What makes this essay much more interesting than just talking on and on about an annual food festival held in Maine about Lobsters is that he make the essay just not about it the festival. I don’t know about anyone else in the world but, I love food in general. I find out random facts about food so, this essay was intriguing to me right when I started to read it.
David starts out with talking about the festival but, as you read more he goes so much more than just the festival. He mentions the history of the animal and its biology; such as the origin of its name, its central nervous system. He goes into a deeper topic of how the lobster can be prepared and the different methods of cooking it as well.
As you read more into the essay it sticks to a specific type of topic; killing the animal. As it was mentioned in the essay, at the Maine Lobster Festival, all the lobsters that are served at the festival are cooked (boiled) alive, all together in a giant pot. Now that does sound a little bit crazy but, he mentions other methods of “preparing” the lobster rather than boiling them alive. From then on, he goes onto the topic of the brain of the lobster. Talking about its non-existent cerebral cortex, and that in the cerebral cortex that’s where humans experience pain in the brain to send signals within the central nervous system. He also mentions the fact that even though there is a “merciful” technique, it might not even be where the lobster may particularly feel anything or nothing at all. As mentioned in the essay, Lobsters are almost like worms, where the idea of physical pain doesn’t pertain to them. It’s more of a disability rather than pain but, of course it has its own preferences of having a claw or not.
I really did enjoy reading this essay though. It was going in a different path than what I thought it was going into. I honestly thought that the essay was going to be about the festival and its history throughout the years. But, it turned out to be completely different and went into, just not the festival, but the way we cook things as well. Another thing that I didn’t really expect would be the mention of PETA. I honestly forgot PETA was a thing but, I digress. The mention of PETA was a surprise but, also at the same time it wasn’t. Of course, PETA would be all over a food festival, especially a festival that had to do with food. But, overall the essay was different than a lot of essays that I’ve read because it was completely different than what I had expected.
Alex Kang Photography 