The Board of Acceptable Body Weight and a Decent Proposal (Instead of Jail) -- from Corpus Delicious, a Novel
Left: Lilith,
by John Collier (1892); Right: Another View of Lilithe
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What if we
lived in a country that eschewed eating solid food as a social construct?
What if restaurants and grocery stores did not exist?
What if eating were considered a private act, performed at home or in private
eating stations, never in full public view?
What if it were illegal to ingest any food except for a sustenance provided
and sanctioned by the state?
What if medicines, prescribed by government physicians, were administered
through the sanctioned sustenance?
What if “feel-good” drugs were doled out as rewards for staying slim,
exercising regularly, and informing on lawbreakers?
What if the government legislated acceptable Body Mass Index (BMI) as 25
and under, and fined citizens who disobeyed?
What if obesity were punishable by incarceration in fat farms or, worse
case scenario, punishable by public execution?
What if ingestables other than the sanctioned sustenance were considered
contraband and its possession were punishable by execution?
What social construct might replace the ritual of “breaking bread,” so to
speak?
Meet Lilithe Sylvia D’Adame, a good citizen of Corpus Luminous.
She has never eaten a slice of pecan pie.
Or toast, steak, oranges – or even a stale saltine cracker.
Lilithe, who prefers Lily, has never eaten anything at all.
In fact, she and her fellow citizens have never even heard of solid food
being ingested for survival.
In her country, citizens ingest Ahji, the national nutrient, or plain
water.
Anything else is contraband.
The people ingest nutrition through the oral cavity in total privacy,
even away from the eyes of their loved ones.
Only total perverts smuggle their daily allotment into containers and
later drink their Ahji in social settings. These people are considered a
scourge on society and are punished harshly if caught.
Taking in nutrition, a necessary evil required for basic survival, has
long been associated with fat and corpulence, and, therefore, is spoken of only
in hushed tones and never in polite company.
Children who yell “yuck you” or “fat you” find themselves in deep trouble
– and a mouth full of soap.
Thin is not only in.
It’s the law.
By the national standard, Lily, at a snug size 8 (though, at times, a
tight 10 or a loose 12), is considered overweight.
Fat, in fact.
She often runs afoul of the law and, at least once a month, must pay a
hefty fat tax – usually after the mandatory monthly weigh‑in, but sometimes mid‑month
if a food cop nabs her while being fat.
Lily can easily afford paying high fat taxes; she draws an excellent
salary as a Quality Control Engineer at the Nutrient Plant, the government
facility in charge of manufacturing Ahji and distributing it to the cleverly
masked Nutrient Stations around the country.
As an “Edge Person” with a good education and even better political
connections, Lily’s corpulent days are grudgingly tolerated – enough to avoid
serious jail time, although not enough for her to weasel out of her nuisance
tax.
Funny, though.
Despite her corpulent tendencies, Lily doesn’t ingest Ahji any more than
anyone else her age and sex.
In fact, Ahji, a highly‑controlled substance, is dispensed in exact
portions to the citizenry, determined by individual specifications based on
age, gender, job classification, caloric expenditure, metabolic rate, and body
build.
Trafficking in illegal Ahji carries an automatic death sentence, carried
out by public execution, which happens rarely.
Lily doesn’t remember it ever happening her lifetime.
According to horror stories handed down through generations, these
executions, extending over several months and even years of public display, are
ugly sights, the executed suffering slow, gruesome deaths caused by continuous
intravenous feeding of a special Super Octane Ahji, kept in reserve just for
this purpose.
At birth, citizens are implanted with a microchip, which, when scanned at
a Nutrient Station, dispenses a specific amount of Ahji: growing babies and
children receive more proportionate to body size, elderly people less.
Generally speaking, citizens receive between 1,000 and 3,000 calories per
day: heavy laborers on the high end, babies, children, and light workers on the
low end.
The National Nutritionist Board issues monthly guidelines to local boards
who then determine the specific need for their area Nutrient Stations, all Ahji
inventory based on continuous census tallies, updated several times a day. That
way, there is very little chance of illegal Ahji bypassing legal channels and
slipping into the Black Market, which, according to government sources, no
longer exists.
Someone Lily’s age (28) and sex (female) is typically allotted 1,800
calories per day. Not that she would crave any more than that, for Ahji has no
flavor or any other sensory pleasure attached to its ingestion; however, the
body still needs what it needs for survival, so, in that sense, Lily looks
forward to visiting the Nutrient Station six times a day, 300 calories per
feed.
If she misses a feed, her calories do not carry over, although she might
receive a small reward for her sacrifice.
If she were a hard laborer and male, she would be allotted between 2,500
and 3,000 calories per day. Lily isn’t envious; she loves her mostly sedentary
job and would rather be allotted fewer calories than having to toil in the
fields or on a road construction crew.
Today, Lily has been called before The Board of Acceptable Body Weight,
after a career‑climbing colleague has accused her of pilfering Ahji for
personal use.
Moreover, an inventory audit has indicated that a small batch has gone
missing in the past month, and, add to that, Lilly’s body has expanded to a not‑so‑loose
size 12, which in itself could have triggered an internal investigation, given
her sensitive position in the Nutrient Plant.
Standing before the Judge, Lily pleads “Not Guilty.”
Given that her accuser has failed to provide any concrete proof of Lily’s
involvement in the pilfering, the Judge dismisses her case, but issues this
caveat:
“If you are ever caught with
illegal Ahji, the consequences will be dire.”
“Yes, Your Honor,” Lily says as she picks up her papers and briefcase.
“Not so fast, young lady. I’m not finished with you yet.”
Lily stands at attention.
“Something is obviously going on here.”
“Sir?”
“I see standing before me an unacceptably fat person, suggesting that
something unusual is occurring here. I can only surmise that your caloric
intake has increased –”
“No, Your Honor! I swear!”
“Well, how do you explain your current condition? Are you pregnant?”
“No, Sir, I’m not.” Lily says, almost wishing it were so, which would be
no big deal in Corpus Luminous. In fact, most people no longer bother getting
married; for the past 200 years, fluidity, plurality, and casual relationships
have been sanctioned as acceptable and even desirable.
“Hum. What to do with you...”
“Your Honor? May I make a suggestion?”
“Yes, please do.”
“Cut my daily allotment to 1,500 calories.”
The judge rubs his handsome – yes, Lily has noticed – chin. “A most
unusual request...”
“I want to prove to the court that I’m telling the truth. If I were
stealing Ahji, why would I propose such a draconian punishment?”
“I’ll consider it.”
Lily takes a good look at the Judge. He is, perhaps, 45 to 50, maybe a
bit older than Lily normally likes in men, but not at all bad looking; muscular,
with rugged features and taut, brown skin, black hair with no gray, intelligent
blue eyes. Yes, this could work and even be enjoyable for both of them... “And a
Business Lunch. My treat.”
The Judge looks up from his papers and takes a close look at her. “I don’t
do Lunch with fatties...”
“I’m an Edge Person, Your Honor. There’s a big difference.”
“Debatable, perhaps, but, still, I find you oddly spunky and intriguing.”
He smiles and takes a deep breath. “Okay, then, I sentence you to a limit of
1,500 calories – no, 1,300 calories – for exactly one month and one Business Lunch
with me, at your expense, at a time and place to be determined by the Board.” He
lowers his hammer. “Dismissed!”
(Whoa! Let’s back up to the present,
where such a proposal would surely land Lily and the Judge in jail, for bribery
and sexual harassment respectively.
But try to imagine a
future in which the intake of solid food would is taboo and the act of
ingesting liquids and an extremely private act, not to be carried out in social
settings. How might the founding fathers and mothers of this culture compensate
for the lack of “breaking bread” with others?
Dear reader, you figure
it out. And, please! Don’t take “Lunch” so literally!)
To be continued...
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