{"id":2293,"date":"2023-09-18T21:19:48","date_gmt":"2023-09-19T01:19:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/?p=2293"},"modified":"2023-09-18T21:19:48","modified_gmt":"2023-09-19T01:19:48","slug":"an-exploration-of-taste","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/2023\/09\/18\/an-exploration-of-taste\/","title":{"rendered":"An Exploration of Taste"},"content":{"rendered":"

On page 137 of <\/span>Written on the Body<\/span><\/i>, 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.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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 \u201ctaste\u201d 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 \u201cIt is my joy to get at the stone of her\u201d (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 \u201cyou\u201d 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 \u201cburst of an olive\u201d 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\u2019s 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. <\/span><\/p>\n



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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 … Continue reading An Exploration of Taste<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5130,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[346798],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2023-blog-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5130"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2293\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}