[HN Gopher] Consider the Lobster (2004) [pdf]
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Consider the Lobster (2004) [pdf]
Author : mahathu
Score : 84 points
Date : 2021-12-02 11:08 UTC (3 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.columbia.edu)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.columbia.edu)
| adamgordonbell wrote:
| It's crazy that he wrote this for a food magazine. I think when
| they sent him on this assignment that this was not at all what
| they were expecting to get back.
| kcrx wrote:
| The tiny chef's hat icon signaling the end of the essay really
| makes it great.
| atorodius wrote:
| Great essay, I think this text started what eventually led to me
| reading infinite jest :)
| spenczar5 wrote:
| If you get a chance, A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again
| is really terrific too. I love Infinite Jest, but I think I
| love DFW's essays even more. They are just the right length.
| dhosek wrote:
| I found A Supposedly Fun Thing to be rather grating and self-
| congratulatory. In contrast, the essays in Consider the
| Lobster showed a better balance between restraint and
| indulgence.
| eckmLJE wrote:
| Agreed, there is an essay collection named after Consider the
| Lobster that has some great ones.
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consider_the_Lobster
| jeffbee wrote:
| The David Foster Wallace Reader has these and more
| including the brilliant "Both Flesh and Not" and some
| trivia like his course syllabi and correspondence.
| sofard wrote:
| The whole book of essays is incredible. He wrote this just a few
| weeks after 9/11. I'm amazed it was published at the time.
| https://www.rollingstone.com/feature/david-foster-wallace-on...
| lelandfe wrote:
| Not to veer too far off topic but had to take the chance to
| share Hunter Thompson's piece he wrote the week after 9/11,
| which similarly, I'm surprised was published:
| https://www.espn.com/espn/page2/story?id=1250751
| downut wrote:
| I loved the writing in this essay but disagree with the
| conclusion. Let's just say that I doubt that individually wrapped
| grocery store meats are apex civilization, and no human
| civilization every thrived without exploiting[1] animals. The
| exploitation has always been performed across the spectrum of
| cruelty[2], but the fact of it is incontrovertible. So the
| essential flaw in the logic, I think, is that, very unusual for
| DFW, he missed the more important widest context.
|
| My favorite DFW essay (out of oh so many) is "Tense Present"[3].
| I bought the Garner because of it. I've read it more than twice,
| and I very rarely read things more than once. I recommended it to
| a friend and she came back and said, "That's why you are the way
| you are, you're a snoot!". I laughed.
|
| [1][4] "exploiting" chosen to make the meaning explicit.
|
| [2] _I_ try hard to minimize the cruelty in my practice; profit
| based exploitation rarely does. Neither does a pack of African
| wild dogs, nor the tarantula hawk dragging the much bigger
| tarantula across my yard.
|
| [3] Possibly unreadable font, might be others out there:
| https://harpers.org/wp-content/uploads/HarpersMagazine-2001-...
|
| [4] DFW correctly (yah, that's redundant) used 1 based footnote
| numbering.
| will4274 wrote:
| > My favorite DFW essay (out of oh so many) is "Tense
| Present"[3]. I bought the Garner because of it.
|
| Thanks for the recommendation. I laughed out loud at this line:
|
| > He's both a lawyer and a lexicographer (which seems a bit
| like being both a narcotics dealer and a DEA agent).
| toiletfuneral wrote:
| I don't totally understand your position...if the cruelty of
| wolves / nature justifies your consumption, than why give a
| shit about the treatment of your food source at all?
|
| If you're trying to minimize cruelty, you wouldn't eat them at
| all.
| jalino23 wrote:
| nothing happens when I click the link?
| jallen_dot_dev wrote:
| It's a link directly to a PDF. Did your browser save it to a
| folder? Or maybe there is a popup asking if you want to save or
| open.
| 65 wrote:
| One of my favorite DFW stories is Good Old Neon in Oblivion.
| goodoldneon wrote:
| Judging by my username, I think I like it too :)
| pauldavis wrote:
| OMG that is such genius. Chilling. Love it.
| cogburnd02 wrote:
| http://www.godhatesshrimp.com/
| dang wrote:
| Not as much past discussion as I thought. I must have confused it
| with the water one.
|
| _Consider the Lobster (2004)_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8407616 - Oct 2014 (48
| comments)
|
| _David Foster Wallace, "Consider the Lobster." Aug 2004_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1562677 - July 2010 (1
| comment)
| reggieband wrote:
| This may be the most gen-x piece of writing ever.
|
| It reminds me of early Simpson's episodes. The juxtapositions of
| pointless and detailed erudition, obvious humor and subtle
| satire, and breaking the fourth-wall moral mirror. It's equal
| parts brilliant, snarky and trivial.
|
| I generally find DFW unbearably pretentious, but there is
| something sublime about an article like this getting published,
| with all of those footnotes, in a food magazine. Something about
| it reminds me of the performance art of Andy Kaufman.
|
| It's strange to me that I've heard of this essay probably
| hundreds of times yet this was the first time I actually read it.
| bigchoke wrote:
| The morality of meat consumption is something I've struggled with
| in the past as well. If I'm being completely honest the reason
| I've never stopped is simply convenience in both macro and micro
| nutrient availability. This has completely put me off lobster
| though, won't lie.
| akimball wrote:
| Other fat sources are healthier, and other protein sources are
| less perishable/risky. It is annoying to abstain meat in most
| restaurants, but this is rapidly improving. My own sweet spot
| compromise is ovo-lacto-pescatarianism. I eat lots of nuts, and
| supplement protein when I work out. Sugar being poisonous, I
| mostly substitute fats for calories. Works for me anyhow, once
| I got used to it. Maybe insects will be a thing some day
| bigchoke wrote:
| My hope is cloned meat! Wouldn't mind paying a little extra
| for it. And you are absolutely right, having a meatless diet
| is getting progressively easier.
| micromacrofoot wrote:
| i'm hoping for insects, cricket flour is a very good source
| of protein... but very expensive at the current scale
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