"Preposterous and rococo cannibalism"

January 13, 2017 8:29 AM

Slate reviews Bill Schutt's forthcoming book Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History. Guardian review here. Schutt is a Research Associate in Vertebrate Zoology and Mammalogy at the American Museum of Natural History.

Schutt's previous nonfiction book was Dark Banquet: Blood and the Curious Lives of Blood-Feeding Creatures. On his Youtube channel, you can learn about his "work with bed bugs, vampire bats, leeches, ticks, and other blood-feeding creatures."

He is also the co-author, along with J.R. Finch, of Hell's Gate: A Thriller

posted by mandolin conspiracy (15 comments total)

Is this the new political thread?
posted by dannyboybell at 8:48 AM on January 13, 2017 [11 favorites]

Well, there's my next sockpuppet name.
posted by Etrigan at 9:07 AM on January 13, 2017 [3 favorites]

*eats thread*
posted by jonmc at 9:14 AM on January 13, 2017 [1 favorite]

Meat's meat, and man's gotta eat.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 9:52 AM on January 13, 2017

Metafilter: more horrifying a concept than incest, bestiality, ritual dismemberment, and that thing called coprophilia where people are really into poop.
Also: needs the #omnomnom tag.
posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 10:21 AM on January 13, 2017 [4 favorites]

Also: needs the #omnomnom tag.

Done.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 10:31 AM on January 13, 2017 [3 favorites]

This is absolutely Hannibal.
posted by mule98J at 10:56 AM on January 13, 2017

You've been chopped. Literally.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 11:02 AM on January 13, 2017

I just want to note that the person who wrote the Guardian review is (among other things) a food writer. I'm not sure if that suggests that they are taking this more seriously (Bee Wilson is an incredibly writer on the history of food and the relationship people have with it - I highly recommend her books) or if it is meant to be a bit of a joke. Perhaps both.
posted by Hactar at 11:28 AM on January 13, 2017

Well, if you're going to eat meat, you might as well eat the best!
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 11:34 AM on January 13, 2017

So he's a humanist?
posted by Smedleyman at 11:34 AM on January 13, 2017 [1 favorite]

Schutt travels to Texas to take up a home schooling mom of 10 on an offer to eat her placenta.

Let's hope this means the woman has had 10 kids, not that she's a parent at the tender age of 10.
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 12:07 PM on January 13, 2017 [1 favorite]

So he's a humanist?
Humanitarian.
posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 1:19 PM on January 13, 2017 [6 favorites]

Since it's almost dinnertime in my time zone, here's a little something from Schutt's Youtube channel:

Hundreds of Bed Bugs Biting a Man's Arm [WARNING: All of the warnings you think should apply to a link to a video "Hundreds of Bed Bugs Biting a Man's Arm" may or may not apply depending on how you're wired.]
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 2:34 PM on January 13, 2017 [1 favorite]

Spoiler: the secret's in the sauce.
posted by Halloween Jack at 4:41 PM on January 13, 2017