Consider the Lobster
David Foster Wallace · 2005
DFW brought hyper-intelligence, footnote culture, and genuine moral anxiety to the essay form. Essays on Kafka, John McCain, talk radio, the Adult Video News Awards, and (the title piece) a lobster festival. The central question throughout: how do we live ethically in a media-saturated world?
The case against
Wallace's footnotes stopped being a method here and became a tic. 'Host' fractures into typographic boxes that fight you for no commensurate payoff, the McCain piece sprawls long past its insights, and the title essay raises its ethical question, agonizes gorgeously, then shrugs. He performs scrupulousness more reliably than he reaches conclusions.
Essays · the Pro canon
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