This Is Water

A short film bringing David Foster Wallace’s commencement address to the 2005 graduating class of Kenyon College to live. Read the full speech.

(Thank you Nic)

8 Comments leave a comment below

  1. It’s a lovely video that borught a tear to my eye, but what does it mean that the man who spoke these words chose to hang himself at home one day?

  2. This means you should not trust a word of this man. no one who hang himself had said one true thing!

    I’m always ashamed how everyday people treat other’s worldviews, if they are different to theirs. suicide is my own business and no one has a right to put his nose in that kind of decision.

    on the other hand – he killed himself after many years off mental illness we call depression. he was tough guy therefore.

  3. Hi dear Swiss Miss,
    Are you aware that this delicious video has been made unavailable by the David Foster Wallace trust? The internet is wonderful with such things – as soon as it was removed from its original site it popped up in several different sites.
    It has a great poetic flow to it, and more people should see it – the message is “look at other people, consider other people”. There is nothing wrong with it. Au contraire…
    I think suicide does not kill all the good, all the intelligent stuff, it doesn’t kill the bad stuff, either. It is just the end. A very troubled end. Intelligent people tend to suffer more than average people who don’t care about others.
    Bye,

  4. Brilliant and inspiring.

  5. Awareness is key in life.

  6. I agree on every single word he says. It is poetic and it is beautiful. And I have thought about this before.

    David Foster Wallace rest in peace.

    Thank you swissmiss.

  7. I love the speech. But the film interpretation turned my stomach. Slim, acceptable white kids smile smugly at their DFW-mandated consciousnesses, with the undertones of a dating advert or an indie romance flick, with enough tilt-shift and inspimarational music to induce nausea. The whole thing feels slick and condescending and adverty and facebooky and incredibly narcissistic.

  8. People have some issues, what you put out into the world is who you are. Way to get the message. Lauren Hutnick does.