Sooooo… Binge-drinking. I’m honestly not 100% sure why I decided to go to this talk in the first place – I don’t drink, and I’m not particularly interested in the concept of alcohol. But I was definitely not disappointed: it was very intriguing!
We’ve talked about the ancient origins of binge-drinking, how it became widespread, and also talked about how binge-drinking is and was related to ideas of (toxic) masculinity. Those were really interesting topics to discuss, but the talk also went in other (very amusing) directions.
One of the things prof. Fontaine discussed was an ancient work advocating for moderation in alcohol consumption. To illustrate that, he then brought out his translation of a text describing an imaginary painting by Greek artist Apelles: “the Garden of Drunkenness”. In this garden, those who consume wine in moderation are treated to a banquet, and leave the place relaxed and happy. However, those who keep consuming alcohol afterwards are turned into animals, tortured, and enslaved. The descriptions are quite detailed and, as you can probably imagine, hearing and reading them was quite amusing. However, the good news is that you don’t have to imagine it! As we all read the text out loud, two students drew the garden on the board. And here is the final result:
the drawing was very cool!!
Same! I was not sure why I signed up for this Rose Cafe in particular but I was so glad that I did. Learning about the origins of binge-drinking was so interesting and the drawing was awesome. I’m impressed that they were able to fit everything on the whiteboard!