Consider the Lobster
Encyclopedia
Consider the Lobster and Other Essays (2005) is a collection of essays by novelist David Foster Wallace
. It is also the title of one of the essays, which was published in Gourmet Magazine in 2004.
"Big Red Son"
"Certainly the End of Something or Other, One Would Sort of Have to Think"
"Some Remarks on Kafka's Funniness from Which Probably Not Enough Has Been Removed"
"Authority and American Usage"
"The View from Mrs. Thompson's"
"How Tracy Austin
Broke My Heart"
"Up, Simba"
"Consider the Lobster"
"Joseph Frank's Dostoevsky"
"Host"
The collection was published on 13 December 2005.
reported the book had an average score of 68 out of 100, based on 15 reviews.
David Foster Wallace
David Foster Wallace was an American author of novels, essays, and short stories, and a professor at Pomona College in Claremont, California...
. It is also the title of one of the essays, which was published in Gourmet Magazine in 2004.
Content
The entire list of essays is as follows:"Big Red Son"
- Wallace's account of his visit to the AVN AwardsAVN AwardsThe AVN Awards are movie awards sponsored and presented by the American adult video industry trade magazine AVN to honor exceptional performance in various aspects of the creation and marketing of American pornographic movies. They are called the "Oscars of porn"...
, an event that has been dubbed the Academy Awards of pornographic film, and its associated ExpoAVN Adult Entertainment ExpoThe AVN Adult Entertainment Expo is a trade show held each January in Las Vegas, Nevada, and is sponsored by the Adult Video News Magazine . The 2010 AVN Awards show was held during the Expo at the nearby Palms Casino Resort. The AEE is the largest pornography industry trade show in the United...
(originally published in PremierePremiere (magazine)Premiere was an American and New York City-based film magazine published by Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., published between the years 1987 and 2007. The original version of the magazine, Première , was started in France in 1976 and is still being published there.-History:The magazine originally...
as "Neither Adult Nor Entertainment" under the pseudonyms Willem R. deGroot and Matt Rundlet)
"Certainly the End of Something or Other, One Would Sort of Have to Think"
- A review of John UpdikeJohn UpdikeJohn Hoyer Updike was an American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic....
's Toward the End of TimeToward the end of timeToward the End of Time is a novel by John Updike, published in 1997. It is the author's eighteenth novel.-Plot summary:Set in New England, like many of his novels, Toward the End of Time portrays a world in which the Chinese and the Americans have attacked one another with nuclear weapons. The...
(originally published in the New York ObserverNew York ObserverThe New York Observer is a weekly newspaper first published in New York City on September 22, 1987, by Arthur L. Carter, a very successful former investment banker with publishing interests. The Observer focuses on the city's culture, real estate, the media, politics and the entertainment and...
)
"Some Remarks on Kafka's Funniness from Which Probably Not Enough Has Been Removed"
- (originally published in Harper's)
"Authority and American Usage"
- A 62-page review of Bryan A. GarnerBryan A. GarnerBryan A. Garner is a U.S. lawyer, lexicographer, and teacher who has written several books about English usage and style, including Garner's Modern American Usage. He is the editor in chief of all current editions of Black's Law Dictionary...
's A Dictionary of Modern American Usage. Wallace applies George OrwellGeorge OrwellEric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
's "Politics and the English LanguagePolitics and the English Language"Politics and the English Language" is an essay by George Orwell criticizing "ugly and inaccurate" contemporary written English.Orwell said that political prose was formed "to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." Orwell believed...
" to grammar and the conditions of class and power in millennial American communication. In addition to examining such seemingly technical ideas as descriptive linguisticsDescriptive linguisticsIn the study of language, description, or descriptive linguistics, is the work of objectively analyzing and describing how language is spoken by a group of people in a speech community...
versus prescriptive grammar, Wallace digresses to discuss the legitimacy of EbonicsAfrican American Vernacular EnglishAfrican American Vernacular English —also called African American English; less precisely Black English, Black Vernacular, Black English Vernacular , or Black Vernacular English —is an African American variety of American English...
as opposed to "white male" standard English. (originally published in Harper's as "Tense Present: Democracy, English and Wars over Usage")http://instruct.westvalley.edu/lafave/DFW_present_tense.html
"The View from Mrs. Thompson's"
- Wallace's account of September 11th, 2001 as he experienced it in his hometown of BloomingtonBloomington, IllinoisBloomington is a city in McLean County, Illinois, United States and the county seat. It is adjacent to Normal, Illinois, and is the more populous of the two principal municipalities of the Bloomington-Normal metropolitan area...
, IllinoisIllinoisIllinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, where he taught English at Illinois State UniversityIllinois State UniversityIllinois State University , founded in 1857, is the oldest public university in Illinois; it is located in the town of Normal. ISU is considered a "national university" that grants a variety of doctoral degrees and strongly emphasizes research; it is also recognized as one of the top ten largest...
. To the surprise of many of his readers, Wallace refers to some of his neighbors as fellow church members (originally published in Rolling StoneRolling StoneRolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
)
"How Tracy Austin
Tracy Austin
Tracy Ann Austin Holt is a former World No. 1 female professional tennis player from the United States who won the women's singles title at the US Open in 1979 and 1981 and the mixed doubles title at Wimbledon in 1980, before a series of injuries cut her career short.-To 1980:Austin defeated...
Broke My Heart"
- A (pained and scathing) review of tennis star Tracy Austin's autobiography, extending into a general critique of the mass-produced ghostwritten sports autobiographies then flooding the market (originally published in the Philadelphia Inquirer)
"Up, Simba"
- Wallace writes about John McCainJohn McCainJohn Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
's 2000 presidential campaignJohn McCain presidential campaign, 2000John McCain, the United States Senator from Arizona, launched his first candidacy for the presidency of the United States in the 2000 presidential election....
, riding the bus famously called "The Straight Talk Express." The title is what a television news cameraman covering the campaign says before hoisting his camera onto his shoulder (originally published in Rolling StoneRolling StoneRolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
as "The Weasel, Twelve Monkeys And The Shrub" http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/18420304/the_weasel_twelve_monkeys_and_the_shrub and as an e-book through Random House's iPublish imprint; later republished in the context of the 2008 presidential raceUnited States presidential election, 2008The United States presidential election of 2008 was the 56th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on November 4, 2008. Democrat Barack Obama, then the junior United States Senator from Illinois, defeated Republican John McCain, the senior U.S. Senator from Arizona. Obama received 365...
as McCain's Promise)
"Consider the Lobster"
- Originally published in GourmetGourmet (magazine)Gourmet magazine was a monthly publication of Condé Nast and the first U.S. magazine devoted to food and wine. Founded by Earle R. MacAusland and first published in 1941, Gourmet also covered "good living" on a wider scale....
, this review of the Maine Lobster Festival generated some controversy among the readers of the culinary magazine.http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/12/18/RVG3SG4FHB1.DTL The essay is concerned with the ethics of boiling a creature alive in order to enhance the consumer's pleasure, including a discussion of lobster sensory neurons.
"Joseph Frank's Dostoevsky"
- (originally published in the Village Voice Literary Supplement)
"Host"
- A profile of John ZieglerJohn Ziegler (talk show host)John Ziegler is a conservative radio talk show host turned documentary film writer/director.Ziegler's most prominent work in radio has been as the evening host of a radio talk show called The John Ziegler Show on KFI AM 640 in Los Angeles, California from January 12, 2004 until November 13, 2007...
, a Los AngelesLos ÁngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
-based conservative talk radioTalk radioTalk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often feature interviews with a number of different guests. Talk radio typically includes an element of listener participation, usually by broadcasting live...
show host who is obsessed with the O. J. SimpsonO. J. SimpsonOrenthal James "O. J." Simpson , nicknamed "The Juice", is a retired American collegiate and professional football player, football broadcaster, and actor...
murders. Wallace examines the impact of Clear ChannelClear channelA clear-channel station is an AM band Radio station in North America that has the highest protection from interference from other stations, particularly concerning night-time skywave propagation. Usually known as class A stations since 1982, they are occasionally still referred to by their former...
-type media monopolies and the proliferation of talk radio on the way Americans talk, think, and vote. Instead of his trademark footnotes, the publication featured arrows that connected tangential ideas to each other on the page. The profile was originally published in The Atlantic, where it can be read online; the online version transforms the lines and boxes to hyperlinks, which were likely Wallace's inspiration.
The collection was published on 13 December 2005.
Critical reception
The book received positive reviews from critics. The review aggregator MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
reported the book had an average score of 68 out of 100, based on 15 reviews.