"Bill Schutt, the author of 'Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History,' says that fictional plots about eating human flesh are as old as literature itself."

"Pointing to examples that include the man-eating Cyclops in Homer’s 'Odyssey,' he said the taboo has artistically been used to horrify for centuries. 'When you take something that is so horrible and put it through this lens of fictionalization,' he said, 'we get charged up about it, but we know we’re safe.' At least most of the time: Mr. Schutt only made it halfway through Hulu’s 'Fresh' before he had to stop the movie. 'It was almost too well done,' he said. [Photo caption: 'In 'Fresh,' a woman becomes charmed by a man she meets at a grocery store, whom she later discovers is involved in an underground human flesh trade.']"

From "A Taste for Cannibalism? A spate of recent stomach-churning books, TV shows and films suggests we’ve never looked so delicious — to one another" (NYT).