Consider the Lobster and Other Essays by David Foster Wallace
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
A collection of interesting essays by David Foster Wallace. Congruent with his position as a postmodernist, he explores these points of view by turning them around on themselves. At times kind of cynical but also ironic, Wallace is most successful when he is able to resolve this difference by finding an internal consistency. The last essay for example, “Host” he is able to resolve the issues of radio shock-jocks in the 90s working for Republican agendas and big business by focusing on the DJ himself. Likewise as with his following the McCain campaign trail. I suppose that is the only ending note, as it provides the only structural stability in his quest to detour the subject matter via a differentiation of point of view.
There is much to recommend here. We see a sensitive author in seek of stable subject matter. In essence, questioning the phenomenon here, by changing views and “considering” various different ways of seeing the lobster, be it historical, personal, biological, economic and so on. His writing is easy to read, interesting and funny, at times, though it can be annoyingly tongue in cheek, as when he makes up words. Still, that’s okay. Wallace seems more playful than he is in search of the Truth and that seems okay, as ultimately he recognizes this is up to whoever (the reader, the author, depends) anyway.
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