THE recent deaths of well-loved celebrities under their own hands sent a shockwave of confusion and shared regret among peoples across the world. Many were caused to ask - how is it that successful individuals, those who lived seemingly ideal and admirable lives with fulfilling careers, snuff themselves out from this world?
Anthony Bourdain’s recent passing was particularly something to take note of since, it turns out, he was a actually a global celebrity that no one, not even himself perhaps, did not know to be. It was a testament to his low-key but widespread global appeal where he might not have been your usual celebrity with legions of fans following him around but he was sure to be invited into the homes and dining table of any household in the world at any given time. Such was his sensitivity and respect for the most material and essential of all shared human activities, the practice of collective nourishment, that he treated everyone and everything he ate with, with equal respect as demonstrated in his television show.
The collective grief and bewilderment over his passing is no doubt magnified by our interconnected world made possible by the internet and worldwide cable television channels, particularly Bourdain’s own CNN. But I am inclined to gloss over taking an interest over Bourdain’s personal circumstances and motivations out of respect to the man. He decided to end it all and he does not owe any of us any explanation after all. That is a door that he shut with his death no matter how curious we are.
The spotlight is actually trained on us, the grieving audience, this time. What do our reactions to his death reveal about our latent attitudes to death and its corollary, life? What do we project about our notions of the ideal life and the correct death unto the seemingly senseless act?
If we were to distill the reaction of people, there is an over-arching sense of regret over what Bourdain’s life could have remained to be. There could have been many more countries he could have visited and more interesting food and culture he could have introduced to us. He could probed further the pains and victories of the Filipino diaspora through our food in a third country visit.
But isn’t it ungrateful and just purely and madly insatiable for an audience to want more than the 9 seasons of No Reservations and 11 seasons of Parts Unknown plus countless books and TV show appearances? In as much as Bourdain struggled to keep himself authentic throughout all those years before the public eye, it is clear that he was still a commodity in the greater context of the political economic system of paid global cable television. His network was after all the ideological mouthpiece of a certain brand of American democracy beamed and exported throughout the world as a showcase and his show played the role of humanizing the functions of such apparatus. The regret therefore is an appeal for him to continuously produce for this insatiable machine that only frame the world in certain lenses that in the end normalizes the contradictions, even with his occasional dissent.
But when he made the choice to stop this machine and relay the message that he has done enough with his singular act, why should it that we begrudge him? At best, our reactions betray our subliminal wishes for the perpetual twirl of the machine of fantasies. What rare fantasy did Bourdain offer? That the dining table and the food that we stuff into our mouths are equally accessible practices despite our class and cultural diversities and that we can access all these vicariously through his experience as retold by his camera. Apparently, we have consumed this TV fantasy with gusto and we yearn for more of this utopian offering with the cool, suave, and intelligent host as our guide.
How different really is Bourdain’s singular act to other challenges to the perpetual spinning of this fantasy machine? Not to glorify such abrupt taking of leave, but he was merely, as we say nowadays, just could be “thinking ahead”. We are all headed towards a singular direction. Bourdain just wanted to get off the train earlier than we want to, for reasons that he brought with him to the grave. All we can do is to bid him a proper farewell and thank him for the journey he and similar friends took with us. Till we meet again in that great shindig in the sky where all our curiosities and questions in this life may, or may never get answered.