Details in Reading

While reading Oscar Wilde's The Critic as Artist again, I started paying attention to another layer of detail in the text. This is normal upon multiple readings but since the text largely presents an argument in dialogue form between confident Gilbert and bewildered Ernest, I surprised myself by approaching it as a more literary text where character details can illuminate what is said, where monologues are not simply a dissemination of ideas but also a stylistic choice that provides subtler forms of the ideas on display.

As such, at the beginning of part 2, I noticed–for the first time, truly, though I have now read this four times or so–that Gilbert and Ernest have just finished a fine meal of ortolans before now continuing with their conversation on criticism. This second half will focus on the morality of art and criticism, with Gilbert judging that all art is immoral and important for that reason. But back to ortolans...

Ortolans, I discovered, are a rare, small songbird from France that have been a delicacy along the lines of foie gras. The birds are captured alive and kept in small dark boxes, with some descriptions stating that their eyes are to be removed. The darkness leads them to gorge themselves on the food provided: millet, grapes and figs. When they are three to four times their natural size, they are drowned in Armagnac. They are cooked in an oven for no more than six to eight minutes. But it is the eating of them that strikes the most repulsive picture.

First, apparently, you would cover your head with a linen napkin so that none of the aromas fade in the air. You then place the bird, whole, on your tongue with the head hanging out between your lips. This allows the fat from the bird to flow down your throat while also allowing the heat to disperse. Then the diner is supposed to bite off the head, discard and take as long as fifteen minutes to delicately chew the whole bird, bones, organs, all.

Picture taken from the cookingwithlittlebuddy.com blog, with thanks for his information on Anthony Bourdain's dinner

The French outlawed ortolans in 1999, because they are an endangered species, not because the French are skittish about their cuisine. The French ex-President, François Mitterand, ordered ortolans (as well as foie gras and oysters) as a part of his last feast in the week before he died; he ate two of them. I gather from the manner by which they are prepared and eaten that I am to understand how truly decadent Gilbert is in his aesthetic pleasures, his moral sense ignored in favor of bountiful sensual experiences. Nothing else in Wilde's text shows Gilbert's decadence so strongly, though his ideas are certainly suggestive, all of which makes this small feast, as it turns out, an important detail to reading the ideology underlying this Wilde text. So be it, I still think the text is wonderful and agree with large parts of it–to be discussed at another time.

While researching the ortolans, I came across this website: http://www.coldbacon.com/food/ortolan.html and can not identify the picture, which is not captioned or referenced. I can not find it any of my Miró searches and would welcome any information about this funny looking bird in the painting.