Disgusting book review

Yes, dear reader, there really is a National Rotten Sneaker Contest, held every year in Montpelier VT. This is one of the judges, Rachel Herz -- no relation to Dick. This is her website. Dr. Herz is the author of That's Disgusting (W.W. Norton & Co. Ltd., 2012).

The title of the good doctor's latest book -- an earlier opus is called The Scent of Desire -- caught my eye, so I picked it up to see if my name was spelled correctly. Then I noticed the subtitle: Unraveling the Mysteries of Repulsion.

That's right. The book is about stuff that makes us sick, literally. It's all about disgust, and how our sense of disgust permeates everything we do: what we eat, who we talk to, even who we sleep with.

To quote from the preface, That's Disgusting "explores what disgust is, [and] how, where and why it is elicited psychologically and neurologically, what its dark sides are, our perverse attraction to it, and its consequences for us as individuals and for our society."

But don't let the rather clinical-sounding abstract put you off. I'm finding the book hugely funny, and I've only just begun reading it. The first chapter is called "Let's Eat", and presents an unsavoury soupçon of truly yucky foods and beverages, most of them fermented, i.e. rotten. I've eaten a couple of the items she describes, such as injera. However, I've never ingested the Icelandic hakarl, which celebrity chef called "the single worst, most disgusting, and terrible tasting thing" he had ever eaten. Nor will I get anywhere near casu marzu, a Sardinian cheese about which the less said the better.

Other chapters deal with germs, disgusting people, horror shows, and (of course) "Lust and Disgust". That one explains why necrophilia has been alluded to (but not shown) more than once on Family Guy, and why the Japanese (and others) seem to enjoy the sight of young ladies exchanging bodily excretions.

Fittingly, "Lust and Disgust" is followed by chapters on "Law and Order" and "Disgust Lessons". There are copious notes and a few illustrations -- mercifully in black and white only. And there's a good index. I checked to see if Paris Hilton or Newt Gingrich were mentioned, but they weren't -- although William Miller was included.

Be sure to read That's Disgusting... but not too soon before or after eating.