why is literary horror obsessed with cannibalism?
the revenge-seeking, trauma-soaked, largely unlikable female protagonist achieves enlightenment through consuming human flesh.
i'm growing tired of seeing the same idea rehashed with different cover art. bite the hand that feeds, consume what wants to consume you...the message is clear: mistreated, lonely, or otherwise unusual woman who lives on the fringes of society finds comfort in eating men, or a specific man, or a specific body part of a specific man.
i don't think it's an inherently bad motif. i think cannibalism can be gruesome and intensely human and sometimes even sexy (in literature only, i mean). there is a kind of eroticism to (literally) eating someone. cannibalism can be a symbol of dominance, of reclaiming power, of taking away someone's identity. it can do all of these things, but perhaps not when it litters the aisles of Barnes and Noble.
maybe i'm wrong. maybe the overproduction, overcommodification, and oversaturation of a literary element does not in fact lessen its impact. maybe the popularity of cannibalist literature makes it all the more meaningful - if everyone is writing about it, certainly it must be saying something relevant about society.
i don't know. i do know that i don't want to read another book about someone getting off on eating a toe.