Anthony Bourdain and the invasion of digital literature

If God chose to remove gluttony from the list of seven deadly sins, he might replace it instead with Anthony Bourdain. As I discovered from Bourdain’s latest literary creation Medium Raw, this new vice can be described as gluttony plus or 2.0. Medium Raw is a critical culinary reflection that is an inordinate love for food wrapped in the lust and worship over meat and dipped in the spicy sauce of his anger over the Food Network with a little kitchen gossip. He whets readers’ appetites with his carefully chosen adjectives of crackling carmelized roast duck skin in Hanoi and other hawker stalls. Yet he gets more passionately descriptive when flaming his enemies, calling food mogul Sara Lee the “hellspawn of Betty Crocker and Charles Manson.”

Underneath its delectable literary presentation, Medium Raw is a thorough full-course meal of food from around the world, chefs both heroes and villains, dishing on trends, teaching his daughter on cooties from Ronald McDonald and the whole food industry for us new foodies. Thus, as entertainingly pop as his writing style is, it ain’t junk food. It educates and is meaty as it needs to be. It keeps you savoring more to read, as you partake in his passion.

The hallmark of a true critic — whether food, literature or fashion — is the ability to states one’s opinion with full flavor and no reservations to initiate a public conversation — particularly, his tirade against celebrity chefs selling out to teach easy-to-cook and mass palate dishes. He does vilify the practice but now understands its need to employ thousands of workers across the US, from TV cameramen to factory workers making their products. Yet, he still doesn’t back down from naming douchebag critics who will excessively blacklist a bistro for not having the chef on hand, their recommended menu, or a personal gripe. For this, Anthony Bourdain continues to be the reigning champion of food justice as long as his travel show No Reservations is on air and his books are on the shelves. And if you are a foodie who believes in his cause, it would be a deep-fried injustice to not chew on Medium Raw, a manifesto for food aficionados.

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The backstory: is reading digital books selling out?

Ihave sold out as I publicly confessed to have read Medium Raw digitally on my two-year-old iPhone (cue Psycho music for hard-bound readers). Yes, I betrayed my nerdy paper-scented friend, the printed book, but trust me: I have good defense.

Don’t pick up a book, tap to turn a page.

It was an impulse temptation that could have only been orchestrated by Steve Jobs, who was also the cause of the death of my CD collection. As I downloaded the new iBook application, I was curious about the titles that would be online and if it would be up-to-date. The titles were current and not found in local bookstores. Soon enough, I was tapping away here and there and letting my defenses down. After browsing for a while, I got a good reason to download Medium Raw for journalistic purchases (i.e., for you the reader… awww...)

Downloading a hefty read, I expected it would take about 10 minutes but it finished pretty quickly at half the time. As I read, although the text was tiny due to the small screen, I breezily flicked through the pages and appreciated the “pages left” feature that alerts you how many pages are left before finishing each chapter. I found it handy as I bookmark my reading experience by chapter. Also, you can highlight words and lines from the book to check dictionary meanings or Wikipedia profiles. This feature was especially book-tastic for me because I don’t like highlighting words to keep my books pristine. Also, I tend to be lazy to look up vocabulary words while reading. The feature especially helped in reading Medium Raw as its culinary vocabulary and New York chef namedropping can be confusing for a newbie foodie like me. Thus, I see how an iBook application can make people read more by enhancing what they are reading.

The Last Fortress Of Printed Literature

As mentioned, I can see the virtues of e-book reading to spread more people getting into the habit of great literature and I’m hoping that it succeeds. Yet, I’m still inclined to pick up a book to feel its blocky weight and smell its bookstore smell rather than tapping away at it. For me, it is the natural experience that counts. I’ll keep a certain distance by downloading only books unavailable locally or some classic reads. Like Anthony Bourdain on steak, I’ll keep my reading appetites “medium raw.”

As for the death of print, its last fortress will remain in newspapers, comic books and children’s literature. There is nothing more irreplaceable than bursting colored graphics in your hands and feeling texture seep in between your nails. It is also the reason why I won’t get an iPad with a comic reader in the near future. What I can say about that topic in short is, “Mr. Steve Jobs, you are the devil and stop me from selling out.” Yet, I’ll leave that discussion for another article or a psychiatrist.

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E-mail me at readnow@supreme.ph.