New York City – Social media exploded over the weekend after The New York Times published an article claiming there’s a “time and a place” for “cannibalism.”
Fox News reported that users blasted the piece for seemingly “normalizing” the grisly practice of eating human flesh.
The New York Times published the outlandish piece, titled “A Taste for Cannibalism?” in its Style section on Saturday. Written by Alex Beggs, the article provided insight into cannibalism’s growing relevance in pop culture – especially in a “spate of recent stomach-churning books” – and touted one author’s assertion that cannibalism’s “time is now.”
Beggs began her piece with a reference to novelist Chelsea G. Summers’ story idea of a character eating her deceased boyfriend’s “liver served Tuscan style, on toast.” She then observed, “Turns out, cannibalism has a time and a place. In the pages of some recent stomach-churning books, and on television and film screens, Ms. Summers and others suggest that that time is now.”
Beggs’ piece also sought to find out “what may be fueling the desire for cannibalism stories today.” According to Lyle, it’s the current “strange moment.” She mentioned “the pandemic, climate change, school shootings and years of political cacophony as possible factors.”
Lyle explained, “I feel like the unthinkable has become the thinkable and cannibalism is very much squarely in that category of the unthinkable.”
In response to the head-turning article, conservative commentator Ian Miles Cheong tweeted, “Stop. Normalizing. Cannibalism.”
