Cook Book

cook·book noun \'kukbuk\ : a book of recipes : a book of directions explaining how to prepare and cook various kinds of food The KCC library catalogue records over 300 cookery books in its collection. In response to the simple directions on its cover, ‘Cook Book’, this withdrawn book has been cooked. Burning a cookery book can be seen as a humorous act. Under other circumstances book burning represents a dangerous cultural act. I am interested in the literal and metaphorical implications of the burning of books. “Book burning (also biblioclasm or libricide) refers to the ritual destruction by fire of books or other written materials. The burning of books represents an element of censorship and is generally motivated by moral, religious, or political objections to the materials in question. Book burning can be emblematic of harsh and oppressive regimes seeking to censor or silence aspects of a nation's culture. In some cases the works destroyed are irreplaceable and their burning constitutes a severe loss to cultural heritage. Book burning can be an act of contempt for the book's contents or author, and the act is intended to draw wider public attention to this opinion. The symbolism of flames is plain. For Andrew Motion, former poet laureate, 'books are little encapsulations of human effort and wisdom and, I suppose, of our sense of history. So to burn one of any kind, and certainly one that is a representation of a culture and set of beliefs, is to appear to consign it to the flames of eternal damnation.' Book-burning, he says, is first and foremost a monumental 'manifestation of intolerance. It's the conflation of what ought to be nuanced views into one, hate-filled act' " (Henley 2012). The Vicar’s Wife’s Cook Book by Elisa Beynon (2009), Fourth Estate. Alteration title ‘Cook Book’, by J.Mecoli.