ABSTRACT
In 2003, the editors of Gourmet, an upscale culinary magazine dedicated to ''fine living,'' invites David Foster Wallace, an American novelist, to go on assignment at the annual Maine Lobster Festival. Wallace echoes Daniel Boorstin's critique of artificial pseudo-events and disdain for tourists. Tourism is popularly imagined as a pleasurable, leisurely activity, but Wallace counters this assumption. Wallace employs painfully long sentences, which imitate his description of the Festival as ''full of irksome little downers''. Implicit throughout ''Consider the Lobster'' is Wallace's theorization of a gustatory ethics. Wallace explores the ethical dimensions of lobster consumption midway through his essay by considering the views of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, local residents, and the Maine Lobster Promotion Council. Wallace essay is a rhetorical performance that invites readers to consider the lobster and teaches them how to question the ethical choices implicit in their eating habits.
