Consider the Lobster and Other Essays (Selected Essays)

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 between dictionary writers, or confronting the World's Largest Lobster Cooker at the annual Maine Lobster Festival, Wallace projects a quality of thought that is uniquely his and a voice as powerful and distinct as any in American letters.

Goon Mandoo said Often hilarious, usually insightful, and always original. I'm sure that 99.999999% of people who asked DFW to review something knew what they were getting into -- ask him to review a lobster festival, get a miniature treatise on the ethical implications of causing pain to animals; ask him to review a grammar handbook, get a play-by-play of warring factions within the lexicographical community; ask him to review an adult-film trade show, get (in a footnote, no less) one of the most moving little soliloquies ever written about the connection between sex and truth -- but I wonder if a. Paul Voorhies said As always, IMPECCABLE!. DFW has an unbelievable knack for making the most distasteful of subjects riveting. The topics of some of his essays, oh let's say, for instance, Big Red Son, are not something that I would necessarily, ordinarily seek to read on my own, but his thorough depiction and analysis of this, well, interesting subculture is so top notch and fascinating that I found it impossible to put down.Politics isn't my cup of tea either. Yet his essay on McCain's "As always, IMPECCABLE!" according to Paul Voorhies. DFW has an unbelievable knack for making the most distasteful of subjects riveting. The topics of some of his essays, oh let's say, for instance, Big Red Son, are not something that I would necessarily, ordinarily seek to read on my own, but his thorough depiction and analysis of this, well, interesting subculture is so top notch and fascinating that I found it impossible to put down.Politics isn't my cup of tea either. Yet his essay on McCain's 2000 bid for the Republican nomination just sucks you right in. His keen underst. 000 bid for the Republican nomination just sucks you right in. His keen underst. mark jabbour said Things you may not want to think about. David Foster Wallace, more so than any other person, makes me laugh and cry, in other words, feel deeply. Which is a good thing, I think--which is the other thing he makes me do--think. And all that is as he intended if I am interpreting his writing accurately--which is as he posits, not possible--to know how a reader will react to what it is you write; but writing, as Wallace says, is nothing but, " an act of communication between one human being and another " [From "Greatly Exaggerated" in the Harvard Book Review (199"Things you may not want to think about" according to mark jabbour. David Foster Wallace, more so than any other person, makes me laugh and cry, in other words, feel deeply. Which is a good thing, I think--which is the other thing he makes me do--think. And all that is as he intended if I am interpreting his writing accurately--which is as he posits, not possible--to know how a reader will react to what it is you write; but writing, as Wallace says, is nothing but, " an act of communication between one human being and another " [From "Greatly Exaggerated" in the Harvard Book Review (1992) . )

His voice mostly hovers a notch or two above monotone, imbuing the material with equal parts wonder and skepticism. (Dec.)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. . Audio footnotes? It's quite simple. At first, this audio wrinkle sounds odd. When Wallace reads his plentiful footnotes, which as fans know are anecdotal asides rather than bibliographic references, his voice changes tone. Wallace dissects various subjects—lobsters, porn, sports memoirs, September 11—through Midwester