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Are We All Just New Victorians?
The cover article in the New York Observer tells the tale of “The New Victorians,” young couples who nest early, obsess over house renovation, buy into CSA farm shares, and throw dinner parties. “[R]ecent years have seen a breed of ambitious, twentysomething nesters settling in the city,” the article explains, “embracing the comforts of hearth and home with all the fervor of characters in Middlemarch.” Apparently, a fascination with food is a symptom of this behavior. “The current obsession with food preparation—I absolutely must have that Le Creuset casserole!—is totally New Victorian.”
The article may or may not be a bit of a stretch, and really only tangentially about cooking, but I’m probably not the first to think it’s ironic that I’m happily making jam while my grandmother was most likely thrilled to retire her canning pot and just buy the stuff at the store. People everywhere are turning the clock back, making their own bread, butter, and vinegar, rather than purchasing the (oftentimes very high quality) premade versions widely available.
Jennifer Jeffrey has had some interesting posts recently talking about the freedom that prepared foods have given us not to be chained in the kitchen, a slave to the canner, bread bowl, or butter churner. She’s right, and yet there are those of us who are choosing to spend what little free time we do have making bagels, canning, rendering our own lard. Call it New Victorianism or something else, but there’s an undeniable move by a younger generation toward home cooking, handicrafts, and gardening. It’s an engagement in domestic functions at a level that is simply not necessary in this day and age. Where does it all come from and what does it all mean?
I’d love to discuss this at length but I really must go. I have to pick some herbs from the garden, you see, to add to the bread I’m baking for my knitting group meeting this evening. But don’t worry, I churned the butter yesterday.
Posted by | Wednesday, July 18, 2007 at 4:20pm | 8 comments
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Funny. I guess this is one of those they recycle every few years. I remember a similar article from 10 or 15 years ago about some sort of fashionable sect of Luddites who used vintage dial phones and went around in bowler hats.
it is a strange phenomenon and I am glad it has been labeled. Ever since my early twenties i have been obsessed with food and food culture. i would say its a reflection of America's young and privileged leisure class.
bill - www.ilsvont.com
People trying to keep at least one corner of their lives from being taken over by the accelerating waves of hi-tech? (Hide the BlackBerry, pick up the blueberries.)
Ludd lives!
It's certainly a phenomenon, but what's more interesting is how trend and technology allow us to easily indulge our interests in "old tyme" food and cooking. Media (TV, the Web) make all those forgotten recipes and techniques - as well as millions of new ones - readily available to us. Example: I recently purchased a Wolf gas range and while researching the product online, I discovered that wolfappliance.com has an extensive video library of cooking recipes and techniques! I learned how to make Olive and Rosemary bread! Granted, the videos feature Wolf appliances, but it's still fascinating to see how far the cooking and wine craze has come.
I don't think this is odd at all. No matter what you call it, to me it's very similar to the sort of thing that led to the huge resurgance in knitting, sewing, crochet, all types of crafts in the last few years. How many of us have jobs where we actually produce anything tangible by the end of the day anymore? It can be very gratifying to have a hobby that actually ends up creating a useful item when one spends the day pushing around paper/pixels/what have you.
Good point, pixiecrinkle. It seems that people are aching to have some sort of "craft," particularly a creative outlet that can be shared with friends and family. I think that the resurgence of interest in cooking and gardening is a product of both this need to have a "craft" that can be shared with others, as well as heightened environmental consciousness.
As such, it's a bit disappointing that the New York Observer article on the "New Victorians" took such a snarky approach to describing young, domestic couples who happen to be more interested in a quiet life than sex in the city. The thing is, despite the negative tone of the article, I think some of these people are just settling down, end of story. I was a bit peeved that the article portrayed all these people with a particular set of interests as more interested in home remodeling than the war in Iraq. While I'm sure there are some New Vics who are perhaps overly content with their coupled-and-pregnant yuppiedom, I don't see any reason why someone can't be grounded, family-oriented, and socially conscious.
It's embarrassing how much this resembles me. To be fair I've been knitting, spinning, weaving, growing herbs, canning, & baking my own bread for years, but I've added the CSA and locally farmed meat (after losing my cat to that pet food debacle), and the Le Creuset comment really drove it home ... not to mention that I have 3 pints of cream in my fridge, waiting to be made into butter. Funny.
It's embarrassing how much this resembles me. To be fair I've been knitting, spinning, weaving, growing herbs, canning, & baking my own bread for years, but I've added the CSA and locally farmed meat (after losing my cat to that pet food debacle), and the Le Creuset comment really drove it home ... not to mention that I have 3 pints of cream in my fridge, waiting to be made into butter. Funny.