
Consider the Lobster (2004) - markmassie
http://www.gourmet.com/magazine/2000s/2004/08/consider_the_lobster?printable=true
======
maroonblazer
I almost didn't read this when I bought the book as I have little-to-no
interest in Maine, lobsters or lobster festivals. The first few pages give you
the indication that that's all it's about.

Then, about mid-way through, it morphs into a marvelous meditation on the
nature of consciousness and the ethics of killing and eating animals.

God, I miss that guy.

~~~
alelefant
I actually found his talks of Maine and travel in general very interesting. I
really liked this from one of the footnotes:

"To be a mass tourist, for me, is to become a pure late-date American: alien,
ignorant, greedy for something you cannot ever have, disappointed in a way you
can never admit. It is to spoil, by way of sheer ontology, the very
unspoiledness you are there to experience. It is to impose yourself on places
that in all noneconomic ways would be better, realer, without you. It is, in
lines and gridlock and transaction after transaction, to confront a dimension
of yourself that is as inescapable as it is painful: As a tourist, you become
economically significant but existentially loathsome, an insect on a dead
thing."

~~~
waterlesscloud
"It is to impose yourself on places that in all noneconomic ways would be
better, realer, without you."

This is one of those sentences that sounds insightful, but in reality is
pretty surprisingly shallow.

The entire problem underlying such a viewpoint is a focus on yourself and not
the place. On your experience of the experience and not the experience itself.

If you stand at the edge of the Grand Canyon and all you can think about is
how it's spoiled by the presence of tour buses plowing through for half hour
visits, you're missing the significant part of the experience. Hell, just one
layer of thought deeper and you're thinking about the slow-moving timescale of
the canyon vs the almost instantaneous visits of the tourists.

The mass tourists are a source of perspective, and to treat them as some sort
of spoiler of the experience is in a way a denial of reality. In very real
ways, they're an essential part of the experience.

What is the Mona Lisa without an adoring (but very transitory) throng?

~~~
coldtea
Not every destination is a dead rock like the Grand Canyon. Tourists spoil
places with living cultures in all kinds of ways.

> _What is the Mona Lisa without an adoring (but very transitory) throng?_

An even greater work of art.

~~~
waterlesscloud
Right. Living cultures are alive, pretty much by definition. Which means they
change, they react, they interact. Indeed, that's how those cultures formed in
the first place.

No culture has ever formed in a vacuum.

Instead of some imaginary culture, one that you somehow think would be "more
real" (a total fallacy on several levels) without tourists, you have a real,
live, thriving culture in front of you, around you. In fact, as a mass
tourist, you're a part of it.

The more insightful take is not to bemoan that the culture isn't some platonic
ideal of itself locked in amber, but experience it for what it is- living,
breathing, changing around you. _Because_ of you.

Paris wouldn't be Paris without centuries of travelers and visitors behind it.

You're a part of that evolution, see that for what it is and enjoy it.

~~~
coldtea
> _The more insightful take is not to bemoan that the culture isn 't some
> platonic ideal of itself locked in amber, but experience it for what it is-
> living, breathing, changing around you. Because of you._

Only lots of cultures just die under tourism, and just remain as disneyland-
like versions of themselves.

You give the example of Paris, but Paris is a huge cosmopolitan city, and has
been so for centuries. It's not the kind of place that can't withstand a
tourist influx.

------
derrida
I read the first three sentences, and came back here to comment. Each is a
fabulous joke, and I had 3 lol moments, and I wonder if anybody else laughed
like I did?

I am a big fan of DFW on the basis of reading "The Pale King" alone, and
haven't read this before.

1\. "... the nerve stem of Maine's lobster industry." I full expect him to
exploit this imagery later :-)

2\. "... runs from Owl’s Head" Oh, God, already.

3\. "... whose summer traffic is, as you can imagine, unimaginable."

4\. "... Harbor Park, right along the water." Redundancy from an author
concerned with economy of expression... oh, this is deliberate! He's making
fun of the absurdity of town called Rockland. It's by the sea. Some sense of
absurdity is subtle.

5\. "... Camden by the sea, Rockland by the smell.” Economic status of
Rockland explained.

That's in the first 3 sentences... I hate to "spell it out" but hopefully I
can encourage people to read other stuff by DFW in so doing. The themes in the
Pale King could certainly help some people in technical communities make sense
of what it is they are doing.

OK, enough proselytizing, and literary-criticism-ism-ing back to reading
now... I won't be back.

~~~
tptacek
I missed several of these, because I listened to the audiobook (which I still
recommend, if only for the goofy way they handle footnotes). Thanks!

Track down DFW's _Tense Present_. You'll like it.

------
ajtulloch
"Shipping Out" [1] is another wonderful DFW essay, describing a week spent on
a cruise ship in the Caribbean.

[1]: [http://harpers.org/wp-
content/uploads/2008/09/HarpersMagazin...](http://harpers.org/wp-
content/uploads/2008/09/HarpersMagazine-1996-01-0007859.pdf)

~~~
maroonblazer
Also a great essay and, I believe, retitled for the collection it later was a
part of called "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again". A title which
perfectly captured how I thought about the first (and last) cruise I ever
took.

~~~
icelancer
Funny; the essay made me want to go a cruise even more! I still agree that it
is one of his finest essays. I rank it up there with The String Theory, which
is my personal favorite.

------
startupfounder
I am a 13th generation Mainer with family in the lobster business, both in
fishing and processing, and I have worked on the waters sailing on schooners
on the Maine coast as a young lad.

Maine is a state that lives off the land, fishing and forestry are huge
industries that provide thousands of jobs and sustain the state the other 10
months when tourism is dormant.

The lobster industry is the most sustainable fishery in the world, as others
are going extinct the lobster fishery is thriving. We come from the land and
we care for the animals and the environment.

Current technology used in processing lobster is orders of magnitude more
humane than described in Consider the Lobster [0] and other food processing
facilities pale in comparison (i'm looking at you whaling industry, fishing
industry, livestock industry, etc.

We now have the technology to kill lobster instantaneously while
simultaneously killing all bacteria and creating raw lobster meat that can be
shipped globally.

Personally I like the intimacy of being close to killing the animals we eat,
it's authentic, I think it gives acknowledgment to the animal's life at a
level that is not even close to supermarket bought meats. What other animal do
people kill in their own kitchen in SF or NYC? I think we need more of the
intimacy with our food that lobster provides. The question is would you like
to have animal butchering behind closed doors (because we know where that path
leads) or do we want an intimacy with our food, our farmers and our fishermen?

[0]
[http://www.wired.com/2010/11/st_crush_lobsters/](http://www.wired.com/2010/11/st_crush_lobsters/)

~~~
socksy
"Personally I like the intimacy of being close to killing the animals we eat,
it's authentic"

This is such an bizarre statement. Something like "I like the intimacy of
being close to [a horrendous thing]".

I mean I agree that it's better done outwith closed doors, but really it seems
the reason that everyone is OK with it is because lobsters aren't as cute (or
at least as conducive to being empathized with) as calves, chicks and lambs.
Which doesn't seem like a logical way to choose what we kill.

------
manachar
"I am also concerned not to come off as shrill or preachy when what I really
am is confused."

The older I get the more I realize this seems to be the appropriate response
to the world. In Zen circles this approaches the idea of the Beginner's Mind,
and seems to be an incredibly powerful way to approach a contentious topic.

~~~
dewarrn1
DFW's commencement speech at Kenyon is another terrific example:

[http://web.archive.org/web/20080213082423/http://www.margina...](http://web.archive.org/web/20080213082423/http://www.marginalia.org/dfw_kenyon_commencement.html)

------
Jun8
My first exposure to DFW was his essay "The Big Red Son"
([http://social.rollins.edu/wpsites/sexwarandplague/files/2012...](http://social.rollins.edu/wpsites/sexwarandplague/files/2012/07/DF-
Wallace-Big-Red-Son.pdf)) and, boy, what an experience that was! I think that
essay is even better than "Consider the Lobster".

And if haven't already done so, read his commencement speech to Kenyon College
class of 2005, or better listen to it ([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CrOL-
ydFMI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CrOL-ydFMI)) (Later published as a
book titled _This is Water_ ). It's a life-enhancing experience.

------
paulgb
This is the title essay to an excellent book by DFW (RIP)

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consider_the_Lobster](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consider_the_Lobster)

------
kiyoto
For those that dislike paginating through a longform (especially not for DFW
whose copious endnotes is part of his literary form), here is a single-page
URL:
[http://www.gourmet.com/magazine/2000s/2004/08/consider_the_l...](http://www.gourmet.com/magazine/2000s/2004/08/consider_the_lobster?currentPage=all)

------
dpieri
Consider The Lobster was my first exposure to DFW. The first time I heard it I
thought this guy was crazy and didn't take it seriously. After a while I
realized that DFW is one of the best authors that ever lived.

His writing is incredibly dense so you have to space it out and be very
focused when you read, but its worth it.

I'd recommend all the essays in "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again",
including this one about David Lynch
[http://www.lynchnet.com/lh/lhpremiere.html](http://www.lynchnet.com/lh/lhpremiere.html)

His review of Terminator II is probably the most cerebral essay about an
action movie ever written: [https://www.scribd.com/doc/14994144/David-Foster-
Wallace-F-X...](https://www.scribd.com/doc/14994144/David-Foster-Wallace-F-X-
Porn)

------
Pxtl
I'd read this essay before but I had no idea it was David foster Wallace.

------
cellis
Amazingly well written and well argued. It's worth the time to turn off your
tldr impulse and read this piece.

------
pyromine
Interestingly I just has to read this a week or two ago, and I really did find
it to be a great essay. My professor used this as a perfect example of an
essay crafted to bring together both information and experience in an engaging
piece.

------
brianbreslin
Also worth reading [http://priceonomics.com/the-invention-of-the-chilean-sea-
bas...](http://priceonomics.com/the-invention-of-the-chilean-sea-bass/)

------
chrisdevereux
While we're posting DFW links:
[http://stanford.edu/~sdmiller/octo/files/GoodOldNeon.pdf](http://stanford.edu/~sdmiller/octo/files/GoodOldNeon.pdf)

Deals with the concept of feeling like a fraud (which seems to come up here a
lot), amongst other things. Occasionally hilarious, often sad, then it gets
awesome towards the end, although I won't spoil it.

------
reporter
This is a great site for audio recording of his writing and interviews:
[http://www.dfwaudioproject.org/](http://www.dfwaudioproject.org/)

------
hyp0
one page
[http://www.gourmet.com/magazine/2000s/2004/08/consider_the_l...](http://www.gourmet.com/magazine/2000s/2004/08/consider_the_lobster?printable=true)

On mobile, I couldn't see the _page 1 of 10_ , too far on the RHS, and
wondered at the comments here...

~~~
dang
Thanks. Changed.

------
eevilspock
Consider the Lilly: [http://youtu.be/9czBBKof7Yo](http://youtu.be/9czBBKof7Yo)

