Maybe I should join Hannibal fandom.

[krait]

I was cruising past some Homestuck blogs on Tumblr, and apparently there's a meme (or maybe it was just an ask; I don't do Tumblr) about "common Homestuck headcanons you don't subscribe to" and the person discussed 'grubloaf/grubsauce is made from troll grubs' fanon. According to her, it felt too anvilicious; like being beaten over the head with how troll culture is WRONG and HORRIBLE, and also as though someone's trying too hard to gross people out.

This made me double-take and then giggle because it's a fanon I've encountered a lot and, while it's not my personal headcanon either, it never gave me the feeling that it was supposed to be a squick attempt or a commentary on troll culture! It's always weird to re-remember that my reactions to cannibalism aren't the norm.

Maybe it's my biology geek showing through (plenty of species eat their offspring/siblings!) or maybe it's just my pragmatic attitude to food (if it's tasty, eat it), but when I encounter the troll-grubs-as-food fanon I just sort of... accept it? It's not horrific to me, so it never felt like "let me show you how BAD trolls are!"; likewise, it's not gross to me, so it never struck me as "are you making gagging noises yet?" either. More or less I treat it the same as any other popular bit of fanon I don't personally subscribe to, e.g. neck gills on seadwellers. If asked, I'll explain why it's not my headcanon, but otherwise? So long as the author isn't egregiously fail!splaining it in-story and forcing me to remember why I don't believe it, I can fit it into my mental framework for the duration of the fic and not think about it.

In sum: "Grubloaf is made from grubs!" doesn't ping me in any moral spectrum or in my gastroesophageal reflexes, and sometimes I get reminded how weird that makes me. :D


(For non-Homestuck people: trolls are an alien species that hatch out as insect-like grubs, which later pupate into more humanoid shape to continue development. They seem to be a r-strategist species, at least insofar as requiring little parental care and reproducing - one infers - in large numbers, many of which never make it to their first pupation.)

Comments

[cheyinka]

Heh. That reminds me of Monster Loves You!; you (like all Monsters) start your life as a Morsel, and there is an event later on where you can choose to defend Morsels from a hungry snake or eat some Morsels yourself, and while defending them is better (because it doesn't cost you Kindness points), eating them isn't horribly wrong (or even not delicious).

I mean, a story where humans eat other humans is definitely going to ping my "these people are all horrible and awful even if they don't realize it" radar, and if it's described too-lavishly it'll definitely make me feel ill, but nonhumans? Especially nonhumans with r-type offspring numbers? Eh, whatever.

[seerofbread]

Interesting! I do sort of accept the (head)canon that grubloaf is pretty literal, but I also don't really have a huge inherent problem with cannibalism. (I mean you know, don't kill people, and be respectful of the bodies of the dead when possible. Otherwise, my biggest squick with it is probably my general meat/bodies/death problem.) I always figured that the intention was more or less a "wow trolls are awful/gross," I mean logically that's what it was meant for right? But I just did the "wow fascinating" and went with it? I mean, it seems likely. "Why do you care? They're dead, they're not using that body and I'm hungry." That sounds about right, to me; I've always figured that their moral system is sort of "human squick but really it's all relative" and usually gets justified with PRACTICALITY! and things.

(But food for thought: the jade caste is supposed to be sort of motherly right? And I mean what do trolls even know about parents, but also Mama's Cooking is probably a Universal Constant. (I mean smaller things are, after all.) And I just think that nobody on Alternia would think for a second that the secret ingredient to Jadeblood's Cooking is love. Everybody knows it's exactly the same but the ingredients are fresh.)

[novembermond]

Since it's Canon that Crayons are made from grubs the grubloaf Thing does not even make me twitch anymore. (Sorry bout the weird spelling am on mobile device with autocorrect to a diff language)
I do think Most fannibals object to cannibalism tho xD ( its a requiried warning on the kink meme afaik)

Well...

[ysabetwordsmith]

Aliens eating their young is a motif that appears occasionally in science fiction. Among the best renditions I've read is The Color of Distance.

[tropicsbear]

Yes, join the Hannibal fandom. Do it.