Consider The Lobster

David Foster Wallace is one the brightest young American authors around. His essays and fiction are self-consciously postmodern, but also accessible in the sense that he breathes life into his writing by exposing his own personality through sardonic and often ironic observations. I think it was telling that in an episode of Entourage last year, Ari Gold’s wife is reading Consider The Lobster, which shows that she’s a smart, hip with-it wife and mother, not a trophy wife, but a shrewd partner to compliment the ambitious Ari Gold. I have read a couple of the pieces before; the ones that first appeared in Harper’s-“Some Remarks on Kafka’s Funniness from Which Probably Not Enough Has Been Removed” and “Authority and American Usage.” In particular, I remember the “American Usage” essay mainly due to his humorous and copious footnotes, a sort of mock academic style, which he uses elsewhere in the book, most prominently in ”The Big Red Son” and “Consider the Lobster.” In another essay, “The Host,” he uses a sort of idea map instead of footnotes with arrows pointing to the asides and digressions that he has made. In essays like “The Big Red Son” he writes about writing about the Adult Video News Awards. So he examines the industry, questions the misogyny of many of the films, and gives us a look at some of the lesser producers and actors. However, we learn more about the industry writers with names like Dick Filth, the industry lingo, as well as the in and outs of the business-no pun intended. This sort of postmodern analytic overview reporting can be seen in other essays like “Up Simba” (which is about covering the McCain campaign, as well as “The Host” about a right wing talk show host and the conservative talk radio phenomena. It makes you wonder what the editor that hired DFW thought once they relieved these huge sprawling essays that were probably tangentially about what they were hoping for, thus the impetus for reprinting the essays as the writer had intended them to read. This is especially true of “Consider the Lobster” written for Gourmet magazine. The central question asks whether or not it cruel to cook lobsters alive and then eat them. It seems to be an obvious question, but one that most diners and, perhaps, readers would rather not consider. I also found the book review "How Tracy Austin Broke My Heart" informative in how he deconstructs the whole genre of sports biographies by focusin onthsi particualr title to expose theri failure in presenting reality of what it is like to be a world class athlete. This particualr example has personal significance for the former tennis crazy DFW. All in all, it is an entertaining, though-provoking, painstakingly researched, and intelligently written collection of essays. DFW seems almost to resort to anthropologist like attention to details and minutiae that is compelling and informs his often-sardonic insights on the assorted topics.

Comments

[Eric]

I bought this, but I haven't gotten to it yet. I loved his other book of essays, "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again," and I'm looking forward to reading this one. I'm almost done with Michael Lewis' follow-up to Moneyball. It's called The Blind Side, and it's about football. Again, Lewis is in top form. It's a great read; I highly recommend it.

[MC]

I'd like to eventually read The Blind Side as well, and I think you'll enjoy Consider The Lobster.