What wine pairs with Hitler? I mean, if you do use his flesh in a spicy stir fry, I’d guess a sweeter Gewürztraminer would work. Maybe a Riesling. But other dishes? Maybe a red of some kind?
But that isn’t the central question at work in a story called “Serving Celebrity.” The premise is that if we make lab-grown meat, and all you need is a bit of DNA to grow it, then that opens up the possibilities. We already consume celebrity in our media. Voraciously, I’d argue, to the point where some of the most famous people struggle to have any kind of life in public that isn’t instantly available to us all. So, really, it’s just a small step to actually consuming them. Right?
That’s a lie. That isn’t the central question of this story. It’s really: why are humans good and why are we bad? And what’s the ratio? And what if it mattered in an existential way?
But it’s much more fun to imagine how freaked out the Palace would be if a restaurant started serving Rump of Elizabeth, with some new potatoes and locally-grown veggies. (Definitely a claret with that dish.)
“Serving Celebrity” is a story in my new collection, The Gates of Polished Horn.
Photo by Alexandru Molnar
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