“Oscar Wilde is, as you likely know, a master of showing how the things we dismiss because they are superficial and hedonistic are actually essential to who we are. Cucumber sandwiches have long been a staple of the leisure class’ tea due to the fact that they were not filling, like a meal a laborer would need, but merely delicately delicious.”
(1983), in which Ponyboy has barbecue all over his face, but the image of Johnny and Ponyboy shoveling barbecue sandwiches into their mouths after a week of consuming nothing but baloney and cigarettes has always stayed with me. Is there anything more companionable than friends joyfully eating (in a Thunderbird) and making plans—even if those plans center on the fallout of a stabbing?”
