Blog Post #6 Consider the Lobster

Reading Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace was a fun and interesting read for me. It revolved around the Maine Lobster Festival, which is an annual event the hosts the largest lobster eating festival. It was interesting for me since I personally never attended any sort of food festival, so it was interesting to read someone’s perspective. It starts off by describing the festival and how many people attend. Wallace does a fantastic job at describing the atmosphere at this festival. After talking broadly about the lobster festival, Wallace specifically starts talking lobsters. I can see where Wallace wants to take this article, by talking about the lobsters, he starts expressing an emotional connection to the creatures, and demonstrating to the reader that lobsters are more than food. I never knew much about lobsters, so speaking in depth of their biology really put me in Wallace’s perspective on what he felt about the lobster festival. This piece of writing can be seen as a research genre. In every research writings I have read, the author chooses a stance on the topic and defends it. The topic that Wallace chooses is stated in the writing in the form of a question “Is it all right to boil a sentient creature alive just for our gustatory pleasure?... Is it all just a matter of individual choice?”. Those two questions are what focus the rest of Wallace’s writing by allowing him to talk about both sides and bring in research. I feel that Wallace challenges the research genre because he doesn’t take a clear stance on the topic. He instead makes the reader think and makes them decide personally about how they felt about the questions stated. I know this because it made me think about whether I think it’s right or wrong for animals to be tortured like this. The article kept me thinking since Wallace supported both sides, but in the end, I feel that Foster still had distaste for the festival practice.