MARGARET VISSER © Copyright 2001 by Harpercollinspublishersltd

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perennialcanada AUTHOR GUIDES ·MARGARET VISSER Contents ·2 BIBLIOGRAPHY ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The Rituals of Dinner Margaret Visser was born in northern Rhodesia, now 0-00-639105-2; $19.95 Zambia. The landscape of her childhood was dry, hot, and HarperPerennialCanada paperback edition colourful. Raised in a mining town, she recalls huge anthills covered with morning glories in her own and the neigh- bouring gardens. Her family became known for their Siamese cats, as they were the only people in town to have them. As a child one of their cats went missing, and it was returned to them tied by its feet to a pole which was carried between two men. Thankfully, the cat was fine.

She left Africa at the age of seventeen to study journalism in London, England. She quickly realized that journalism was not for her, after working at her first journalistic job for the obituary section of a newspaper. Aside from visiting and having to question the bereaved, her job entailed answering the phone, something that she found quite terrifying as there were no phones in the Rhodesia of her childhood.

Leaving journalism behind, she decided to study French at the Sorbonne. In Paris, she met and married Colin Visser. Margaret and Colin both taught English for the British Council in Baghdad for two years, but they imagined a life filled with travels and adventures, living a couple of years here and there, for the rest of their lives.

Their next stop was America. Colin Visser, who had studied at Oxford, decided to finish his graduate work in Rochester, New York. They found it difficult to adjust to American culture, and shortly thereafter they moved to Canada. In Toronto, Margaret decided to take an undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto. Initially, she had wanted to study archeology, which she had learned to love during her time in Baghdad. She recalls her fascination with the ancient cities surrounding Baghdad, many of which dated from 3000 B.C. and earlier. No degree in archaeology existed at the undergraduate level, and her advisor suggested that she study an ancient language. When she suggested Latin, her advisor said that she must also study Greek. Margaret Visser grew to love the Greek language and the study of the Classics. She earned a Ph.D. at U of T, and then taught Classics at York University for eighteen years.

perennialcanada AUTHOR GUIDES ·MARGARET VISSER Introduction ·3 A classicist by training, Margaret Visser often shares her wis- The Way We Are is a collection of vignettes from Margaret dom with the masses. She has contributed to CBC Radio’s Visser’s column in Saturday Night magazine; she was a con- Morningside, The Arts Tonight, Ideas, Open House, Radio Noon tributing editor to the magazine from 1988 to 1994. John and Women’s Hour on BBC4 in Britain. She also researched Fraser, who was editor of Saturday Night magazine at the and wrote twenty television programs on Food and Festivals time, describes the typical experience of reading a Visser col- which were shown on PBS in the United States. Margaret umn as starting off “from a comfy, well-bolstered position— Visser has appeared on such television programs as CTV’s a nice tan makes us look healthier, for example, or Lifetime, Canada AM, CBC’s The Journal, the Today Show in Valentine’s Day cards are tacky—and then, before we even the U.S. and BBC Television’s Barbara Live in Britain, and have our seatbelts fastened, find ourselves whisked away in a has been interviewed on Australian radio and television. A series of brisk paragraphs through historical contexts and feature program on her life was produced in 1988 and aired cultural cross-references to a destination that is neither on CBC’s Monitor, and a television feature on her work was comfy nor commonplace.” made for ABC in Australia. She also wrote a six-part series on everyday life in six European cities that was broadcast by Margaret Visser recently published The Geometry of Love: BBC Radio Four in the winter of 1998. Space, Time, Mystery, and Meaning in an Ordinary Church with HarperFlamingoCanada. She currently divides her time Margaret Visser is the author of three bestselling books: among Toronto, Barcelona, and southwestern France. Much Depends on Dinner, The Rituals of Dinner and The Way We Are. All three of these titles were recently re-released in paperback format in PerennialCanada editions. AN INTERVIEW WITH MARGARET VISSER While chopping onions for sauce soubise, the idea came to her for Much Depends on Dinner. “Chopping onions is not Q. In the essay “Yes, But What Does It Mean?” you write an occupation which favours dreaming. Perhaps it was bore- about the culture shock that you felt when you saw a pack- dom or annoyance or simply that when you chop onions et of mustard in a New York restaurant. You wrote “I have you had better keep your mind alert, and my concentration been trying to understand what we participate in and spilled over, but I started wondering about onions.” A what is going on around us ever since.” Can you comment search for the where, how, and wherefore of onions led her on this? to “at least eleven different collections of books and…arti- cles in scientific periodicals, journals of anthropology, soci- A. The culture shock that I felt at the time far surpassed what ology, and folklore, histories of religion, culinary-historical the essay conveyed. We’d gone to New York City straight from writings in various journals, business, and trade maga- Baghdad, and we were disappointed when we were told that we zines…” and the realization that the subject of food was in couldn’t go to Rochester, New York, by the canal that was so need of a book. The resulting Much Depends on Dinner won clearly marked on the maps. So we took the train. All our world- the Glenfiddich Award in Britain for the Food Book of the ly goods were wrapped in carpets and we had a beautiful trunk Year in 1989, and was named one of the best books of the that we had bought in Baghdad because it was so cheap but it year by Publishers Weekly and The New York Times Book is now one of the finest pieces of furniture we possess. We reached Review. Rochester feeling raw. Colin was studying at the time, and I remember feeling hysterical at the height of the buildings and The Rituals of Dinner, a sequel of sorts to Much Depends on the speed of the cars. My husband had to come fetch me from a Dinner, explores how and where we eat. It won the phone booth because I couldn’t walk home. We had no idea International Association of Culinary Professionals’ Literary what America was going to be like. It’s very valuable remem- Food Writing Award and the Jane Grigson Award in the bering what it’s like not to belong. How amazing, bizarre, and U.S. It was also a New York Times Book Review Notable Book extraordinary a culture is that of North America. of the Year. perennialcanada AUTHOR GUIDES ·MARGARET VISSER Introduction ·4 Q. Through the media of radio, television, and books, you Modern people who are specialists tend to dig down a narrow have taken potentially academic subjects and made them but deep hole. Many new truths and insights come from outside both accessible and entertaining. Did you choose to make of that hole, from things all around. So when I research, I go off these ideas popular with a general audience? the subject, research around it, and that research often gives a whole new point of view. A. I was pushed into writing. While teaching at York University in Toronto, I didn’t have a car and was given a lift home one So it’s partly from the way I was educated and partly curiosity, afternoon. My friend asked me, “Do you ever listen to which leads me to take in more than you need. Morningside?” “No” “I was on Morningside yesterday. You should try it; it’s fun.” So I called Morningside and said that I In radio I had to think “what will I talk about?” Modern peo- wanted to be on the show and that I wanted to talk about ple are so educated, how will I know if people already know Ancient Greek mythology. They showed a lack of interest. It was that? Will it be boring? So I take a thing and try to account for the eighties at the time and so I said, “You know nothing about that thing. Like a church or an orange. I try to account for an Toronto society in the 1980s if you know nothing about Greek object and not an idea. An idea can be put into someone’s mind, mythology.” Five months later they called and asked me if I was but not an object. Taking an object for a subject enables you to the woman who wanted to talk about Toronto and Ancient digress, to talk about all sorts of things. Everybody has a mysti- Greece and would I like to come down to the studios and show cal experience whether or not they want to call it that. I try to them what I meant. I wanted to talk about something interest- account for it, talk about it. For instance how a mystical expe- ing, something that would intrigue people. So I explained how rience is turned into a building, which is the subject of my new it is that in Zambia, which was northern Rhodesia, Africans eat book, The Geometry of Love. insects but no one in Toronto does. Why is this? You have to understand anthropology to understand Ancient Greece. And Q. Many of your observations concern the role of men and the answer to this question can be reached through the study of women throughout history and in different cultures. Was anthropology. there any particular incident or experience that shaped your beliefs or led to your interest in gender politics? After that I was asked to return to Morningside. I talked about different everyday things and why it is that they are important A. A new view of male and female relations is one of the great in our culture, like oranges, potatoes, and sugar. This interest discoveries of the twentieth century. It has been a horrible cen- grew into a general fascination with food. My mother is an tury and perhaps because of all the destruction, a new way of English lady who never had much time for food. She can’t imag- looking at women has been able to emerge. It’s more interesting ine how it came about that I became interested in it. than even the technological revolution. Before this century men and women were caught in a system where it wasn’t possible to I spoke with Peter Gzowski about food quite a bit. People would look without prejudice at women. This new way of seeing call in and ask me about my book. I hadn’t written a book so I humanity is the one good thing that happened in our century. decided to do so. That was Much Depends on Dinner. I’d It’s the revolution of the twentieth century and it’s as big as the been teaching Classics at York University for about eighteen agricultural revolution. Being alive in our time it is impossible years and so after publishing my first book, I decided to give up not to react and think about the way we see the roles and lives teaching for writing. of men and women.

Q. You blend together many disciplines in your work. I was also raised by nuns and as a child I was only around Where did this approach to research arise from? women. This may sound medieval, but it meant that I was never under the thumb of men, I had to learn to be crushed A. Studying the Classics is the study of a whole culture. It after I had left school! Although there was nothing fluffy about includes history, language, anthropology, philosophy, art history, those nuns either. and methodology. It’s what being a Classicist is about. perennialcanada AUTHOR GUIDES ·MARGARET VISSER Introduction ·5 THE RITUALS OF The practice of cannibalism is now a rarity. However, “behind every rule of table etiquette lurks the determination DINNER of each person present to be a diner, not a dish.” For instance in 1669, pointed knives were banned from tables in France Table manners have a history, ancient and complex: both to discourage their use as toothpicks and to prevent each society has gradually evolved its system, altering mealtime assassinations. Polite restraint is exhibited by Asian its ways sometimes to suit circumstances, but also vig- cultures that use chopsticks. The Chinese knife is used for ilantly maintaining its customs in order to support its “splitting firewood, gutting and scaling fish, slicing vegeta- ideals and its aesthetic style, and to buttress its iden- bles, mincing meat, crushing garlic (with the dull side of the tity. Our own society has made choices in order to blade), cutting one’s nails, sharpening pencils, whittling new arrive at the table manners we now observe. Other chopsticks, killing pigs, shaving (it is kept sharp enough, or people, in other parts of the world today, have rules supposedly is), and settling old and new scores with one’s that are different from ours, and it is important to try enemies.” It is interesting, however, that it is banned from to comprehend the reasoning that lies behind what the dinner table. they do if we are to understand what we do and why. My aim has been to enrich anyone’s experience of a While we eat to live, how we eat ties us closer together. From meal in the European and American tradition, to correct form at a Ugandan beer party to table talk in heighten our awareness and interest on the occasions Katmandu, dining is a social act. A meal is a drama in which when we might be invited to share meals in other cul- our social mores are exhibited. Manners are meant to take tures, and to give the reader some idea of the great into account the sensibilities and needs of fellow diners and range of tradition, significance, and social sophistica- to protect us from roughness, greed, and the baser instincts. tion which is inherent in the actions performed during the simplest dinner eaten with family or friends. Just as often, manners are used as a means to exclude people. —Margaret Visser In France during the time of Louis XIV, aristocrats “performed an important experiment in manners.” In order to exclude the rapidly rising bourgeois class, French aristocrats B developed the idea of the ideal courtier. This courtier exud- ed an innate and effortless grace. Their manners helped them to separate those born into the upper class from those Drawing upon a rich blend of traditions, including anthro- who aspired to be a part of that class. pology, sociology, and history, Margaret Visser looks at both how we eat and why we eat as we do. The symbolism and Through a comparison of old and new world manners, from history of forks, the history of tablecloths, the way napkins the medieval concept of “courtesy” to the common man’s are folded, and the origins of words in French, Spanish, manner system or “civility,” Margaret Visser takes us on a Chinese, and Arabic are all touched upon in this study. journey through time and space revealing the meanings and Differing philosophies on manners from Erasmus to Emily symbolism of our mannerly behaviour. She leaves us with Post are also served up in this fascinating and amusing feast the observation that although we are becoming more infor- of the rituals of dining. mal because “modern society has more than enough devices for keeping people apart,” we still adhere to a mannerly sys- It has been claimed that “table manners are as old as human tem based on the principles of neatness, cleanliness, and society itself,” and that all societies have rules governing the noiselessness. And while the acceleration of time is impact- way people eat. Even “eating people was hedged about with ing both what we eat and how we eat it, going to ceremony and elaborate care.” The ancient Fijians “ate every- McDonald’s or Burger King is as cloaked in ritual as fine day meals with their hands; when it came to eating human dining at a French or Italian restaurant. flesh, and only then, they used a special wooden fork.” perennialcanada AUTHOR GUIDES ·MARGARET VISSER Section ·6 QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION common supply.” Do you enter into discussions during or after a common meal? If you do, what sorts of 1) Visser writes that “most of the picturesque details that topics arise? strike travellers as weird have to do with table manners” and that we are startled when confronted with a 7) In nineteenth-century Europe, women were not different way of drinking, eating, or preparing food. expected to ask for wine at the table; the man was to Do you agree with this idea? Have you ever experi- supply it, and every time a man filled his own glass, he enced culture shock around food? also offered to fill the woman’s glass. The woman was expected not to accept the wine each time it was 2) “Food is tradition, largely because a taste acquired is offered. Are there still established roles for men and rarely lost and taste and smells which we have known women to follow at formal dining tables? in the past recall for us, as nothing else can, the mem- ories associated with them.” Are there certain foods or 8) Margaret Visser writes: “modern manners increasingly dishes that remind you of past events? force us to be casual.” Formality allows for distance between both individuals and groups, while informal- 3) Margaret Visser suggests that adults have one of two ity reduces this distance. We tend to live such private attitudes towards food. The first is “the fear of the lives in our separate houses and cars, moving in new” in which people are conservative in their choic- “anonymous, hurrying crowds,” that we often have to es, eating mainly what they ate growing up. The sec- seek out opportunities to meet other people and don’t ond is “the love of the new” in which people seek out have the luxury of time in order to be formal. Do you variety, trying new ways of cooking, new combinations agree with this argument? of tastes, and new ingredients. Why do you think the second pattern is now common? 9) Cleanliness is essential to social acceptance and mobil- ity in our culture. As an extension of this, Margaret 4) “Sharing is the foundation of civilized behavior; it is Visser suggests that our standards for cleanliness and what links individuals, families, villages, and tribes good manners could become more important to us together.” Do you agree that sharing is the foundation than our morals. For instance, at a cocktail party a of civilized behavior? known yet clean and well-dressed murderer or thief may receive a warmer welcome than a dirty yet inno- 5) Manners are usually taught in childhood and so cent tramp. Do you agree that there is a trend in our become effortless over time. Since manners are learned society to view the “unclean” and socially downtrod- behaviour, they often divide groups of people along den in such a suspicious and contemptuous light? cultural and class lines. Taking etiquette classes, including the proper manners during a business meal, is rising in popularity in Canada. Are the class walls in Canada permeable or are they more difficult to sur- mount than they seem?

6) In ancient Greek society, a symposium or drinking party with lively preplanned discussions of either seri- ous or trivial matters would follow dinner. Some of the ideas discussed were: “What is love,” “Why meat spoils more readily in moonlight than in sunlight,” and “Whether people of old did better with portions served to each, or people of today, who dine from a perennialcanada AUTHOR GUIDES ·MARGARET VISSER Section ·7