I think this is probably spot-on. Bourdain was more productive, creative, and charismatic than 99.9% of the people with his mindset... but he may have also been more authentic. Some worldviews require a measure of cruelty or delusion or hypocrisy to be sustainable. Perhaps Bourdain simply lacked certain traits to the requisite level.
This is the lesson that the culture denies: satisfying desires and taking vacations and earning money and dating beauties won't bring you any closer to happiness. Unfortunately, our entire civilization is now based upon that misapprehension. RIP AB
Bourdain was popular because his embodied disillusionment and search for authenticity are trademarks of the times. Nietzsche criticized Christianity for their preference of a fantastical Heaven, the “Hinterwelt”, as a means of transcending a reality which once reeked of death. The dystopian utopia of modernity has virtually replaced the need for heaven, yet people are more broken than ever before. Today, bliss is found in its opposite: we are born in an artificial simulacrum and seek to escape it in nature, the “Hinterlands”. This is why the modern Church rarely talks about the afterlife, because it doesn’t sell like it used to. The modern church needs to be completely immersed in reality as a selling point because most are not. Christians were instructed to be in the world but not of it; today, people are of the world but not in it.
As a huge Bourdain fan, I really enjoyed reading your points. All of them feel right, to be honest, although I reckon it'll take a while for the points to sink in. It's weirdly a bit tough to accept that these people that we look up to aren't perfect, but it's always a great mirror to hold up and see—why do we idolise these traits? Why do we not question the underlying principle? Does the heavy stylisation of Bourdain cover so much that is there to question? Thanks. Super thought-provoking post.
Nice article. I recently watched a (the?) documentary on his life while on a flight. I read Kitchen Confidential as a greenhorn line cook in my early 20s, just a few years after Bourdain’s book was published. I never watched his tv shows except in random bits here and there. While I found his book highly entertaining as someone totally new to the restaurant industry, I never found his show or his tv persona interesting or engaging. Which is interesting because I am a world-traveling wanderer who has spent years seeking The Authentic, and I love food. Now, as an Orthodox Christian, I can see and understand very clearly why his show nor his public persona ever attracted or interested me. Some of those reasons are mentioned and explicated tactfully in this article, and they reflect some of my thoughts exactly, while adding a few details I had not considered. Very nice. Thanks.
I do remember years later picking up my copy of Kitchen Confidential again, thumbing through it, and finding it far more jejune than I remembered, like reading a story written by a 20-year-old frat boy. Your comment about his insights being those of a 20-something was spot-on. He never grew up. Neither did I, and I am only now getting to the hard work of doing so. In that sense, I do have real empathy for him, and only wish he had had some semblance, some taste, and understanding of the Almighty Light of Christ we are called to live for and by and within, unto the defeat of all darkness and all cynicism and all regrets.
He saw no way out, and that is sad.
To quote Father Seraphim Rose, there is no way out of this world except thru Christ.
I think this is probably spot-on. Bourdain was more productive, creative, and charismatic than 99.9% of the people with his mindset... but he may have also been more authentic. Some worldviews require a measure of cruelty or delusion or hypocrisy to be sustainable. Perhaps Bourdain simply lacked certain traits to the requisite level.
This is the lesson that the culture denies: satisfying desires and taking vacations and earning money and dating beauties won't bring you any closer to happiness. Unfortunately, our entire civilization is now based upon that misapprehension. RIP AB
Bourdain was popular because his embodied disillusionment and search for authenticity are trademarks of the times. Nietzsche criticized Christianity for their preference of a fantastical Heaven, the “Hinterwelt”, as a means of transcending a reality which once reeked of death. The dystopian utopia of modernity has virtually replaced the need for heaven, yet people are more broken than ever before. Today, bliss is found in its opposite: we are born in an artificial simulacrum and seek to escape it in nature, the “Hinterlands”. This is why the modern Church rarely talks about the afterlife, because it doesn’t sell like it used to. The modern church needs to be completely immersed in reality as a selling point because most are not. Christians were instructed to be in the world but not of it; today, people are of the world but not in it.
As a huge Bourdain fan, I really enjoyed reading your points. All of them feel right, to be honest, although I reckon it'll take a while for the points to sink in. It's weirdly a bit tough to accept that these people that we look up to aren't perfect, but it's always a great mirror to hold up and see—why do we idolise these traits? Why do we not question the underlying principle? Does the heavy stylisation of Bourdain cover so much that is there to question? Thanks. Super thought-provoking post.
Nice article. I recently watched a (the?) documentary on his life while on a flight. I read Kitchen Confidential as a greenhorn line cook in my early 20s, just a few years after Bourdain’s book was published. I never watched his tv shows except in random bits here and there. While I found his book highly entertaining as someone totally new to the restaurant industry, I never found his show or his tv persona interesting or engaging. Which is interesting because I am a world-traveling wanderer who has spent years seeking The Authentic, and I love food. Now, as an Orthodox Christian, I can see and understand very clearly why his show nor his public persona ever attracted or interested me. Some of those reasons are mentioned and explicated tactfully in this article, and they reflect some of my thoughts exactly, while adding a few details I had not considered. Very nice. Thanks.
I do remember years later picking up my copy of Kitchen Confidential again, thumbing through it, and finding it far more jejune than I remembered, like reading a story written by a 20-year-old frat boy. Your comment about his insights being those of a 20-something was spot-on. He never grew up. Neither did I, and I am only now getting to the hard work of doing so. In that sense, I do have real empathy for him, and only wish he had had some semblance, some taste, and understanding of the Almighty Light of Christ we are called to live for and by and within, unto the defeat of all darkness and all cynicism and all regrets.
He saw no way out, and that is sad.
To quote Father Seraphim Rose, there is no way out of this world except thru Christ.