So I was thinking about some of the issues that came up in class today. An interesting topic that emerged from the 10 am class is the idea of bias. Is Wallace being bias? How so? Is he biased about the Lobster Festival or lobster rights or both?
Another issue that peeked my interest is Marcus's idea that "culture is hungrier than man." Any thoughts... Let's continue the conversation!
I guess my biggest problem with Wallace's article is that I love Maine after working there all summer. There was something oddly soothing about the hundreds of bobbing lobster traps over the still harbor. YES it is kind of morbid and YES I did look at every one of those lobsters in the walk-in and told them I was sorry. I made up names for them and was sure to speak for all of the live lobsters that were fiesty...all of the boys in the kitchen thought I was a complete loon...lol. But somehow the lobster and Maine just fit together. It brought life to a state that lays dormant for half of the year. And it brings a smile to little kids faces when they see this cartoon-like crustacean and get to pull it apart. It's finger food for everyone. I feel like if Wallace spent more than an afternoon at the festival he might have seen the culture of the lobster instead of the torture of the lobster.
I am worried that perhaps Wallace is beating a dead horse with this entire article.... and i'm sure he'd be upset about that as well. this type of argument can be made about any animal we kill in order eat it. yes, yes, i know... they are boiled alive.. but... does anyone want to talk about the live animals or insects used for catching hungry predators? or perhaps the bleeding out process of cows? or overcrowded captivity of countless animals of all types and sizes across the nation? (even in our very own china town) while i believe we should be as humane as possible when dealing with animals, someone will always find our attempts unsatisfactory. we are, in fact, just trying to survive. i do agree that making a decadent lobster dinner is a tad excessive...but damn tasty. if we look at all other aspects nature we can see that often the most painless way of killing your food is not often the most humane. breaking necks, removing limbs, poisoning, etc. more importantly, in the wild, often the sick or wounded will be targeted out first... or even the youngest and the defenseless. is there no article yelling at other animals and their process of meal selection?
i don't mean to sound insensitive i'm actually a vegetarian...& i think that even gives me a better perspective on the situation. food is a choice. if you don't like it, choose something else, a different method, anything. the possibilities are nearly endless.
I feel like people will make excuses in order for their actions seem justifiable no matter what the situation. If I wanted to eat a lobster I think I'd have a fairly easy time convincing myself that it's perfectly acceptable to do just that. It's easier for me to justify killing a lobster with my own two hands then it would be to kill a cow because a lobster is less human. When I think of a cow I think of how it's similar to humans, but when I see a lobster I can't relate. I would imagine killing a cow is a messy job while killing a lobster is quick, easy & painless...well for me, maybe not so much the lobster.
remember when edward furlong tried to free those lobsters a really long time ago? that's all i could think of when i was reading this article, except i thought it was macaulay culkin or shia. i don't even really know who edward furlong is.
anyway, i guess the bottom line is that humans feel superior to animals, and as such animal cruelty has been around for a long time. even with all these new reforms calling for cage free eggs and free range cows. it doesn't change the fact that free range or not, cows die in the end, right? and i don't know how they do it, but every pamphlet i've ever gotten from PETA hasn't had very nice things to say about the beef industry. so i'm guessing it's not very pleasant for the cow. anyway, for some reason i feel worse for the cow than i do for the lobster. i mean, people eat live oysters and mussels and pretty much every other kind of shellfish, so i guess i just lump lobsters in that category. i don't know, i mean, i got wallace's point, it just didn't really make much of a difference to me. lobsters die and it's probably painful. that sucks. but if you try to free the lobsters from their tanks, you get arrested.
Welcome to the official WR121: Genre Blog. This site will allow students to take classroom converstions out of the private sphere of the classroom and into the public realm.
5 comments:
So I was thinking about some of the issues that came up in class today. An interesting topic that emerged from the 10 am class is the idea of bias. Is Wallace being bias? How so? Is he biased about the Lobster Festival or lobster rights or both?
Another issue that peeked my interest is Marcus's idea that "culture is hungrier than man." Any thoughts...
Let's continue the conversation!
I guess my biggest problem with Wallace's article is that I love Maine after working there all summer. There was something oddly soothing about the hundreds of bobbing lobster traps over the still harbor. YES it is kind of morbid and YES I did look at every one of those lobsters in the walk-in and told them I was sorry. I made up names for them and was sure to speak for all of the live lobsters that were fiesty...all of the boys in the kitchen thought I was a complete loon...lol. But somehow the lobster and Maine just fit together. It brought life to a state that lays dormant for half of the year. And it brings a smile to little kids faces when they see this cartoon-like crustacean and get to pull it apart. It's finger food for everyone. I feel like if Wallace spent more than an afternoon at the festival he might have seen the culture of the lobster instead of the torture of the lobster.
I am worried that perhaps Wallace is beating a dead horse with this entire article.... and i'm sure he'd be upset about that as well.
this type of argument can be made about any animal we kill in order eat it. yes, yes, i know... they are boiled alive.. but...
does anyone want to talk about the live animals or insects used for catching hungry predators?
or perhaps the bleeding out process of cows?
or overcrowded captivity of countless animals of all types and sizes across the nation? (even in our very own china town)
while i believe we should be as humane as possible when dealing with animals, someone will always find our attempts unsatisfactory.
we are, in fact, just trying to survive. i do agree that making a decadent lobster dinner is a tad excessive...but damn tasty.
if we look at all other aspects nature we can see that often the most painless way of killing your food is not often the most humane. breaking necks, removing limbs, poisoning, etc.
more importantly, in the wild, often the sick or wounded will be targeted out first... or even the youngest and the defenseless. is there no article yelling at other animals and their process of meal selection?
i don't mean to sound insensitive
i'm actually a vegetarian...& i think that even gives me a better perspective on the situation.
food is a choice. if you don't like it, choose something else, a different method, anything.
the possibilities are nearly endless.
I feel like people will make excuses in order for their actions seem justifiable no matter what the situation. If I wanted to eat a lobster I think I'd have a fairly easy time convincing myself that it's perfectly acceptable to do just that. It's easier for me to justify killing a lobster with my own two hands then it would be to kill a cow because a lobster is less human. When I think of a cow I think of how it's similar to humans, but when I see a lobster I can't relate. I would imagine killing a cow is a messy job while killing a lobster is quick, easy & painless...well for me, maybe not so much the lobster.
remember when edward furlong tried to free those lobsters a really long time ago? that's all i could think of when i was reading this article, except i thought it was macaulay culkin or shia. i don't even really know who edward furlong is.
anyway, i guess the bottom line is that humans feel superior to animals, and as such animal cruelty has been around for a long time. even with all these new reforms calling for cage free eggs and free range cows. it doesn't change the fact that free range or not, cows die in the end, right? and i don't know how they do it, but every pamphlet i've ever gotten from PETA hasn't had very nice things to say about the beef industry. so i'm guessing it's not very pleasant for the cow. anyway, for some reason i feel worse for the cow than i do for the lobster. i mean, people eat live oysters and mussels and pretty much every other kind of shellfish, so i guess i just lump lobsters in that category. i don't know, i mean, i got wallace's point, it just didn't really make much of a difference to me. lobsters die and it's probably painful. that sucks. but if you try to free the lobsters from their tanks, you get arrested.
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