Pryia Sharma-Rag & Bone

 "I am a person, not a piece of meat."

This was quite the captivating tale. It really was a wonderful showcase for a bleak and brutal future where the rich continue to get richer and with important everyday resources like food, water, and other everyday necessities we take for granted dwindling every day, new alternatives have arisen in their place. Since food is scarce now since all of the animals have been eaten up and there is none left to reproduce, man has resorted to literally eating itself.

This is a horrible image in it's own right but the fact that in Sharma's future present in Rag & Bone that only the wealthy get the prime cuts? That's even more horrifying. Probably because it hits close to home. If this future were to occur? The wealthy would be the ones to get the choice cuts of meat. The lower and middle class citizens would be lucky to get the scraps. These wealthy and powerful cannibals are cleverly named The Peels. This quote from the story really makes my skin crawl and emphasizes the idea of the wealthy getting the best meat in town.

"The Peels keep people in tanks like fish, cutting off the bits they want."

The author could have chosen to actually show this horrific scene of events in greater detail, but instead went the more subtle route and that makes the story twice as effective. It allows the reader to use their imagination to fill in the blanks. The whole story is written in a very subtle tone. Which makes the gross subject matter have even more impact that it would if it was written as a blood and guts tale.

It even does a great job speaking to us about what it truly means to be human. Are we just nothing but flesh and bone? Is there more to us than that? In this future one's soul or talents is not important or valuable. The most valuable commodity is the flesh, making man and woman into nothing but pieces of meat ready for the slaughterhouse. The very idea of that is unsettling and this story pulls no punches with it's approach. Even in the scene where Tom our lead is attacked after his tryst with Sally, the way it is portrayed is not unlike a description of a cow being slaughtered. Jessup is stabbed in the neck, then he is hit over the head with a blunt object much like a cow would be, and then Tom even asks Sally to help him "Hold his legs." which is very similar to the slaughter of a cow as well.

Even the somber ending fits the story like a glove. Rag and Bone's future is a dystopian nightmare just like any other futuristic night terror but without the high tech skyscrapers and the feel good pills. This story is not bright in any way. There is no brightness to be found here and that really makes the piece stand out. The sense of overwhelming dread that permeates throughout the story is quite telling and sticks with you long after reading it.

Another great example of the rich feeding on the poor is the excellent underrated horror flick, Society(1989) directed by Brian Yuzna. Here is a peek at the film's unforgettable and disturbing ending.