Sep15
'Consider the Lobster' Author David Foster Wallace Dead at 46
Posted at 05:24 PM | Permalink
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Comments (15)
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Hailed by the Boston Globe as "probably the most important novelist of his generation," author David Foster Wallace was found dead—apparently because of suicide—on Friday night at his home in California.
Although famous for authoring The Broom of the System and the best-selling Infinite Jest: A Novel and Brief Interviews With Hideous Men, loyal PETA supporters may best remember David Foster Wallace for his philosophical piece written for Gourmet magazine.
In the groundbreaking "Consider the Lobster," Wallace wondered, "Is it all right to boil a sentient creature alive just for our gustatory pleasure?"
Wallace explored the excruciating pain that lobsters feel when they are boiled alive, writing, "[A]fter all the abstract intellection, there remain the facts of the frantically clanking lid, the pathetic clinging to the edge of the pot. Standing at the stove, it is hard to deny in any meaningful way that this is a living creature experiencing pain and wishing to avoid/escape the painful experience."
In memory of this remarkable man, let us keep his respect for animals alive by practicing kindness and compassion toward all beings every day by rejecting cruelty at the dinner table. For more information and to order a free "Vegetarian Starter Kit," please visit GoVeg.com.
To read David Foster Wallace's article in full, go here.
Posted by Carrie Ann Harris
TAGGED:
lobster David Foster Wallace
Comments
It is so sad when a young man kills themselves. He will be missed.
Posted by: alma | September 15, 2008 10:24 PM
Thank you David for giving us your well-researched, well-written article on lobsters. I am saddened to hear of your tragic death.
Posted by: lynda downie | September 15, 2008 11:17 PM
I'm devestated by this - I've used his article countless times to do the difficult task of explaining to most people why lobsters deserve compassion. I wish he knew how much good he was doing on this earth before he took his own life.
Posted by: Maya, CVT | September 16, 2008 09:31 AM
Very sad. Rest in peace David Foster Wallace.
Posted by: Aneliese | September 16, 2008 11:02 AM
I KNOW IN HEAVEN HE WILL BE LOVED BY ALL THE ANIMALS THAT ARE THERE, THAT WERE WAITING FOR HIM ! BUT HE WILL BE MISSED ON EARTH BY ALL THOSE WHO HE HAD TOUCHED WITH HIS KINDNESS.
Posted by: SASHA | September 16, 2008 04:39 PM
Why are you sorry to hear about his death? He freaking killed himself, he was a great author but why feel sorry for stupidity.
Posted by: Brian | September 16, 2008 08:44 PM
How sad that a young man with so much to offer would has such a sad ending. He went way to soon. It seem he saw the vaule of every life but his own..
Posted by: Crystal | September 16, 2008 11:43 PM
i have a friend who works at the seafood dept. at a grocery store called waldbaums. he once told me that when people dont want you to boil the the live lobsters before selling them because they want to do it at home, that in order to kill the lobster and sell it to them, he has to take a large knife, stab the lobster from the bottom and rip the knife through it's body. he laughed at how "the lobster convulses like it feels pain or something as the knife goes through it." since then i have not been able to speak to my friend because of what he does to innocent animals and how he views what he is doing...
Posted by: jackey | September 17, 2008 09:53 AM
I shall live to the best of my ability a life where I minimize my direct or indirect participate in the ruthlessly murder of sentient beings for what amounts to a diabolic pleasure at the table while ignoring the truth of the flesh. God be with you.
Posted by: helen ryerson | September 17, 2008 10:12 AM
TO BRIAN - HE MAY HAVE HAD A MEDICAL CONDITION THAT LEAD TO HIS DEPRESSION. SO PLEASE BE MORE THOUGHTFUL. YOU KNOW..WITH IS DEATH THAT MEANS SOMEONE HAS LOSS A BROTHER OR A SON AND I'M SURE THEY DON'T NEED TO READ YOUR CRUEL PIONT OF VIEW.
Posted by: SASHA | September 17, 2008 01:34 PM
To bad he felt the need to commit suicide. A permanent solution to a temporary problem. Very sad.
As for boiling lobsters alive-this practice is pathetic. It's not enough that the thing was taken from the only home and life it's ever known but now it must suffer more pain and be at the mercy of the chef. I think people do these things with disregard to the animal in question for the simple fact that some animals do not make noise when being hurt. Maybe these people feel that animals have no feelings whatsoever. Either way- the animal dying does have nerve endings which I would assume translate into pain for the animal. Just as they do for humans.
Posted by: bbr | September 17, 2008 03:54 PM
So sorry he died, as he was an animal lover!
Horrific way to die for Lobsters. The person standing at the stove, holding the lid down must have absolutely no feelings for animals. And the big lie that they dish out, that fish don't have the same feelings as warm blooded animals is a total lie. Fish also have a nervous system, like us, and they feel it as much as we would! There is another way they do it to: They put them into non sea water, into a bath and literally they drown an agonising slow death, takes all day and night!
I don't eat Lobster or Crayfish, because of this!!
Posted by: Bea B | September 18, 2008 03:01 AM
May God rest his soul. Suicide is such a tragic way to go, and having to deal with it personally in my family, I feel for his. May his work for animals live on through compassion and kindness to all animals, including humans, which live David may be the most fragile of all.
Posted by: Courtney | September 18, 2008 06:55 AM
I hope he finds peace wherever he is...
Posted by: Izzy | September 18, 2008 11:59 AM
Thank you for that, Sasha.
Posted by: dragonfly310 | September 29, 2008 08:54 AM