David Foster Wallace's article in the Gourmet Magazine in 2004 which brought a lot of backlash from the readers.
Maine Lobster Festival has been covered in this.
2. About Gourmet
Gourmet magazine was a monthly publication of Condé Nast and the first U.S. magazine devoted to food and
wine. The first edition came out in January, 1941 and the final edition in November, 2009. It was considered as
the magazine of “Good living.” It covered niches from grilling and Italian food, to quick recipes, holiday foods,
and comfort foods.
Why this article is different?
This article investigates a topic which is not usually covered by such publications: the sensations of one of the
animals who becomes our food. A lot of readers gave negative feedback stating they did not subscribe to
Gourmet for such articles. They did not want to be asked questions on whether consuming lobsters is ethically
right or wrong.
3. Wallace begins the article by telling the readers about the Maine Lobster Festival, and how well marketed it is.
He describes how the festival is held right along the water in Rockland, Maine.
He dubs himself as the “assigned correspondent” of the readers of Gourmet for the 56th Annual Maine Lobster
Festival. He tells the readers that the festival has 25,000 pounds of fresh-caught lobster, cooking competitions,
carnival rides, live music, and a beauty pageant. The festival each year draws 100,000 visitors from all over the
country. It has the world’s largest lobster cooker for which maximum people come to visit.
With a tongue and cheek transparency of his research, he mentions the definitions of lobsters from the
encyclopedia. He provides information about lobsters from historical insights (“Up until 1800’s lobster was
considered as low class food, eaten only by poor and institutionalised”), taxonomy (“a lobster is a marine-
crustacean of the family Homaridae, characterized by five pairs of jointed legs, the first pair terminating in large
pincerish claws used for subduing preys.”) and etymology (“The name ‘lobsters’ comes from the Old English
loppestre, which is thought to be a corrupt form of the Latin word for locust combines with the Old English
loppe, which meant spider.)”
The article
4. He describes the petty inconveniences and the downliners of the festival, how the food comes in styrofoam trays,
the soft drinks are iceless and flat and the utensils are plastic. There are not enough tissue papers provided
(considering how much mess it is to eat lobsters), everyone squeezes in to sit on the benches which are free to sit
on, and how one folding chair costs $20.
After giving details about lobsters and the festival, mid-way through the article, Wallace says that no amount of
lobster paraphernalia or marketing strategies could make him avoid the serious question of, if "Is it right to boil a
sentient creature alive just for our gustatory pleasure?” The article didn’t aim to provide any answers to this
question, rather it aimed to provide thought-provoking information so that readers could derive their own
conclusions.
He calls attention to the promotional material which states the lobster's nervous system as simple, decentralized,
and lacking the structures which resist pain. The writer rejects this and states it as “incorrect in about eleven
different ways.”
5. He points out that in actuality, lobsters do have nociceptors, which are the pain receptors sensitive to potentially
damaging extremes of temperature, such as boiling water. He addresses pain as a subjective experience. There is
obvious “struggling, thrashing, and lid-clattering” that begins once the lobster is put inside the boiling kettle.
This combination of the neurological structures and behavior are used to determine a creature's pain capacity.
He then returns to his original question, “is it possible to truly defend the act of consuming flesh without
acknowledging the act's inherent selfishness?”
David does consider the fact that it might be unpleasant for the readers of Gourmet who consider the magazine
as a culinary monthly. But since, the Maine Lobster Festival was his assigned topic and he feels that these moral
questions cannot be ignored. Despite the laughter and fun at the festival, such questions require a lot of thought
and he wants the readers to ponder over ethical convictions. He just doesn’t want attention on the lobster but
rather on the readers carnivorous lifestyle.
6. WALLACE:
“Isn’t being extra aware and
attentive and thoughtful about
one’s food and its overall
context part of what
distinguishes a real gourmet?”
READER:
“What were you thinking when
you published that lobster
story?”
READER:
“Do you think I read your
magazine so you can make me
feel uncomfortable about the
food I eat? What are you going
to scare me away from eating
next? Is this your job and the
purpose of your magazine?”
Responses
Wallace set out to begin this unpleasant and uncomfortable topic to make the people question their
lifestyles. He succeeded in his endeavour and the responses in the letter to the editor are testament to
this fact.
