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Consider the Lobster and Other Essays

4.21 of 5 stars 4.21 · rating details · 13,771 ratings · 1,359 reviews

Do lobsters feel pain? Did Franz Kafka have a funny bone? What is John Updike's deal, anyway? And what happens when adult video starlets meet their fans in person? David Foster Wallace answers these questions and more in essays that are also enthralling narrative adventures. Whether covering the three-ring circus of a vicious presidential race, plunging into the wars betwe...more

Hardcover, 343 pages

Published December 13th 2005 by Little, Brown and Company

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Community Reviews

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Jan 31, 2008 David rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2007

Full disclosure: I have a major intellectual crush on David Foster Wallace. Yes, yes, I know all about his weaknesses - the digressions, the rampant footnote abuse, the flaunting of his amazing erudition, the mess that is 'Infinite Jest'. I know all this, and I don't care. Because when he is in top form, there's nobody else I would rather read. The man is hilarious; I think he's a mensch, and I don't believe he parades his erudition just to prove how smart he is. I think he can't help himself -...more

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Dec 10, 2009 Books Ring Mah Bell rated it 4 of 5 stars

Do you know that feeling of falling in love so hard and so fast that your head spins? That feeling that your sweetie is AMAZING, PERFECT, and you have no idea how you ever lived without them? The sun rises and sets with each breath they take??
No?
Sorry about your luck.

The first DFW book I read was A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again and I was instantly smitten. Totally in love.
And then I read this.

That AMAZING, PERFECT love? I feel like I have just busted him mid-nose pick. Knuckle deep...more

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Dec 01, 2009 Dave Russell rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: essays, nonfiction

There's a small theme running through some of these essays(1): People trying to bridge the gap between two different camps. In "Authority and American Usage" DFW praises Garner for bridging the gap between the Prescriptionist and the Descriptionist usage experts. In "Joseph Frank's Dostoevsky" Frank impresses DFW by weaving together two rival approaches to literary criticism. "Up, Simba" is an encomium to John McCain's ability to appeal to Young Voters (presumably of all political stripes(2).)

H...more There's a small theme running through some of these essays(1): People trying to bridge the gap between two different camps. In "Authority and American Usage" DFW praises Garner for bridging the gap between the Prescriptionist and the Descriptionist usage experts. In "Joseph Frank's Dostoevsky" Frank impresses DFW by weaving together two rival approaches to literary criticism. "Up, Simba" is an encomium to John McCain's ability to appeal to Young Voters (presumably of all political stripes(2).)

Herein lies the major weakness of the book. This desire to reconcile two different camps, to me, comes across as a little wishy-washy. Compare "Up, Simba" with Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72, one of my favorite books about a political campaign. Thompson really impressed me with his uninhibited, unvarnished attack on mealy-mouthed candidates who try to appeal to the center at the expense of "the hippie and freak vote," a bloc of voters which Thompson clearly embraces. The book is full of passion and vitality, which I felt a little lacking in DFW's(3) book.

Of course, I realize that there is more than one discussion group here on GR dedicated to DFW and he is not without his very devout defenders, so let me just say while I did not enjoy this book as much as others, I recognize he has his merits and respect those who got more out of this book than I did(4).

(1) I question calling them essays. Most of them are journalism pieces, and in fact DFW excels most in reportage. He has an amzing talent for finding and describing the telling detail. It's the more analytical "essay*" parts of the pieces that let me down.

* Essay in the sense that Montaigne used the word--a "trial" of one's own opinion.

(2) Partisanship, at least, is not emphasized when he discusses YV.

(3) Armchair Psychoanalyzing On My Part: Considering how DFW ended his life, I couldn't help thinking that perhaps this lack was in part a symptom of depression. It's also entirely possible that the fact that my knowledge of DFW's suicide, in some way, colored my reading of this book.

(4) In "Authority and American Usage" DFW espouses what he calls "the Democratic Spirit," which he defines as a rigorous defense of one's own opinion combined with a humble respect for another person's views. While an admirable outlook in the real world, in a book of essays this too struck me as a bit of a hedge and a lack of desire to man the bastions and put up a fight. Depressed people often seek to avoid conflict.

(less)

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Nov 05, 2012 Ken-ichi rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Ken-ichi by: Akemi

Shelves: snoot, learning

"A strange and traumatic experience," David Foster Wallace wrote in an essay on attending the Annual Adult Video News Awards, "which one of yr. corrs. will not even try to describe consists of standing at a men's room urinal between professional woodmen [male porn stars] Alex Sanders and Dave Hardman. Suffice it to say that the urge to look over/down at their penises is powerful and the motives behind this urge so complex as to cause anuresis (which in turn ups the trauma)." Aside from hinting a...more

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Oct 09, 2008 Valerie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

I just finished reading Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace. What I'm left with is an absolute amazement at the immense amounts of knowledge related in the essays. It's like DFW had - or did enough research - to fill a set of encyclopedias on each topic, and then whittled it down to the presented short-storyish length.

In "Big Red Son", an essay about the Annual AVN Awards (that's Adult Video News, by the way) I learned more about the adult entertainment industry than I ever thought poss...more I just finished reading Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace. What I'm left with is an absolute amazement at the immense amounts of knowledge related in the essays. It's like DFW had - or did enough research - to fill a set of encyclopedias on each topic, and then whittled it down to the presented short-storyish length.

In "Big Red Son", an essay about the Annual AVN Awards (that's Adult Video News, by the way) I learned more about the adult entertainment industry than I ever thought possible. In addition to covering the event, DFW covered so many other aspects of the industry that it's almost overwhelming, and almost every page of the essay is accompanied by copious footnotes. Anything you've ever wanted to know but were afraid to ask? PM me.

He brought the same level of detail to an article about John McCain that was originally written for Rolling Stone Magazine, but is presented in the book in its unabridged form. Following him on the 2000 campaign trail (before he was knocked out of the race by Bush) I was presented with so much interesting information on John McCain that I have to admit that I have more respect for him now. I'm not voting for him, but I can respect him, and that's mainly because DFW objectively presented him to me in a way that I haven't really seen in other media coverage. Don't get me wrong - he doesn't let him off the hook for anything - but his exhaustive coverage and his further analysis of his own coverage made for some really interesting reading in light of the current presidential campaigns.

"Consider the Lobster" is simply hilarious when you think about the fact that he wrote it for Gourmet Magazine, and pretty much calls readers' attention to the plight of the lobster as it's cooked alive. He was sent to cover a lobster festival in Maine, and I hope that the editor of the article knew what he was getting himself into when he hired DFW to cover it, or he might have been pretty surprised when the copy arrived. I'm sure it's not the angle most writers would've explored for a magazine whose readers enjoy eating gourmet foods. Like lobsters. And who probably don't want to think about them screaming in the pot.*

I could go on and on about the essays, but what struck me most was his exhaustive knowledge of their subjects. This was a man who left no stone unturned. I'm amazed by how his mind must have worked to capture, compile and translate everything he learned and experienced into his work.

His death - what a loss to the literary world. And the world, period.

*That's a myth by the way - it's just steam escaping from the space between the lobster's flesh and it's shell. (Just one of the million things I learned from reading this book.)(less)

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Mar 01, 2010 oriana rated it 2 of 5 stars

Recommended to oriana by: um, everyone?

Shelves: read-2010, read-2009

I don't have anything to say that hasn't already been said. DFW is/was amazing, brilliant, and it is so devastating that he won't spend the next several decades casting his genius out to us in small sips, book by book by book. One of my favorite things about reading what I consider to be DFW's best writing is the sheer grace of his phrasing, the real joy of getting sucked right in and through paragraph after paragraph of the longest, most convoluted-seeming sentences which nonetheless pull you a...more

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Feb 24, 2008 Rob rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: DFW fans; modern Americans

Recommended to Rob by: Sue; Adam

Shelves: 2008

I would suggest, dear reader, that when considering Consider the Lobster, that you consider it in the same light as David Foster Wallace's collection A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again . Use that book as your frame of reference for style and content and you can place this collection firmly into the category of "typical" DFW. That being said, if you thoroughly enjoyed A Supposedly Fun Thing... then you'll likely thoroughly enjoy this one as well; by that same coin, if you're on the fence,...more

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Oct 31, 2012 Gabi Dopazo rated it 4 of 5 stars

Penks:

Loving DFW again, here again at his best… loved the porn industry one, loved the one about Tracy Austin and the one about McCain2000.com is just something else. This last one should be taught at schools so people understand better what are they facing every time election time comes. Have never read anything so brilliant regarding an election campaign. Again I couldn't put the book down. I only have one worry now, is he way better when he writes about non-fiction? Do I need to start IJ? Do...more

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Jan 11, 2009 Lena rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: essays

I didn't know much about David Foster Wallace when I cracked open this collection of his essays, so the first piece on the Adult Video News Awards caught me rather by surprise. Within just a few paragraphs, however, the sheer and utter brilliance of this fascinating and yet also erudite and intellectual examination of the porn industry left me with little doubt that DFW's reputation as one of the smartest and funniest writers of my lifetime is well-deserved.

Prior to this book, if you had told me...more

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Nov 13, 2007 Adam rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Everyone and their mother

Another essay collection by the man I would consider America's foremost essayist. As great a novelist as he is, and he's certainly no slouch with the short story, his non-fiction is beyond compare.

I think that this work differs from his previous stuff in that it plays up the author's own dorkiness a lot less than the other ones, although it doesn't even come close to losing it entirely. Rather, it gets augmented by some level of taking himself seriously that lends a little more credence to his...more

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May 27, 2010 Moira Russell rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010-50-new-books-challenge, favourites, comfort-rereads

(Ceci n'est pas une review, but I'm getting tired of just rating and adding status updates)

Thought maybe this was worth 4.7666666666666665 stars, but what the hell, there isn't going to be any more, so....'Up, Simba' wrestles in my affections with the cruise ship essay, it's that good. The usage essay is also phenomenal. Big Red Son, Tracy Austin, lobsters, Dostoevsky, Kafka, 9/11, gutting Updike, all amazing....the _one_ thing I don't like is the Host essay, which seems a little long and (gasp)...more

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Mar 16, 2011 Snotchocheez rated it 5 of 5 stars

I must confess that I am not one of the cult of DFW followers that wallow in his genius ramblings; I honestly appreciated, though did not love, his (universally acknowledged) masterpiece: "Infinite Jest"; despite its raw humor, it rambled and meandered WAY too much for me to get a feel for his true storytelling talent. It seemed almost as if he was using his (arguably infinite, or at least infinitely superior to my) intelligence to slap the reader insensate. (Part of this feeling was no doubt du...more I must confess that I am not one of the cult of DFW followers that wallow in his genius ramblings; I honestly appreciated, though did not love, his (universally acknowledged) masterpiece: "Infinite Jest"; despite its raw humor, it rambled and meandered WAY too much for me to get a feel for his true storytelling talent. It seemed almost as if he was using his (arguably infinite, or at least infinitely superior to my) intelligence to slap the reader insensate. (Part of this feeling was no doubt due to my not heeding Dave Eggers' caveat at the beginning of IJ: It's a book that requires 100% of your concentration and attention to fully appreciate it...and I tried plowing through it with a 2-year-old vying for my attention...but still...) I couldn't shake the feeling that he was mocking the unsophisticated reader with his lofty, circuitous (and unfathomable) wit.

After reading this collection of essays by DFW, consider me a newly converted devotee. "Consider the Lobster...", a collection of essays mostly reprinted (in unexpurgated form) from magazine articles from 1996-2004, is (like IJ) a daunting work to plow through, but it (unlike IJ) takes a modicum of effort to decipher the message(s) propounded, and realize just what a flipping genius DFW was.

The collection is a motley assortment that runs the gamut from coverage of the AVN Adult Film Awards (the porn Oscars, if you will), to a detailed diatribe on Standard Written English, hidden within a review of a dictionary. (Sounds dull? Trust me, it's not.) There's a book review of darling tennis player of the 80s Tracy Austin's abysmally written autobiography (totally hilarious, but not in a mocking kind of way); a view behind the scenes of John McCain's 2000 Presidential bid against GW Bush for the GOP nomination (the worst of the collection, but still quite good); an essay on the titular crustacean and the annual Maine Lobster Festival (as featured in Gourmet Magazine in 2004...an article which I can't help but imagine that, if indeed published, singlehandedly led to the death of Gourmet Magazine in 2009...it's that brutal...not to mention f***ing hilarious). My favorite of the bunch, though, is the last one in the book, and it is a doozy. Entitled "Host", it focuses its attention on (conservative) talk radio, specifically in Los Angeles (my former home town) at KFI (the second-most popular talk radio station in the US)...DFW, subtly, gently yet decisively CASTIGATES the entire industry in what is arguably the best essay/opinion piece I've ever read. It's a stunner.

There's even a "where was I when..." article of his experiences immediately following 9/11 while living in Bloomington, Indiana...an article that (for me, anyway) served to humanize DFW, and brought tears to my eyes. This is rather macabre, but at this point in reading I leafed through what I'd read and looked for signs presaging his bout with depression, and ensuing suicide. Much like IJ, "Consider the Lobster" (despite its lofty narrative) is imbued with an underlying, palpable sadness that provides (this reader, anyway) an humanistic poignancy that will resonate a very long time. In a word: brilliant.(less)

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May 15, 2011 MJ Nicholls rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, merkins

Outstanding. The closest one can get to triple penetration in essay form.

Each one is a stunner, from the grotesquerie of the Adult Video Awards in ‘Big Red Son,’ the magniloquent ass-handing of John Updike, the sublime pedantry of the modern classic ‘Authority and American Usage,’ the obsessive campaign chronicling of ‘Up, Simba,’ to the staggeringly researched meta-bubbling John Ziegler profile ‘Host.’

All the essays succeed at tying razor-sharp exegeses of American culture to a holy clarity of...more

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May 16, 2010 Moira Russell added it · review of another edition

Not sure how I feel about the 'footnotes voice' - it seems about as desperate an idea as the little boxes in 'The Host' which wound up annoying me. It was interesting to read in one of the posthumous profiles that he didn't want the footnoting to be like hypertext, because that seems like the most logical way to represent them online with endless scrolling pages. It's nice to hear him, though.

Audiobooks have GOT TO stop the whack tradition of having noodling non-melodic music behind the Official...more

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Apr 18, 2013 the review man rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: postmodern

I love David Foster Wallace's fiction, so trying his non-fiction seemed like the next logical step toward becoming a true David Foster Wallace fanboy. (Boy, I'm sure he'd have something to say about that word.) I was not disappointed—Wallace's sense of humour, wit and excitement shine through here, just as in his other work.

Some people object to DFW's use of footnotes or to his verbosity (or to both), but these do not bother me. Sure, it's a bit jarring to jump between Main Thought and Tangent e...more I love David Foster Wallace's fiction, so trying his non-fiction seemed like the next logical step toward becoming a true David Foster Wallace fanboy. (Boy, I'm sure he'd have something to say about that word.) I was not disappointed—Wallace's sense of humour, wit and excitement shine through here, just as in his other work.

Some people object to DFW's use of footnotes or to his verbosity (or to both), but these do not bother me. Sure, it's a bit jarring to jump between Main Thought and Tangent every twenty words, but one doesn't have to read the footnotes. (In fact, it might be easier to first read Consider the Lobster sans footnotes and then dive into them the second time through.) I also quite enjoy DFW's often verbose writing style. While some writers come across as jaded and cynical when they pick up the thesaurus, DFW always sounds genuinely excited to be gushing about John McCain or Maine Lobsters or porn stars or Dostoevsky or Universal Grammar, and that's precisely what makes reading these essays so much fun.

The topics are also unique and well-presented, and while you may never have considered linguistic prescriptivism or Franz Kafka's sense of humour, you'll certainly be aware of these issues after reading Consider the Lobster. These essays are finely written and infinitely better than the stuff Malcolm Gladwell writes, which is all I ask for in my non-fiction.

Why didn't I give this five stars? Well, some of the essays are pretty academically narrow. You probably wouldn't give the Dostoevsky one to a friend to flip through over coffee, and I really can't see anyone reading about linguistic usage wars at the beach. Since I've never read Kafka and I barely finished Crime and Punishment, I'm sure I misssed out on a lot of content in those essays. This isn't DFW's fault, but it means that Consider the Lobster isn't really designed for mass reading, and that will only discourage some readers.

Another nagging problem is that DFW doesn't quite nail the endings of a few essays. For instance, the John McCain piece goes into quite some detail about whether McCain is an authentic leader or a salesman, and how his imprisonment in Vietnam affects this decision, and whether modern American cynicism has anything to do with this, and whether his "always tell the truth" shtick is truthful or, well, non-factual. But DFW doesn't wrap the story convincingly; he basically says, "well, it's for you to decide". That's all fine and good—after all, we're the ones who end up voting—but it seems like all that exploration leads to a non-conclusion. This also happens at the end of the lobster piece: DFW acknowledges both sides of the is-eating-animals-okay-if-it-causes-them-pain-okay? debate, he tells us that he enjoys eating meat, and he examines the notion that lobsters act as if they're in pain when they're in a boiling pot, but he doesn't tell us whether any of this matters. It's a mass of highly interesting information that doesn't lead to a definite endgame. Granted, the piece was written for a gourmet magazine, so perhaps that isn't the venue for such an ethical inquiry, and DFW readily acknowledges that these questions are the sort of hardcore philosophy that most people don't deal with on a regular basis. He lets us make up our own conclusion, but since he's done such a bang-up job with everything else, our own ideas seem pale and flimsy by comparison.

That's about all I could find wrong with Consider the Lobster, and it's not even that big a deal. All in all, a great book.(less)

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Aug 18, 2009 Simon Cleveland rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary-literature

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...more

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Dec 21, 2007 Harlan Lewis rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: those desperately craving to look smarter than everyone else

An excerpt from the NY Times review of another David Foster Wallace book, Oblivion, is close enough to my own feelings to be worth pasting:

"One reason it's tempting to follow the smart set -- that anxious clan of stylishly camouflaged, overeducated social maladapts that functions in the literary world a lot like those old guys sucking White Owl cigars do in metropolitan Off Track Betting parlors -- and flatly declare David Foster Wallace a genius and the greatest young fiction writer of his time...more An excerpt from the NY Times review of another David Foster Wallace book, Oblivion, is close enough to my own feelings to be worth pasting:

"One reason it's tempting to follow the smart set -- that anxious clan of stylishly camouflaged, overeducated social maladapts that functions in the literary world a lot like those old guys sucking White Owl cigars do in metropolitan Off Track Betting parlors -- and flatly declare David Foster Wallace a genius and the greatest young fiction writer of his time, is that doing so is much, much easier than actually reading his sentences (compared to most of which this one is a haiku)."

I'm not sure if Wallace is really trying to write entertainment, much less humor, despite what the jacket says. At what point does an essay about the absurdities of liberal versus conservative dictionaries stop being funny? Wallace presumes far to much when he passes the half-century page with scarcely a pause for breath. What if, while pretending to write humor, he's oh-so-slyly exposing the absurdities of not just dictionaries, but the standards and rules governing all human interaction, and by extension our lives, the universe, everything? Opening with an essay on a porn awards ceremony in Las Vegas pants shock-value desperation - and even with that setup he manages to just not be very interesting. Porn as an analog for widespread hypocrisy vs the admitted and overtly crass stopped being insightful before I knew what porn was, and Wallace doesn't bring anything particularly modern to the analysis beyond lycra suits and adjustable breasts.

Wallace allegedly possesses the ability to master subjects and fields of study others devote themselves wholly to, and he's capable of writing about them in a way that the rest of us can understand, so who the hell are we to complain if the sum simply isn't worth reading?

The constant frustrations are unfortunate because parts of Consider the Lobster are really, genuinely, honestly GOOD. For as much as I yawned and skimmed, particular passages approach brilliance. There's a disarming mix of cynicism and approachable human desire for authenticity in an essay about McCain's 2000 campaign that's rarely touched without sinking to radio-emo simplicity, although on further consideration if that's the level my standards have sunk to then this review is more damning than I intended. Really, parts of the book are good.

Unfortunately, finding those singular bits on a first run isn't worth the effort, and I don't have any desire to go leafing through again to find them. Even the McCain essay, the best in the book, is an off-putting mash of overwrought considerations of inane minutiae and rather questionably superficial claims, "the 60s were, by most accounts, a generally cleaner and happier time than now," claims so poorly supported and so ridiculously detached from sense that they run counter to the whole popular appeal of Wallace as a modern, approachable genius.

This review has gone overlong, a symptom of my frustration. If you don't mind digging, dig.(less)

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Jun 16, 2007 Brendan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The essay “Joseph Frank’s Dostoevsky” appears near the end of David Foster Wallace’s collection, Consider the Lobster. In it, Wallace is writing about someone (Joseph Frank) writing about someone (Fyodor Dostoevsky) writing about Important Questions. He (Wallace) also writes about himself (and his literary peers) not writing about Important Questions, ramming his point home by interspersing throughout the essay said IQs, uncommented-upon and tucked safely inside asterisks, in uneasy juxtapositio...more

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Nov 08, 2012 Michael William West rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I whipped through this in little time, but I felt myself glazing over quite a bit. It's firmly entrenched in its epoch, which is not necessarily a bad thing for a collection of essays, and it started somewhat fascinatingly with the since-departed glitzokitch of the big business porn industry; but I got tired of the eternal niceness of David Foster Wallace. I am always somewhat suspicious of people who make a vested effort to display nice credentials - of course the porn industry is grossly absur...more I whipped through this in little time, but I felt myself glazing over quite a bit. It's firmly entrenched in its epoch, which is not necessarily a bad thing for a collection of essays, and it started somewhat fascinatingly with the since-departed glitzokitch of the big business porn industry; but I got tired of the eternal niceness of David Foster Wallace. I am always somewhat suspicious of people who make a vested effort to display nice credentials - of course the porn industry is grossly absurd, and even though DFW allows that he has contributed his share to the absurdity, to the extent of having burned the constellations of certain porn actresses' near-anus freckles onto his mind retina, he still retains a moral tutting noise throughout the essay. Hardly necessary, or perhaps condescending to the American public.
Lobster boiling is bad if it makes you feel bad about doing it. The clues should be obvious, as he reminds us, anything that appears to be silently screaming in pain because of your infantile urge to dip things in butter and then eat them is probably actually in pain, and you should probably stop torturing him/her/it. DFW succeeded in making me not want to eat lobster ever again, but then I've never eaten lobster before, and in fact the only occasion I witnessed such I felt fairly sick when the diner started sucking out the bits of slimy flesh from the tail and tentacle parts.
Digression aside, there's something painfully innocent in these essays, for all their immense facility as readable articles, perhaps such a degree of innocence that manifested itself in Foster Wallace's tragic failure to keep the reins tightly fisted on his sparkling, unwieldy but ultimately perhaps overly innocent mind. Perhaps it's far too easy to look at it this way now he's dead, and a few years back it might have seemed like a clump of colourful journalistic drills from an enjoyable American prose stylist. It's innocent in a very American way, oddly corrupted, oddly drowned and wreckless, oddly confused by all that surrounds and the impermanence of those surroundings.
I've heard whispers that 'A Supposedly Fun Thing...' is a superior collection, and I'm curious to see how he treats a very American non-innocent in the David Lynch essay. But CtL seems to vainly hopeful, too much clawing for the light - maybe a personal prejudice as someone who prefers to embrace the dark and chuckle at the rest. Plus I really, really fucking hate tennis.(less)

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Sep 13, 2010 logankstewart rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to logankstewart by: Adam Graham

Shelves: contemporary, nonfic, borrowed, 2010-read

"But if I decide to decide there’s a different, less selfish, less lonely point to my life, won’t the reason for this decision be my desire to be less lonely, meaning to suffer less overall pain? Can the decision to be less selfish ever be anything other than a selfish decision?"

Consider the Lobster, and Other Essays is a non-fiction book by the late, acclaimed journalist and novelist David Foster Wallace. I first heard of DFW on a recent NPR interview, and, like many NPR stories, I found his li...more

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Apr 07, 2013 luis reséndiz rated it 4 of 5 stars

estoy en un taller de ensayo y en teoría este muchacho es buenísimo en esos menesteres. le he leído dos ensayos y parece cierto.

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iba a escribir más sobre él pero una de las reseñas en goodreads dice "i have a major intellectual crush on david foster wallace". mejor suscribo esa frase.

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d.f.w comete, por momentos no tan abundantes pero sí evidentes, el terrible error de no clarificar del todo sus pensamientos. cuando lo hace resulta el tipo más brillante que he leído. cuando no, bueno, tam...more

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Nov 20, 2012 Lisa rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorite-books

My writing professor introduced my class to this author who is no longer with us, sadly. Heartbroken. His writing blows me away. I'm what you call a non-traditional student (older and that's all I'm saying), and I feel for the "traditional" ones who don't get it. This guy breaks all the rules of creative non-fiction writing, and nails it. It's mature writing that exhausts experienced readers at times. My brain needs strength training badly, so it's a good tired. So much writing plays it safe. I...more My writing professor introduced my class to this author who is no longer with us, sadly. Heartbroken. His writing blows me away. I'm what you call a non-traditional student (older and that's all I'm saying), and I feel for the "traditional" ones who don't get it. This guy breaks all the rules of creative non-fiction writing, and nails it. It's mature writing that exhausts experienced readers at times. My brain needs strength training badly, so it's a good tired. So much writing plays it safe. I should know--I love writing but never dig deep enough. I'm working on it with DFW's expert help (and my professor's, of course).

Professor said to start with his non-fiction (read essay, Shipping Out, for class--laughed from beginning to end), then try fiction like The Pale King or the book that made him famous, Infinite Jest. I'm recommending him to any one who'll listen. This is not easy reading. It's essential reading. You will be rewarded.

I reserved his other non-fiction work minus one (positive review but heavy on science discussing free will; after losing precious hours of life re-reading Paradise Lost, I've had it up to here with free will arguments!) Hard to choose favorites in this essay collection. The title essay he wrote (wonder if they published it) is I'm sure not what Gourmet magazine's editors had in mind, and that's all you're getting. Host, about AM talk-radio and one station in particular, KFI in LA, is fascinating, funny, sad, depressing, and anger-inducing, all at the same time. The Big Red One, the first essay, has him at a CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Vegas where, funnily enough, the porn industry gathers to award their best and brightest the exact same week. Whatdya know? Guess who shows up at the AVN (Adult Video News) convention? You got it--the same guys into (way into) the annual CES, except they become red-faced, awkward, and timid when confronted with the flesh--lots of flesh--and blood porn stars of their video collection ;)

DFW was a pretty decent tennis player in his youth and idolized Tracy Austin, for obvious reasons. His essay on her lame autobiography, her incredible, incredibly short career, and sports gods...again, a joy to read.

He wrote passionately, intelligently (genius-level), movingly about all aspects of the human condition. Don't be scared. Give his writing a chance. It's unlike anything I've read. Hopefully you'll find yourself as immersed in his words and thinking as I was. Enjoy.

Update: I'm re-reading this for book club. A little nervous 'cause this was my suggestion that was picked amidst the wary looks and groans from fellow members who'd heard how difficult Foster Wallace was to read. I shall remain optimistic that my learned friends have the intellectual stamina to not just get through the book, but appreciate and enjoy the toil and joy discernible in FW's work. Fingers crossed...

Update #2: I'm enjoying his essays more than the first time--imagine savoring a review of a new edition of Garner's Modern American Usage, the edition I bought after reading his review? Who knew revised editions of dictionaries/reference books like Garner's give us a glimpse of the current political climate? I find that fascinating, but then so was DFW. I've heard no negative comments from my book club friends so far; hoping that's a good sign...

Update #3: I re-read all but the last two essays. I'm thrilled to report that all the guys in my Dudes on Books book club (I'm one of two dudettes) loved this book; some got so interested in his writing and DFW that they read his new biography. I mentioned my "success" at proving to these learned men that DFW's writing, though not easy, is beautiful and thought-provoking and well worth the effort, to my current English professor. She, too, couldn't understand why people are afraid of "difficult" writing, as if it means it's dull drudgery. I think if you look at the current Bestseller list (for fiction, especially) you'll see why--Patterson, Evanovich, Dan Brown, Connelly, Balducci, Nicholas Sparks, Brad Thor, etc. Safe, by the numbers, comfortable, and deadly, deadly dull (to me). And I readily admit to being a book snob.

P.S. I went to vote in the final round for best Fiction of 2012 and, sadly, I see it there, too. Gone was The Dog Stars by Peter Heller, one of the finest novels I've read in a long time; remaining--Kristen Hannah and Emily Giffin among others. I know they have a larger following which has much to do with them besting Heller's book, and yet...(less)

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Aug 25, 2008 Nate D rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

Opening essay "Big Red Son", an account of the Adult Video News Awards -- yes, the "porn Oscars" -- is one of the funniest pieces of writing I have read in ages. And informative! DFW's style seems well suited to the subject here, with footnotes serving as expansions into long verbatim anecdotes delivered to the author by the article's colorful supporting cast, and his prose is well up to the challenge of rendering the circus as lucidly as seems possible.

This was a good purchase so far.

...

It turn...more

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Jun 02, 2008 Amanda rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Amanda by: Colette Alexander, Saba Afshar

Shelves: non-fiction

This was my first DFWallace and I will read more. He is a really smart dude. I'm kind of grossed out by lobsters right now but I think their deliciousness will override the fact that they are sea-bugs. Things in addition to lobsters for the reader to consider: a review of John Updike describing a novel that reads like John Updike is badly imitating himself; a really, really long and really, really interesting review of a dictionary; thoughts on Dostoevsky; attending a porn awards show; Kafka is...more

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Dec 11, 2007 Colette rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: smart people

So, I have a crush on David Foster Wallace. It's long-standing, and quite inappropriate given that he's *so much* smarter than me. Maybe I should only give 'Lobster' 4 stars, because I couldn't get through the 'American Usage' essay without skimming and then going back and skimming some more. I guess I'm not enough of a SNOOT.

Still, everything DFW does is amazing. I'm constantly amazed at his intellectual genius (and knowledge of so many subjects). I think what I really value in his writing, th...more

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Sep 25, 2007 Justine rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: the brave, the willing, the critical

Shelves: favorites

DFW may have just won a place as one of my favorite writers. His intelligence, sharp observance, and keen wit jump off the pages. At times a little dense and circuitous, the payoff for reading his work is HUGE. There are so many dogears in this book (good quotes) that it doesn't lie flat.

DFW's style is what I would call "masturbatorily educated." He drops references (both popular and erudite) everywhere and expects his reader to get it. But beyond style, the true brilliance of the book is the w...more

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Jul 29, 2007 Jafar rated it 4 of 5 stars

Another collection of essays by D.F.W. I liked this one more than A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again. His writing is so energetic and engaging that you don’t get bored with him, even if you don’t particularly care for the topic that he’s writing about. He experiments with new forms of writing and presenting his ideas by the extensive use of footnotes – footnotes that occasionally have footnotes of their own. In the last essay, which is about the conservative AM talk radio, he forgoes foo...more

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Nov 11, 2007 Dean Wheeler rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anyone

DFW's challenging fiction, while super-smart, often requires back-tracking and exhaustive concentration.

His searing essay collections, though, are an easier read. Consider the Lobster, much like his earlier collection, A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again , is sharp but effortlessly absorbable.

Lobster takes us behind the scenes at an awards ceremony for porn stars, on a sea-to-plate journey with the crustacean of our desires, and deep into the psyche of a former girl tennis champion, among...more

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Aug 05, 2007 Zedder rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In a stroke of genius, I assigned the title essay of this as a reading on identity theory for my philosophy of mind class this summer. They loved it, and it gave me a really concrete example of multiple realizability to keep coming back to later in the course.

Here's how Wallace's cab drive puts identity theory: "Lobsters don't feel pain because they don't have the same part of the brain that allows humans to feel pain."

Overall, I feel like this volume isn't as good as his first volume of essays,...more

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Jul 25, 2007 Christina rated it 5 of 5 stars

I cannot recommend this enough. If DFW's prose has turned you off in the past, try this out. It's still riddled with his trademark way-overdone-footnotes, but is wonderfully written. Makes all sorts of topics accessible and stimulating. I, of course, being who I am, loooved Big Red Son. The McCain bit was a superb slice into the American political machine (in a human way, not an I-have-a-bias-and-I'm-out-to-prove-something way); surprisingly, the radio host piece was too. Possibly my favorite es...more

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About David Foster Wallace

David Foster Wallace worked surprising turns on nearly everything: novels, journalism, vacation. His life was an information hunt, collecting hows and whys. "I received 500,000 discrete bits of information today," he once said, "of which maybe 25 are important. My job is to make some sense of it." He wanted to write "stuff about what it feels like to live. Instead of being a relief from what it fe...more

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“...in real life I always seem to have a hard time winding up a conversation or asking somebody to leave, and sometimes the moment becomes so delicate and fraught with social complexity that I'll get overwhelmed trying to sort out all the different possible ways of saying it and all the different implications of each option and will just sort of blank out and do it totally straight -- 'I want to terminate the conversation and not have you be in my apartment anymore' -- which evidently makes me look either as if I'm very rude and abrupt or as if I'm semi-autistic and have no sense of how to wind up a conversation gracefully...I've actually lost friends this way.” — 152 people liked it

“Am I a good person? Deep down, do I even really want to be a good person, or do I only want to seem like a good person so that people (including myself) will approve of me? Is there a difference? How do I ever actually know whether I'm bullshitting myself, morally speaking?” — 141 people liked it

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