bibliophagia

Francis Bacon was quoted as having said “Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.” In the Bibliolexicon of A Passion for Books, a Bibliophage is described as “One who eats or devours books”, figuratively speaking. i don't believe anyone was thinking of enjoying books in quite exactly these ways when they planned the International Edible Book Festival which happens around the world on or about April 1st where participants create edible books that are exhibited, documented and then consumed. (April fools day, a coincidence? i think not) April 1st is the birthday of French gastronome Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826), famous for his book Physiologie du goût, a witty meditation on food (witty from the country which worships jerry lewis as a genius). April fools' day is also the perfect day to eat your words and play with them as the "books" are consumed on the day of the event. all very interesting to say the least; but when i think of eating books i am always reminded by a freakishly intense scene in a perfectly psychotic 1989 movie called, "the cook, the thief, his wife and her lover" here's the synopsis "The wife of a barbaric crime boss engages in a secretive romance with a gentle bookseller between meals at her husband's restaurant. Food, colour coding, sex, murder, torture and cannibalism are the exotic fare in this beautifully filmed but brutally uncompromising modern fable". totally awesome right? and here's the scene...after his affair with the wife is discovered, the lover (who is a librarian) is killed by having a book on the french revolution shoved down his throat one page at a time (yet another instance of a gastronomic french faux pas). the scene involving cannibalism is equally fantastic; but i'll leave that for you to see yourself. i've always considered myself a devourer of books, although you wouldn't know it now that i'm back in school, and to be a librarian too. (the studying this semester is just taking so much of my time that i haven't read a single word that has not been text). oh well, that's enough of that riff. but i am looking forward to the semester's end and some time to catch up with reading and movies like this.
HERE'S THE TRAILER