h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Cannibalism: A Diet of the Future - A49373210
Author: Tibley Bobley - U170471

Our Stretcher Masters and Mistress have set us the task of defending the indefensible and submitting the result to Peer Review. The first thing that popped into my head was horrible. Here it is. Hope you PR nice folk won't throw me out on my ear for grossing you out

Due to necessity, cannibalism has been documented in our recent past. The desire to survive will break any taboo to achieve that aim.

A couple of typos

>co-ordinate a effective response<
= an effective ...

>The idea of being murdered for our flesh, by another human being though, it particularly abhorent to us.>
= iS particularly abhorRent


lil x

For some reason I thought SWL had striked again

I seem to remember some modern cannibalism a few years ago: some people who had been lost high up on some snowy mountain (I think they had crashed with a plane) survived by eating their dead companions.
I don't recall the psychological impact it had in the survivors, though.

That's the one I was thinking about Bel


There are some other recordings in recent history, some are rather sadistic in nature:

http://www.thehistorychannel.co.uk/site/features/vanishings:_lost_in_the_andes.php

PR wise - I think it could do with a reaction to cannibalism - for example the treatment given to Sawney Bean and family who were executed without the benefit of trial and burnt. Plus the Andes example where it was accepted as a necessity, whereas there was a case of a group in a lifeboat who were jailed for it back in the 50's.

Also there were (are) groups who embrace cannibalism, despite alternate food sources being available - why ?

Stretcher- wise I don't think this defends the concept - it offers it as a potential solution to an possible crisis.

But of course that is just my opinion.

A modest proposal, indeed. Hats off to you and Dean Swift.

One objection that might need to be addressed more strongly - for what it's worth - is the notion that this need not lead to murder or compulsion.

You don't eat animals that die on their own - not if you have any sense of self-preservation.

Take this from someone who lives in a part of the country that gave rise to the 'Road Kill Cookbook'.

Thank you lil, Bel, toy box (I think), McKay and dmitri.

I've done the typos but I'm working on the other suggestions. I couldn't find anything about the lifeboat cannibals McKay. When I searched for +cannibal +lifeboat it brought up pages of Monty Python. Then +cannibal +lifeboat -monty got me plenty of games Anyway, I'm still looking.

I'll give the murder and compulsion some more thought dmitri.

Here's a lifeboat story: http://www.nightsea.com/medusa.htm

Try cannibalism + shipwreck.

I remember one case in the late 18th Century, of a small English party in two lifeboats, but I can't remember the journal where I read it, or the name of the ship, sorry.

Oh, meant to say: glad you mention Soylent Green, as it was the very first thing I thought of when I started reading your entry.

Here, try Pinniped's 'Gorgon'.

A2126945

And try Blues Shark's Essex too
A671492

Icy's Uruguayan cannibals are featured here: A17090697

I can't remember the full story about the shipwreck, but I'm sure it was around New Zealand somewhere ~ I'll have a think and a dig...

apart from making me feel queasy ...I'm not sure whether this is just sited on opinion and perhaps should have gone in the AWW or not...there are also three minor nitpicks with this.

<>
I don't think the 'd' on prepare is necessary

films are written in italics thus "Jaws" becomes Jaws

finally where you usually have double quotation marks, you need only single ones

>>There are diseases prion diseases like Kuru and nvCJD to consider.<<

The first 'disease' seems out of place. Also, what is nvCJD? (Not that I know what Kuru is, but I meant acronym-wise.)

CJD - Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease (also known as mad cow disease)- as for nv - your guess is as good as mine.

Ah yes, Creutzfeld-Jacob's disease, I know that one
I thought Mad Cow was ESB (BSE in English ). Maybe that's all the same anyway.

Or Creutzfeld-Jakob, even

Since we're now well and truly on the subject of man-eating go-reads, this one (as the Americans say) is a doozy: A302211
I think this incident is the loose basis of the film Ravenous?

Another Entry that IMO cries out for an Update is Elentatri's Donner Party: A926363. The harrowing story of the Forlorn Hope and the winter in the mountains really merits a fuller treatment.
It was her first Entry, though. How do you ask a 50+ stalwart if they'd like to update their first Entry? Sounds like a job for a better diplomat than me...

OK, as you were. Sorry TB. And of course PR not Stretcher, this little intercession.