[Music] Hello hello my name is blanca and welcome to this little corner where we're going to talk about different topics that interest me about literature art cinema and many other things and what better way to start doing it than talking about cannibalism but what is cannibalism as a metaphor why is it used and especially because lately there is so much about it the truth is that the metaphor of cannibalism has been used to talk about the wild nature of love how it can consume our thoughts desires and even our identity to the point where we disappear cannibalism as a metaphor is not something new in pop culture it has been used throughout history to denote different themes such as obsession love tenderness even growth and of course cannibalism poses a moral and ethical dilemma in our reality but in fiction cannibalism has been used as a narrative and stylistic resource to be able to delve into more abstract concepts again such as obsession power love even sexuality and growth as human beings Ah half heat Okay we continue the Cannibalism is not meant to be a comfortable metaphor, on the contrary, it seeks to be an extreme representation of what consumption can cause in a person, consumption in all areas of our lives, the consumption of love, the consumption of power, the consumption of obsession, the consumption of sexuality, consumption and how this can consume our flesh until we are left in bones. So no, cannibalism is definitely not a metaphor for everyone and it is not a story or a narrative that seeks to be accepted by cont. It seeks to make you uncomfortable, it seeks to push you out of your mind to rethink and question what consumption can symbolize in my life and above all, how many times have I consumed or how many times have I been consumed. So no, cannibalism as a metaphor does not seek to give us answers but rather to create new questions, who draws the line between love and obsession, who marks the difference between loving and desiring, it is precisely through this narrative that we can begin to inquire and find new answers to these questions, the act of remembering devours us, that we can become animals, this metaphor reminds us that in our humanity there also lives a lot. monstrosity and in order to live as humans we have to accept that we have also been monsters in a certain way I also like this metaphor because it tells us that in devouring it receives a lot of control and watch out before we continue in this video the metaphor of cannibalism does not seek to receive in its image in its literalness but what that image can symbolize beyond seeing a person consuming another what does that consumption imply what is consuming does not consume meat can consume their love can consume their life and although it can become an extremely grotesque image it is also an extremely intimate image extremely powerful in which two bodies become one but the most important thing about this is that the metaphor of cannibalism tells us that the body is the first territory of conquest the first territory of battle the first territory of destruction and above all of sacrifice in this part is also when we have to rethink what other meanings can cannibalism have as a metaphor Beyond those that I have already mentioned such as love obsession or sacrifice but also What happens when we accept flesh to save the other when we accept life to be with the other if we know something it is that much more than being used as a metaphor for love it has been used as a metaphor throughout history of power control and manipulation over the other over the enemy or even over the friend in this way it goes far beyond being a grotesque image in which we imagine flesh those are not much more than that it is an image that confirms the power that we can have over the body of the other person until leaving them without their vitality we have seen this through Greek mythology specifically with the character of Cronus Cronus decides to devour his son so that he does not take the throne it is a way of reaffirming that the other even if he is blood of his blood is not an opponent or in Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus in which revenge is literally served on a plate what these stories tell us is that cannibalism is a powerful image to show and consolidate power over the other to show who is over whom and what is the strength that lies in consuming an example of cannibalism as a metaphor for power is Hannibal Hannibal is a character who seeks to reconfirm and reaffirmation Hannibal did not see to his victims as people he saw them as inferior beings or even as pigs in this way the only point at which Hannibal could conceive of them as something important or something that had value was when he was cooking them because he was going to obtain a benefit from it through this consumption Hannibal what he sought was to regain control over his life, a control that had been taken from him when he was forced to eat his sister as a child So no Hannibal does not eat people because he loves them Hannibal has a God complex Hannibal literally wants to consume and control anyone he sees Why Because he sees them simply as meat and that is where the differentiation lies between the metaphor of Power and control with the metaphor of love the only person Hanbal conceived of consuming to save was Will Will Graham and this as a desperate measure when he saw that Will's life was slipping away from his hands so at what point does cannibalism go from becoming a metaphor for power control and manipulation something as pure or wild as love in literature and cinema the metaphor of Love seeks to be an extreme representation again It is not meant to be pretty to the eye or to look at, from movies like Raw where sexual awakening is intertwined with the constant search for love to Hannibal again where Hannibal can't distinguish what is the difference between obsession love and even devotion we can see that cannibalism is a strong feeling it is a need to be with the other inside their skin this metaphor makes us ask ourselves a new question how much of our love involves taking from the other to feel complete in the metaphor of love there are many nuances and when I talk about nuances it is because it can symbolize many things personally I don't like to think of cannibalism as a metaphor for love but rather as a metaphor for passion or even the wild nature of love why because the nuances can even blur to the point where we really question what we are seeing is it love or obsession are we controlling or are we really loving the other person one of the representations in pop culture that I have found that manages to speak of cannibalism as a metaphor for love is Bonen written by Camille de Angelis but specifically we are going to talk a little about its film adaptation in bonen cannibalism is not a horror image but rather a language that shapes the lives of several individuals in this case marine and lee two socially rejected people who are simply looking to be with someone else create an intimate relationship to understand each other when these two people meet it is the only moment in which they can relate in which they can share a guilty pleasure the meat but feel in the company of another person marine is a person who is in constant search of acceptance has been rejected throughout her life even by her mother her mother who decides to leave her after years trying to change her or even for her to adapt to society but surprise marine never does and the only moment in which she manages to feel like a person and not a monster is when she meets lee a young man who like her also has the need to consume other people and as bizarre as it may sound it is in this situation and in this relationship that beyond seeing this grotesque image of cannibalism are two people trying to share something intimate a language that only they can understand but be careful here is where I say that the nuances can be erased because just as in bounen you can talk about love or cannibalism as a metaphor for love There also comes a point where we ask ourselves To what extent is this really love and are we not destroying ourselves in the process and here come other questions is it possible to love without destroying or does all love mean sacrifice So on a large scale cannibalism in bonen all implies a metaphor to talk about what it means or can lead to implying love Although on many occasions it can become somewhat toxic it also speaks to us about the nature of the human being the need to be accepted the need to be with another or even just the need to be understood regardless of the consequences that this may have and here is my favorite metaphor for cannibalism cannibalism as a metaphor for identity and growth in order to talk and understand this metaphor a little bit we are going to talk about the movie raw So it doesn't matter if you haven't seen it Here I am going to give you a little bit of context so that we can understand it to keep in mind raw is a movie about Justin a girl who just left high school and is going to enter college she is going to enter specifically veterinary school but surprise Justin is extremely vegetarian so for obvious reasons she doesn't eat meat however after an initiation rite in which they make her eat raw meat a voracious hunger awakens in her the need to eat raw meat becomes a necessity if she doesn't she feels like she's going to die the need that Justin feels to eat meat is extremely important because it presents through this image the journey between adolescence and adulthood in a certain way the voracious hunger is a representation of the loss of innocence of growing up and becoming an adult So as we progress through the film we see how Justin begins to investigate what this hunger means why she feels so hungry for raw meat and above all what this turns her into in a certain way this poses an internal conflict to discover herself as a person and it is through this grotesque image of meat consumption that Justin poses a first conflict the desire to fit into society over accepting herself And in a certain way the reason why I liked this film so much is because it also raises how generational trauma and the relationship with the family can also be a reflection of who we are in this case her sister too cannibal is a reflection and a mirror of Justin and the fact that he does not accept her or that he simply rejects her from his life also implies rejecting herself but what happens when Justin begins to reject this desire, the voracious hunger for raw meat, then he begins to repress. But obviously there comes a point where all this repression explodes and this explosion is seen through his sexual awakening and in this way cannibalism becomes another representation of everything that we have hidden or that we prefer to repress in our daily lives, our sexuality, desire and above all, anger and in order not to make the joke spoiler long, we see at the end of the film that Justin gives in to his insatiable hunger and decides to embrace his cannibal identity. So in raw, cannibalism is a symbol of what it means to accept our identity, to accept who we are and finally, let's talk a little about the iconography and symbols of cannibalism as a metaphor, specifically about a highly coveted fruit, the pomegranate. But in order to understand what the pomegranate has to do with cannibalism, let's go a little to Greek mythology according to Greek mythology Persephone with Sue under the manipulation of Hades after being kidnapped by Hades himself six pomegranate seeds which according to the story forces her to stay in the Underworld however Demeter and Hades reach an agreement in which Persephone will spend 6 months with Hades in the Underworld and the next six with her mother Demeter that is the reason why we have the different seasons because in the first six months winter and autumn it was because her daughter was not with Demeter, that is to say Persephone with Demeter then Demeter was super sad and did not produce, did not cultivate, did not take care of nature and in the next 6 months we have spring and summer because Demeter was with her daughter Persephone it is from this myth of Persephone that the pomegranate begins to be given different symbols such as unbreakable love or an eternal bond and it is precisely in this act of consuming that could also represent the union of a person with another world could be seen as a form of spiritual cannibalism also in some ancient cultures the pomegranate was often used during rites of life death or even fertility And although there is no direct evidence that links the pomegranate with cannibalism, there are traces that it was used Even in rituals of human sacrifice and beyond that one of the reasons why nothing is used as a symbol of cannibalism is for something extremely obvious By its shape and structure because its shape closely resembles that of flesh and blood that was all for today's episode tell me if you liked it And if you would like to delve deeper into this metaphor to investigate other aspects such as autocannibalism vampirism etc. so tell me what you thought in the comments Bye bye see you next week and don't forget to subscribe foreign [Music]