Key themes
- The essay as a form that can think out loud — even at enormous length
- Attention, sincerity and the difficulty of saying what you mean
- American entertainment culture and its relationship to meaning
About this book
Restless, footnote-laden essays on everything from tennis to ethics; brilliant and exhausting in the best way.
Published in 2005, Consider the Lobster collects pieces written for Rolling Stone, Gourmet magazine and other publications. It shows Wallace's range and his ability to use any topic as a vehicle for his characteristic philosophical digressions.
Discussion questions
- The title essay asks whether lobsters feel pain. How does Wallace use this question — and where does the essay actually go?
- Wallace's footnotes are often as long as the main text. What does this formal choice achieve — and what would be lost without them?
- The collection includes journalism, literary criticism and philosophical reflection. What holds it together — and what is Wallace's characteristic mode of thought?
- Wallace is simultaneously one of the most sincere and one of the most irony-saturated American writers. How does he navigate the tension between sincerity and the ironic mode?
- Consider the Lobster was widely celebrated and is now widely assigned. What does it offer readers — and what does it ask of them?
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