#Bazterrica

[labibliotecadescorzo]

Cadáver exquisito, de Agustina Bazterrica (2017)

[melonreads]

thrift store finds! $2!!!

[wanna-bewitch-you]

The way a lot of people don’t understand “Tender is the Flesh” at all makes me more angry than it probably should.

People will view it as an extremist vegan book, and that is not the point. It’s not about how humans treat animals, it’s about how humans treat other humans.

Although I am sure that the meat industry today isn’t great and could be more humane, that isn’t the focus of the book.

It’s an allegory for capitalism, classism, exploitation, greed, etc.

As with all dystopian books it uses an extreme situation, industrialized cannibalism in this case, to scrutinize current societal issues.

[marbleheavy]

this is out of left field but a book rec list!! specifically, books that have to deal with consumption of women/cannibalism/ecofeminist themes (basically, feminist, food-centric horror)

1. The Vegetarian by Han Kang

This book is SO good but definitely check the trigger warnings. Told from three different perspectives, it follows a woman after she has a life-altering dream that makes her go vegetarian, much to the dismay of her family. The thing that stuck with me most about this book is how it portrays the normalized but profound betrayals by men that women experience. It’s a mix of “The Yellow Wallpaper” and My Year of Meats

2. My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki

Another meat-centric book! This one switches between two women, one in America and one in Japan, as they navigate the world of meat consumption and how patriarchy and misogyny are reflected in it. There’s a very mixed-media feel to this as every section starts with a poetry excerpt by Sei Shonogan and one of the main characters, Jane Takagi-Little, is directing a series on American meat consumption to promote eating meat in Japan. All of Ruth Ozeki’s books are wonderful so if you like this, you should read them all.

3. Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterriva

This one is straight up cannibalism. It’s about a man, Marcos, who works at a meat processing plant that makes “special meat” (human) and is gifted a “specimen” for him to eventually slaughter himself. The specimen is a woman, Jasmine, who Marcos eventually forms a relationship with. This one is overtly dystopian and although certainly very dark, a little more palatable because it allows the reader to feel more distant from the reality of the book. Of course, though, there is till some very striking commentary on the abuse and exploitation of animals, women, and people as a whole.

4. What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

This one is different from the others in that the consumption comes from fungus and not literal people, but there’s still a deep-seated sense of rot. The main character, Alex Easton, returns to the ancestral home of their childhood friend as they learn she’s dying. There is a distinct supernatural element to this, but still very heavy with animal and body horror.

5. A Certain Hunger by Chelsea Summers

Dorothy Daniels, the main characters, is a food critic, sex lover, and psychopath. This one, again, explores the relationship between the treatment of women as sexual beings and commercialized consumption. Also, again, cannibalism. However, this one is very White Feminism, so take that into mind.

all of these books are very good but all have very heavy trigger warnings, so please please look them up before reading. happy reading, my pals <3

[haveyoureadthisbook-poll]

[whilereadingandwalking]

Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica, translated by Sarah Moses, is a sharp, disturbing book about the biopolitics of the regulation of bodies, and about the way that we can use language and fear to justify all kinds of atrocities. The basics: a near-future where a disease has swept through the world's animals, and the only meat on hand is human, so society paints a world with language. They don't eat "people," they eat "head," livestock raised to be eaten, no first-and-last-names. But Marcos, like so many others, can't adjust to this new reality, despite holding an important role at a local processing plant.

I was fascinated by the dark world built by Bazterrica. Marcos is a great protagonist in that he's immensely frustrating, constantly judging others for their consumption in this new world while actively contributing to it. That makes him perfect for this novel, which is all about the banality of evil and the way that it can become entrenched. I was annoyed by a twist about halfway through this novel, but satisfied by its conclusion. What happens when bodies are devalued? This book excellently outlines the power of language and prejudice to define a new world, even in a single generation, of the ability of violence to corrupt even the most resistant souls. And the quiet implications and maybes of the plot are terrifying.

Content warnings for racism, graphic violence, body horror, sexual assault/rape, suicidal ideation/mentions, animal cruelty/death.

[leer-reading-lire]

JOMP Book Photo Challenge || January || 7 || Award Winning

Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

[bitterkarella]

Midnight Pals: In the Barn

Harlan Ellison: listen up you chucklefucks Ellison: it only happens once in a lifetime that an author emerges fully formed like athena from the forehead of zeus Ellison: tonight you are going to hear from such an author Ellison: a bold new truth teller who will put you all to shame Ellison: a man named Ellison: piers anthony

Ellison: that's right, piers anthony Ellison: when you hear this story, it's gonna blow your tiny little peanut minds King: Poe: Lovecraft: Koontz: Barker: Barker: so Poe: no no clive Poe: just no

Piers Anthony: ok guys you're gonna really love this story Anthony: just let me top off the tank first Anthony: [huffing a pair of panties like dennis hopper huffing ether in Blue Velvet]

Anthony: ok so there's this earth where a disease has contaminated all the animals Anthony: so people gotta turn to human lifestock Agustina Bazterrica: yes yes Anthony: for milk Bazterrica: Bazterrica: oh yeah i guess you could do that Bazterrica: do they use human livestock for meat too Anthony: what? why would you think about that Bazterrica: it just seems the logical extension to the premise Anthony: Anthony: i guess Anthony: now if there was human lifestock, it would be pretty messed up to have sex with them right Bazterrica: yeah that would surely be a huge taboo Anthony: messed up Anthony: but also Anthony: very very interesting

Anthony: so this guy is a milk inspector and his job is to inspect milk production in different dimensions Anthony: you know, to make sure that nothing unethical is happening Anthony: cuz we wouldn't want to do business with unethical people Anthony: we have really high ethical standards here about that

Anthony: so he goes to the dimension where there's no animals Anthony: BUT Anthony: everyone's drinking milk Anthony: they LOVE it Anthony: it's like a huge thing Anthony: and this guy is all "wow, how strange" Anthony: "i wonder where all the milk is coming from" Koontz: i know! i know the answer! Anthony: no you don't dean, sit down

Anthony: so everyone loves milk Anthony: and there's all these barns everywhere Anthony: where they produce milk Anthony: but what animal is making the milk? that's the question Anthony: the answer is man Anthony: the most dangerous milk of all

Anthony: so they got these human livestock women Anthony: with big milky boobies Anthony: and the milk inspector is all "gosh, if i go into the barn, i might see a naked girl" Edward Lee: i like this guy Lee: highly relatable character

Lee: bro Lee: bro how big are the tits Anthony: oh they're real big Anthony: like Anthony: like big ol' melons Lee: Anthony: something wrong? Lee: no bro Lee: i mean Lee: i mean i guess that's pretty big

Anthony: it makes you think, tho Anthony: is the way we treat animals any better than the way these farmers treat their big mommy milker hucows Bazterrica: do they eat the livestock people Anthony: yeah i'm not getting into that Bazterrica: but Anthony: big mommy milker hucows

Anthony: [pantomiming] big mommy milkers Ellison: goddamn Ellison: you assholes hear all that? Ellison: like the goddamn shakespeare of our time

[caffeinated-rat-bastard]

Agustina Bazterrica ~ tender is the flesh ~

[harrowclare]

harrowclare's 2024 reading lists

currently reading/listening to

Stormflower by Keegan Kozinski & Tristen Kozinski (ARC) The Dead Take the A Train by Cassandra Khaw & Richard Kadrey Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage Indian Burial Ground by Nick Medina The Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis

up next

The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa Rouge by Mona Awad Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moerno-Garcia

finished books

here is the long, long list of my 2024 reads, with ratings, dates, and links to reviews. wanna read along or chat with me about books? i'm super active on fable.

because of tumblr's limit on links, i cannot direct to individual reviews at this point. for this reason, i will be sharing reviews here separately from time to time using the tag #harrowclare reads. if you would like to view my reviews on their respective sites, you can find them on thestorygraph & goodreads.

dates are listed as month, day. manga volumes that are binged will be grouped so that this list isn't a million miles long, with the range of ratings for the volumes in the stack. a few of these titles were started in 2023, lol whoops! those are the only dates with a year stamp.

current reading goal progress: 98/100

Five-Star Stranger by Kat Tang 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑 - 08.30—08.31 - fiction

The Haar by David Sodergren 🌕🌕🌑🌑🌑 - 08.25—08.29 - fiction

None of This is True by Lisa Jewell 🌕🌕🌗🌑🌑- 08.26—08.27 - fiction

My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑 - 08.19—08.25 - fiction i actually gave this a 3.75 on thestorygraph, which may seem obnoxious, but it felt right idk. sometimes rating shit 1-5 feels arbitrary and hard.

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑 - 07.30—08.24 - fiction

Killing Stalking Deluxe Edition Vol. 1 by Koogi 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑 - 08.24—08.24 - webtoon

House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑 - 03.16.23—08.22 - fiction

Schappi by Anna Haifisch 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑 - 08.20—08.20 - graphic novel

You Will Own Nothing And You Will Be Happy #1 by Simon Hanslemann 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑 - 08.20—08.20 - graphic novel, reread

Werewolf Jones and Sons Deluxe Summer Fun Annual by Simon Hanselmann & Simon Pettinger 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑 - 08.20—08.20 - graphic novel

Something Akin to Revulsion by Judith Sonnet 🌕🌕🌗🌑🌑 - 08.19—08.20 - fiction

Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑 - 08.16—08.18 - fiction

Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑 - 08.09—08.16 - fiction

The Troop by Nick Cutter 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗 - 08.12—08.14 - fiction

Nestlings by Nat Cassidy 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑 - 08.01—08.12 - fiction

Butcher & Blackbird by Brynne Weaver 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑 - 07.27—08.09 - fiction

The Eyes Are the Best Part by Monika Kim 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑 - 07.30—08.06 - fiction

The Ruins by Scott Smith 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑 - 08.01—08.05 - fiction

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕 - 07.24—07.30 - fiction at the time of reading and reviewing this i was unaware of the controversies surrounding the author (uncredited use of the likeness of a video game and possible Zionism.) i don't want to change my rating & review because the book did have a profound impact on me, but i also do not believe in separating art from the artist, so i will not be purchasing the book or reading more from the author.

Ghost Station by S.A. Barnes 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑 - 07.14—07.29 - fiction

Playground by Aron Beauregard 🌕🌑🌑🌑🌑 - 07.23—07.28 - fiction

Middle of the Night by Riley Sager 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑- 07.17—07.27 - fiction

Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑- 07.15—07.24 - fiction

The Spirit Bares its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑- 07.11—07.23 - fiction

The Liminal Zone by Junji Ito 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑- 07.20—07.22 - manga

The Summer Hikaru Died Vol. 1 by Mokumokuren 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑 - 07.19—07.20 - manga

Looking Glass Sound by Catriona Ward 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑 - 07.11—07.16 - fiction

Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑 - 07.10—07.13 - fiction

Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑 - 07.09—07.10 - fiction

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑 - 07.08—07.09 - fiction

Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑 - 07.03—07.08 - fiction

Do a Powerbomb! by Daniel Warren Johnson 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕- 07.05—07.05 - graphic novel

The Centre by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑 - 06.27—07.03 - fiction

Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕 - 06.26—06.26 - fiction

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑 - 06.23—06.25 - fiction

Victim by Andrew Boryga 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑 - 06.14—06.17 - fiction

A Good Happy Girl by Marissa Higgins 🌕🌕🌗🌑🌑 - 04.19—06.14 - fiction

A Sweet Sting of Salt by Rose Sutherland 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑 - 06.06—06.13 - fiction

The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley 🌕🌑🌑🌑🌑 - 06.01—06.06 - fiction

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗 - 05.22—05.31 - fiction

I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑 - 05.26—05.27 - non-fiction

Annie Bot by Sierra Greer 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗 - 05.19—05.21 - fiction

You've Lost a Lot of Blood by Eric LaRocca 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑 - 05.10—05.19 - fiction

Ghost Eaters by Clay McLeod Chapman 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑 - 05.18—05.19 - fiction

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑 - 05.14—05.18 - fiction

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕 - 05.10—05.13 - fiction

The Broken Girls by Simone St. James 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑 - 05.01—05.03 - fiction review: thestorygraph, goodreads

The Measure by Nikki Erlick 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑 04.21—04.23 - fiction

Tokyo Ghoul Vol. 1 - Vol. 8 by Sui Ishida 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑 - 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕 04.22—05.08 - manga

Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑 - 04.18—04.21 - fiction

Know My Name by Chanel Miller 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕 - 04.05—04.18 - non-fiction

Chainsaw Man Vol. 1 - Vol. 11 by Tatsuki Fujimoto 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑 - 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕 - 04.16—04.22 - manga

Jujutsu Kaisen Vol. 5 - Vol. 26 by Gege Akutami 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑 - 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕 - 12.23.23—04.16 - manga

Tampa by Alissa Nutting 🌕🌕🌑🌑🌑 - 04.02—04.03 - fiction

Circe by Madeline Miller 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑 - 03.29—04.01 - fiction

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗 - 03.25—03.28 - fiction

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑 - 03.23—03.25 - fiction

These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑 - 02.02—03.20 - fiction

Time Is a Mother by Ocean Vyong 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕 - 03.06—03.06- poetry

Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗 - 02.01—02.01- fiction

Y/N by Esther Yi | fiction 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑 - 01.31—02.01 - fiction

my tiny DNF pile

People Who Eat Darkness by Richard Lloyd Parry stopped at 24% - 05.03 - non-fiction explanation: thestorygraph

new words

alacrity, aplomb, assiduously, avulsed, detritus, garrulous, germane, gloaming, gunwale, inexorable, lassitude, palliative, palimpsest, pernicious, pugnacious, sententiously, scrim, sepulchral, shale, splume, stalward, surreptitious, rime, verisimilitude

[33misc]

I’m here to recommend a book to all of my fellow Hozier fans! - The Unworthy (Las Indignas) by Agustina Bazterrica

It fucking has everything!!! Wasteland setting and crippled nature, only woman characters, cultlike situations and religious imaginery. Little spoiler : it even has a little digging up your lover from the ground scene so I’m just assuming the writer listens to Hozier too.

Really worth it!!!

[thebackestofburners]

Me sitting alone in my car finishing my audiobook copy of Tender is the Flesh and contemplating life

[haveyoureadthispoll]

His wife has left him, his father is sinking into dementia, and Marcos tries not to think too hard about how he makes a living. After all, it happened so quickly. First, it was reported that an infectious virus has made all animal meat poisonous to humans. Then governments initiated the “Transition.” Now, eating human meat—“special meat”—is legal. Marcos tries to stick to numbers, consignments, processing. Then one day he’s given a gift: a live specimen of the finest quality. Though he’s aware that any form of personal contact is forbidden on pain of death, little by little he starts to treat her like a human being. And soon, he becomes tortured by what has been lost—and what might still be saved.

[slippingintostones]

I feel like in the realm of “science fiction,” Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Tender is the Flesh, and Snow Crash create an interesting trilogy all surrounding western capitalism and its effects. On one side there’s Androids, where Dick creates an intense drive for empathy (for animals, primarily) as overcompensation for the lack of connection people have in the real lives towards other humans (think pigeon-heads, thing emigration to the moon, think Mercerism and empathy boxes) and the creation of androids as non-human, non-animal slaves that aren’t worthy of empathy but take over the labor that “real and worthy” humans “shouldn’t have to do” because they are intrinsically better than these other groups. And then there’s Tender is the Flesh, the most truly dystopian, that has cannibalism as a deep metaphor for how we’re already destroying and dehumanizing each other in the pursuit of capitalism: the intense cognitive dissonance we all reach for and support, not just allow, in order to go about our daily lives, and the death of empathy that leads humans to do such inhumane acts. And then there’s Snow Crash. The ultimate individualistic hyper-capitalistic future where everything is corporatized and empathy has dissolved to allow survival, because no one can afford to assist anyone else, and everyone relies on avatars to escape the super shitty world they can’t afford to change. I think these three all lend understanding to each other and allow for deeper interpretation of just how deep capitalism can go to undermine the control we think we have over society, and just how much personal power we have in such a deeply flawed system.

[radiantdanvers]

Just finished reading tender is the flesh and I just want to say... Jasmine deserves the world and I hope the rest ESPECIALLY Marcos a very happy die.

[godzilla-reads]

Started Reading: Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica (trans. Sarah Moses)