Bud and Blud

In Nice to Eat With You, Thomas C Foster shares his views on how food and meals are used symbolically in literature. He says food or feast of any kind symbolizes camaraderie, making this a form of communion. Communion not only stands for religious affiliation but also sexual attraction or two opposite sides coming to an agreement.
When sex is not always appropriate, the film director or author uses food as a way to address the sexual attraction indirectly. "...chomping, gnawing, sucking on bones, licking fingers; a more leering, slurping, groaning, and, in short, sexual meal has never been consumed...it constitutes a shared experience" (Foster 9). By saying this, he is explaining how communion does not have to be made necessarily with food. Food can be replaced with a joint, for example. "Passing a joint doesn't quite resemble the wafer and the chalice, does it?...here is a substance they take into their bodies in a shared, almost ritualistic experience" (Foster 3). This act says how you are with the other person, you are sharing the moment with the person, and you feel a bond of community with the person.

Then comes a transition from Nice to Eat With You to Nice to Eat You in How to Read Literature Like a Professor. Foster explains how there are literal acts of vampirism. "A nasty old man, attractive but evil, violates young women, leaves his mark on them, steals their innocence...and leaves them helpless followers in his sin" (Foster 16). This was literal vampirism, as these pedophiliac men are stealing young women's virginities. Foster also includes symbolic acts of vampirism, and this would include selfishness, exploitation, refusal to respect the bodies of other people, using people to get what you want, and placing your own desires--even the ugly ones--above the needs of other people. "Because there was so much the Victorians couldn't write about directly, chiefly sex or sexuality, they found ways of transforming those taboo subjects and issues into other forms" (Foster 17).