This Is Water - David Foster Wallace - Part 1

courtesy of http://www.bravenewlife.com

This is part 1 of a commencement speech given in 2005 by David Foster Wallace.

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  People & Blogs

[ContraPoints]

Well, Bloom, like so many writers and critics, is so focused on one ideal of thinking and beauty that he totally misses genius when it takes other forms.

[minored360]

"Most of these suicides are actually dead long before they pulled the trigger" -- Fuck, man, that line gave me a teary eye; he gave this speech in 2005 and killed himself in 2008.

[MegaAclass]

How is there arguing can't people just watch the video and leave a nice comment?

[URETHRA FRANKLIN]

you want to speak about Bloom ? really ? ah ah ah are you on drugs or you're an asshole ?? shut the fuck up & go away.

you start from a wrong point: you're an ignorant & you dont understand nothing at all & you only establish & base your judgement & opinion on your taste, THAT TOTALLY MEAN NOTHING !! 

keep your mouth closed & locked & go study.

[kstriepe1]

The crowd is laughing at the most depressing observations. But what else can they do? This is, after all, suppose to be a happy occasion. Why invite a writer known to dwell on the supreme difficulty of living well in the modern world to give the commencement?

[jamesedwardtheobald]

not only that, someone may have a dilemma that none of us can relate to. i know i can't relate to the trauma of say, someone who was raped by their parents as a child. or someone who had a chemical depression, as mr wallace did. and as for the insensitive comments here ->that's okay, this is youtube after all, is to be expected, and we can be humorous about such things), i am sure mr wallace himself would not mind,judging from this speech, and would have agreed in a certain sense...

[demonator506]

And you are free to do so.

[demonator506]

The most obvious and important realities are the ones that are hardest to see.

[PaperettaPensierosa]

If your mother tell you that if you fall down from the fifth floor you'll die and one day she decides to jump down from the fifth floor, then you'll think that her advice was useless?

[Zachary Tepe]

I like McDonalds...

[ppofnz]

this guys the man!