"Raw Oysters and Whiskey"
I was writing a scene this morning in which a character is offered a plate of raw oysters. She politely says, “No thank you,” while trying not to look squeamish. The hostess does not take offense, but says instead, “I understand. Raw oysters are an acquired taste.”
As I wrote those words, I thought of the many times I have heard or read that phrase, and it never really made me stop and think – until now.
“Acquired taste” refers to things that, upon first try, are distasteful (whether food, drink tobacco, or even movies and books). And so, if my take on this phrase is accurate, we must work on acquiring a taste for such things until we enjoy them. I think back over the various “acquired tastes” I have been offered in my life (and for which I never acquired, well, a taste) – tobacco, tequila, raw clams, pork rinds, caviar, sushi, steak and kidney pie – and I can point to a few that I actually sampled and then said, “No thank you” to a second helping. I once even heard the phrase applied to literature. I attempted to read a novel by Thomas Pynchon and found it laborious. A friend of mine, who was a big Pynchon fan, said, “Not everyone likes him. He’s an acquired taste.”
So my question is: since an item of “acquired taste” is something that, by definition, revolts us at first introduction, why do we keep experiencing it until we like it? And how do we decide which difficult or obnoxious thing we are going to stick with until we like it? (Okay, cigarettes I kind of understand because of youthful peer pressure and the need to look cool, so one perseveres after the first lung-burning puff). But if that first taste of chicken livers makes you curl your lip, what makes you then decide that you would like to cultivate a fondness for those livers and so you will keep eating them until you do?
I guess it is because of these questions that I have never written a character who is attempting to acquire a taste for something she or he did not initially like. The problem stems from motivation. You never have a character act without motive, otherwise he or she is acting in a vacuum and your story won’t be believable. I am not even sure how I would go about such a character development and make it believable. Mary Jane is offered a raw oyster, she tastes it, gags, pulls a face, sputters and thinks: How awful. And then what? She thinks: I would love to develop a passion for raw oysters. So she asks the hostess for seconds?
However, as I am always up for a challenge, especially in writing, I believe I will attempt such a character trait in the book I am currently working on. After all, it takes place in Australia, and they eat Vegemite, don’t they?
