Despising all that they hold dear

Jonathon Green

KOSHER, A HEBREW TERM meaning acceptable according to the Jewish dietary laws, and thence slanged as honest, legitimate, pure and safe is blessed with an antonym: treyf, in Hebrew “flesh torn by beasts” and literally and figuratively, anything but kosher. The cultural critic Jonathan Meades, keen like many who master one gift to attempt another, has a sideline in art: and in a usage not prominent in the rabbinical lexis, he calls these pieces treyfs. These texts, with or without visuals and to his and their unalloyed credit, are treyfs, too. Milk embraces meat, the raw and cooked run hand in hand, cud is left unchewed and hooves are resolutely uncloven. And blood: there is much blood and nary a shochet in view. Kosher? You should be so unlucky. Meades’…

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The Critic (Digital) - 1 Issue, June 2021

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