Knoji’s Book Nook – Your November Read

This month’s read is David Foster Wallace’s essay: Consider the Lobster

Author: David Foster Wallace

Genre: Discursive Essay

Release Date: 2004

Knoji ratings

For those who are still asking “what is a discursive?”: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

If you wanted to learn how to cook a lobster: ⭐️

For those who want their mind blown about food industry ethics: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The essay in one sentence

Consider the Lobster starts as a travel-food piece about the Maine Lobster Festival and slowly turns into an ethical interrogation of eating animals.

The full story

Ever thought about the history, politics and ethics that happens behind each plate of food we consume?

Wallace starts with describing the most intense, grotesque consumption of lobsters that happens at the Maine Lobster Festival each year, and proceeds to the process of boiling them alive. Wallace then draws on scientific data to prove that yes, lobsters do indeed have the capacity to feel pain, meaning boiling them alive has more ethical weight than we would like to recognise.

The essay then opens into moral philosophy: if lobsters do suffer, is it defensible to cause that suffering simply for our gustatory pleasure. He touches on utilitarianism, everyday hypocrisy, and how we avoid thinking about the unpleasant parts of our comforts.

Wallace never gives a neat answer to what the “ethical” way of consumption is. Instead he ends by turning the question back on the reader, suggesting that real adulthood might require facing the moral cost of our ordinary choices rather than looking away.

In the end you are faced with your own question to answer: what does not looking away mean for you?

Why should I read this?

• This is one of the most acclaimed discursive essays of our time – if you need to understand what a discursive should read and feel like – this is it.
• Writing has become so pithy and fast now that true reflection driving writing is a pleasure to engage with.
• Expand your worldview! Amaze yourself with how little you know about the history of lobsters and then share it with your family and friends to enjoy their reactions.
• It is free to access online, and a very fast read to stand in place of your doom scrolling tonight.

Where do I go from here?

Read the article and enjoy the accompanying pictures here: https://www.columbia.edu/~col8/lobsterarticle.pdf

Find out more about the Maine Lobster Festival in all its grotesque awesomeness: https://mainelobsterfestival.com/

If you are a seafood lover, maybe start putting a trip to Maine on your bucket list?