Blog Four: Consider the Lobster

My AP Lit and Language teacher loved David Foster Wallace so I’ve read his work before including this one. In high school we read his piece to ourselves and had to analyze the different ways David Foster Wallace analyzed the festival, and ways lobsters are prepared. This time around I played the audio version on the way home this weekend hoping to get something different out of it than the first time. I think because it wasn’t the first time I’ve seen this piece I noticed the way Wallace described the festival, the ways lobsters are prepared, and some other aspects of his piece were from a more personal perspective than a normal research article would be. Wallace also incorporates ethics into his article which can be difficult for some to wrap their heads around. For me personally, ethics and “less-logically based concepts” are difficult for me to comprehend, therefore making this research article less appealing to me. On the other hand, Wallace is able to appeal to a wider audience due to the fact his personal tone made the article much more appealing than it would have been if it was a strictly fact based article since there is an audience that would prefer to read a more thought provoking article rather than reading fact, after fact, after fact.