(Image my own)
I discovered in researching Autolysis, that this is a reason for hanging game birds, as found in the Flemish Game Painting I’ve previously looked at. The process is used to ‘tenderise the meat’. So that which gives the meat its flavour, is basically ‘self digestion’. Which kinda puts me off that type of meat, consuming partial decomposed/digested food.
But this then loops back language and structure. I can’t quiet pin it down, but there is a commonality of impossibility/contradictory duality - non binary. Death is destructive and generative at the same time. The centre of a structure can have no natural locus but exists outside of itself - denying structure it’s structure. Deconstruction cannot escape it’s own deconstruction????
”Autolysis - a process of self-digestion, when the enzymes naturally present in what had been a living organism proceed, after the death of the organism, to break down its cells or tissues. For example, when game birds are hung to tenderize them, autolysis of the connective tissues occurs. This is most relevant to crustacea (crab, lobster, and prawns) where the enzymes in their ‘liver’ or midgut gland flood ‘the muscle tissue and break it down into a mush’ (McGee, 2004) if they die before they are cooked.” The Oxford Companion to Food https://search-credoreference-com.arts.idm.oclc.org/content/title/oupof?tab=contents