As some of you may know, last week, a well-known writer that I personally repected very much, David Foster Wallace, committed suicide. This has troubled me very much, because in the essays of his that I have read, I have always enjoyed his sensitive and introspective approach to his material.
This is a link to one of his most famous essays, Consider the Lobster, which first appeared in Gourmet Magazine in 2003.
As a word of warning, this essay may make you think very hard about your feelings about not only the practice of preparing and eating lobsters, but also about eating meat in general. It is written in a way that is both personal and logical, and it reminds me a lot of the same issues that Lisa has struggled with here on the blog.
Now, I have a hard time thinking that I will ever want to go completely vegetarian (frankly, meat is just too delicious), but I often think about how the meat on my plate got there. When I do, it doesn't taste nearly as good.
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2 comments:
Thank you, F.P. for this tribute. I was unfamiliar with Wallace's work until we discussed his unfortunate loss.
This article is eye-opening and disturbing. The opening scene of fun and frivolity at a small-town festival read with a sense of foreboding not unlike what I felt while reading of the Torrances' blissfully ignorant ride through the Rockies to the Overlook in The Shining.
I don't agree with all of the points in this piece, but Wallace's assertion that we food enthusiasts owe it to ourselves to know as much about the uncomfortable aspects of the food chain as we do about, say, the various new designer cupcake shops in town, is right on the money.
Mr. Wallace, you will be missed.
I don't suppose Wallace was a fan of odori ebi. His loss.
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