First Journal
English 110
Cassandra Kuplast
Professor Jesse Miller
September 1st, 2019
Journal One, “Consider the Lobster”
1. Imagine you could invite David Foster Wallace into the discussion in our classroom. What questions would you ask him about this essay?
The questions that I would want to ask a deceased writer are plentiful, however, if I must limit to them to his work on “Consider the Lobster”, I may still have a few. The biggest topic that was raised within this article was about the ethics of killing a lobster, which is essentially a sea spider, versus killing an animal with more human like features. This prompted the question, “What differentiates a lobster’s death from the death of a cow?” Where do we divide animals that we can “ethically” kill and eat within the same hour, in our kitchens, with our families? These questions were ideas that Wallace created within his article. I would ask Wallace how he came to the consideration of this essay. Where does he stand on the moral debate on the death of a lobster? Before he decided to analyze the life, death, and consumption of a lobster, where did he stand on this ethical issue? Did he have a stance at all, or is it something that seemingly did not matter to him? These are all questions that I would love to ask David Foster Wallace, whom wrote this intriguing article. That is, if I could only specify them to questions about his work on “Consider the Lobster”.
2. Use that experience to think about larger issues, specifically, what are the limits of a written discussion? How might you anticipate your audience’s questions when you write?
Of course, there are the seemingly obvious limits of written work. You cannot discuss the meaning behind words with someone who is not only just a name behind the paper, but who has also been dead for several years. Beyond the obvious limitations of the written words, there are the mental and social limitations as well. It is not custom to have a dinner table discussion about the ethical divide between the slaughtering and consumption of certain animals. We must be able to have these discussions elsewhere, so that we can find answers, or pathways to answers, about these life altering questions. To anticipate some of the reader’s questions, we can look at the way we are writing. Are we providing answers to questions we are raising, or are we simply fostering a questioning environment? If I were to discuss whether or not, scientifically, lobsters feel pain, I could leave the reader with many questions simply by creating a debate and moving on. However, if I were to add evidence from research about how they do not, it would leave the reader with less questions since they know about the research supporting it. By attempting to foresee the questions a reader could have, we can answer them within the text, or keep the reader questioning.
