David Foster Wallace gave this speech at the Kenyon University commencement in 2005. I read it in 2007. It was published in 2009.
When I first read it, I got through the whole thing, finally coming to the end where he says, "This is water." And I found that to be the strikingest of all the DFW striking lines in the history of DFW. So I send a mass email to family and friends attaching the speech and asking them to read this beautiful piece of insight I had been blessed with. The email subject line was, "This is water"
So I'm hanging out in the Book Table today and I'm about to check out and I stumble across a book by David Foster Wallace (deceased 2008) called "This is Water."
Someone once told me I have a knack for finding unusual striking lines.
wow. this is a devastating anecdote. devastating in the best way possible. to have lived it, i can't even imagine..tho it was probably entitled posthumously..ha..either way, whether it was titled by dfw himself pre-death or what, still emblematic of some amount of genius. (is genius like pregnancy, where relative areas need not apply, only absolute mountain peaks and valleys?)
ReplyDeletei also have sent this speech to many. however, my title was probably something more drably along the lines of "david foster wallace commencement speech." haha.