Comments on: It’s a Cookbook!

By: Skippy McGee

Skippy McGee — Mon, 14 Mar 2005 07:18:08 +0000

It’s a far cry from the E.T. / CE4K mythos which displays all more technologically advanced beings as nearly angelic demigods. I always liked these kinds of twists in science fiction because it reflects the conservative sensibility so much more effectively.
Liberals go joy-skipping into the alien pot carrying their own potatos and carrots figuring we’re all just one big happy family, of course, and we’re all getting into the jacuzzi for some interspecies orgy. The conservative is always the guy who blows the dust off the cookbook and discovers they are about to be eaten.
One could expect to find a book like this in the possession of the 30 million illegals in America, something on the order of “HOW TO SERVE GRINGOS,” with the same dual interpretation. I guess it is not actually until the salt shakers comes out and the basting fork that the difference in perception can be resolved.

By: digamma

digamma — Fri, 11 Mar 2005 12:00:28 +0000

“Don’t get on the ship. The book, To Serve Man, IT’S A COOKBOOK!” has to rank as one of the best closing lines of all time.

It wasn’t the closing line. There was a whole bunch of stuff with the guy stuck on the ship afterward.

But I can’t recommend this parody enough.

By: bryan

bryan — Fri, 11 Mar 2005 07:33:45 +0000

that it’s a cookbook doesn’t mean the main dish is humans though. it could be a cookbook of man’s favorite foods.

By: John Isbell

John Isbell — Thu, 10 Mar 2005 20:58:28 +0000

Bets closing lines would be an interesting post. I nominate: Great Expectations? The Great Gatsby? Ulysses? No, Beckett’s “Dante and the Lobster”:

“’Well, it’s a quick death at any rate,’ she said. – It is not.

By: Ted

Ted — Thu, 10 Mar 2005 20:28:39 +0000

C.S. Lewis used that gimmick for a plot twist in one of his overly many Narnia sequels, didn’t he? The Silver Chair, I think.

By: Andrew McManama-Smith

Andrew McManama-Smith — Thu, 10 Mar 2005 20:21:54 +0000

“Don’t get on the ship. The book, To Serve Man, IT’S A COOKBOOK!” has to rank as one of the best closing lines of all time.
That and “If it hadn’t been for that Nazi prostitute, I would never have become an author.”

By: cleek

cleek — Thu, 10 Mar 2005 20:04:04 +0000

and of course, The Simpsons took it a few steps further with their “How To Cook Forty Humans” book in the 2nd season Halloween episode

By: j.g.

j.g. — Thu, 10 Mar 2005 19:59:39 +0000

Curious what you think of my latest piece—I think it’s important.

http://jgoodwin.net

J.G.

By: Carthik

Carthik — Thu, 10 Mar 2005 19:27:31 +0000

Have a nice trip!