Consider the Lobster

1. Non-Fiction Informational, Satire, Comedy.

2. He uses footnotes to elaborate on points but writes them in a ironic, almost sarcastic, way. In footnote 15, Wallace considers the myth that the screaming sound coming from the boiling pot isn't the release of steam through a small vent but rather a lobster screaming as it is boiling to death. He then counters his statement saying that this can't be true since lobsters are not vocal creatures but instead communicate through pheromones.

3. This article escalates quickly. What starts as the explanation of a Maine Food Festival, turns into a history lesson, then a cooking recipe with tips and tricks, to a biology lesson discussing the anatomy of a lobster, to a moral and ethical argument about whether or not it is right to trap lobsters to then psychologically analyzing lobsters lack-of nervous system to see if it feels the pain that animal right's activists claim. Honestly, the article becomes increasingly ridiculous the further one reads, yet the transition from one odd topic to the next is seemingly smooth. David Wallace uses 'consider the lobster' as a way to consider the history of the lobster, the methods to make a lobster, the anatomy of the lobster, the thoughts of the lobster if a lobster can even think like we presume it does. Wallace simplifies all of this to plainly consider the lobster.