to even broaden the scope to look at how cravings can be used to describe both foods and also sexual intimacy. But something I found interesting in this passage especially was my dislike for olives. Olives as a food are rather polarizing, you either love them, or you hate them. I wonder if this is emblematic of Louise as a person or simply a metaphor for metaphors sake. I think there’s a lot of ways you could write about food and food only in this book, all of which are interesting in their own regard.