"Consider the Lobster: And Other Essays" by David Foster Wallace

Do you have any idea how many lobsters die each year in order to satisfy our culinary cravings? I’ve no idea, but after reading the essay ‘Consider the Lobster,’ I have to say – too many.

Mr. Wallace approaches the issue from the stand point of our claw-y friends. Put yourself in the lobster’s position – here you are, backtracking through the bottom of New England’s coastline and suddenly you find yourself in the 100+ lbs pressure cooker of the annual Main Lobster Festival. You squirm, you fight, you die. But who are you? Are you just a tasty subject, one that is born to feed the gluttony of others, or are you more than that? Does anyone ever consider the fact that from a biological stand point, the lobster is a lot more of a complex system than the simple single cell organism of the ocean? If yes, then how come we avoid considering the consequences of the painful gastronomic preparations, that the Lobster MAY be feeling the unbearable pain of the boiling water?

There are other interesting essays in this book. Essays like the on the debauchery of American porn industry, on the depravity of selected few who parade their sexuality not only on TV, but on the Las Vegas strip ( I personally found this essay too overwhelming for my literary tastes).

…and there are more.

Overall, I recommend this book to all intellectual seekers of the contemporary issues that plague our nation. Here is a chance to satisfy your tastes for criticism, creativity and irony with a highly entertaining and skillfully constructed book.

- by Simon Cleveland