Recently I read a news item (in a real newspaper, not the Weekly World News) about a man arrested for cannibalism. Allegedly, this guy had placed an ad in some publication expressing his desire to meet somebody whose fantasy was to be devoured–for the purpose of fulfilling the fantasy. Somebody actually answered the ad. Apparently, the two worked out their terms to mutual satisfaction, for in due course the respondent was indelicately dispatched to the hereafter, and his earthly remains were then converted into the ultimate low-carb entree. My question is not “What kind of twist would answer such a classified?” What I’d like to know is, is the fantasy of being eaten a common enough aberration to constitute a psychologically recognized pathology? –David English, Somerville, Massachusetts
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This is a subject on which you’ll thank me not to tarry, David. However, while the cannibalism case you cite has been abundantly, not to say sensationally, reported in the European media, it’s received scant attention in the U.S., and one feels the citizenry ought to know. No doubt the cannibal you have in mind–there can’t be two like this–is Armin Meiwes of Rotenburg, Germany. A seemingly mild-mannered computer technician by day, Meiwes prowled Internet chat rooms and bulletin boards in his off hours looking for people to eat. Sick, sure, but lots of people are sick. What elevates Meiwes’s story out of the ordinary is that he found a volunteer.
How prevalent are interests of this sort? Meiwes claimed there were 800 cannibal fetishists in Germany alone, but in the age of the Internet we needn’t leave it at that. Vore (short for vorarephilia) is a code word for a sexual interest in things eating other things. The things in question aren’t necessarily human, but I figured we could at least stake out the broad dimensions of the issue. Googling vore brought up 995,000 hits. Jeepers, I thought, I’m surrounded! Closer examination, however, showed that what I’m surrounded by may not be deviants but Swedes. (Vore seems to be a common word in several Scandinavian languages.) Trying another tack, I typed in cannibal fetish: 24,800 hits, an impressive number, to my mind, because it’s so plausible. The easily affronted may think this proves it: the Internet is the tool of Satan. Not at all; surely the twists have always been with us. The Net just makes it easier for two of similar proclivities to get together alone.
