In his own post about “Consider the Lobster”, The Rake said: “It’s hard to measure exactly, but it should be noted that the examination of the ‘animal-cruelty-and-eating issue’ takes up at least 1/2 of the article. Say what you will, but that seems mildly subversive and makes YPTR oddly happy.”

It does seem subversive, given, well: The existence of pate. In other words, gourmets aren’t a group one imagines as overly concerned with what the lobster banging the pot might be trying to communicate (one possible message: “Knock knock.” “Who’s there?” “Surf.” “Surf who?” “Surf in need of turf.” etc.). My cubby at work is next to a gourmet’s. I get a sandwich with some turkey in it and I have dithering moral swoons for an hour. He reaches over like, “Gimmethat,” and smushes the strip of turkey in the middle of his sausage sandwich, right between the duck breast and the salami.

So how did all this “animal-cruelty-and-eating issue” stuff get in Gourmet? There’s a tantalizing clue to behind-the-scenes editorial skirmishes in one of the footnotes (emphasis supplied):

Morality-wise, let’s concede that this cuts both ways. Lobster-eating is at least not abetted by the system of corporate factory farms that produces most beef, pork, and chicken. Because, if nothing else, of the way they’re marketed and packaged for sale, we eat these latter meats without having to consider that they were once conscious, sentient creatures to whom horrible things were done. (N.B. PETA distributes a certain video—the title of which is being omitted as part of the elaborate editorial compromise by which this note appears at all—in which you can see just about everything meat-related you don’t want to see or think about. (N.B.2. Not that PETA’s any sort of font of unspun truth. Like many partisans in complex moral disputes, the PETA people are fanatics, and a lot of their rhetoric seems simplistic and self-righteous. Personally, though, I have to say that I found this unnamed video both credible and deeply upsetting.))

For herself, Ruth Reichl, Gourmet’s editor in chief, writes in her “Letter From The Editor”:

Consider, for example, David Foster Wallace. We’re big fans of his writing—if you haven’t read his Infinite Jest (or at least part of it), you have a wonderful treat in store—and we spent a long time thinking about an appropriate assignment. After much deliberation (he didn’t want to go to Scotland to write about a big whisky affair, and the idea of sampling Rome’s nightlife did not interest him at all [heh-ed.]), one of us came up with the notion of sending him to Maine to write about the annual lobster festival, in its 56th year.

Nothing on earth could have led me to believe that “Consider the Lobster” (page 50) would be the result. It is hilarious, thought-provoking, very uncomfortable—and something you’re not likely to forget anytime soon.