David Foster Wallace on Life and Work (unabridged)

http://web.archive.org/web/20080213082423/http://www.marginalia.org/dfw_kenyon_commencement.html

by rms • 17 years ago

20 15 17 years ago

web.archive.org

rogerthat3• 17 years ago

Essay in the Times on this address:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/26/books/review/Bissell-t.htm...

Nicer (IMHO) WSJ format of Foster's address without the extraneous stylistic emphases found in the Marginalia version:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122178211966454607.html

"lords of our tiny skull-sized kingdoms, alone at the center of all creation"

It may seem inconsistent but I find it nicely complements Will Ferrell's commencement speech at Harvard:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVu8jfhcO9k

rms4• 17 years ago

This essay came up yesterday in response to a short PG essay. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=781583

The WSJ one is certainly easier to read and doesn't lose much but the almost excessive stylistic emphasis is what Wallace does; I'll talk the unabridged version. I do wonder if Wallace himself edited the essay for publication or if it was edited externally.

rogerthat3• 17 years ago

Marginalia received a DMCA takedown notice for their original copy of the speech:

http://www.marginalia.org/log/archives/2009/05/so-very-sorry...

But in the comments on their apology page at the link above, there's a reference to a book in which the address was published with Wallace's permission, as well an interesting note about an edit that Wallace made to the speech before publishing it:

An essay on April 26 about David Foster Wallace’s commencement address at Kenyon College in 2005, which has now appeared in book form as "This Is Water," misstated the speech’s publishing history. It was included in the collection "The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2006"; it is not the case that Wallace, who died in September, "never published" the address.

The essay may also have left the incorrect impression that both of the following sentences in the speech were omitted from the text of "This Is Water": "It is not the least bit coincidental that adults who commit suicide with firearms almost always shoot themselves in: the head. They shoot the terrible master." In fact, only the second sentence was left out.

rogerthat3• 17 years ago

Another great Wallace essay:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/20/sports/playmagazine/20fede...

"Federer as Religious Experience"

rms4• 17 years ago

Aaronsw compiled the complete list. http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/offline2 I have the .pdfs of some of the paywalled ones, anyone reading this can email me.

unalone• 17 years ago

That link you put up doesn't mention any DFW articles.

Perceval• 17 years ago

I just wrote a satirical piece a few days ago using the Kenyon speech and the "Federer..." article:

http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2009/8/19/17330/9169

michaelneale• 17 years ago

I had never heard of David Foster Wallace before this. Thanks for sharing it, has really made my day.

brentvwilliams• 17 years ago

If you haven't checked it out yet, you should definitely read his essay "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again."

http://harpers.org/media/pdf/dfw/HarpersMagazine-1996-01-000...

tptacek• 17 years ago

You should buy the book; the Illinois State Fair essay is worth the price alone. Also highly recommended is the audio version of "Consider The Lobster", in which DFW implements inline footnotes in audio.

I'm halfway through Infinite Jest right now (putting me many weeks behind http://infinitesummer.org, and I recommend it as well.

springcoil• 17 years ago

I think this is a very powerful post. Something I regularly thinking about. Especially the powerful self centered posted ideas. I like PG's idea that we should embrace randomness and avoid our self centered ness. Its something I do struggle with evry day. this article unfortunately at times reads like a suicide note.

bkovitz• 17 years ago

Oh, come on, folks. The DFW piece is ignorant whining. Some problems:

1. The great many people who live "unexamined lives" tend to be much happier. According to the research, conservatives are happier than liberals, people in the Midwest are happier than people on the coasts, etc.

2. The default settings are really, really good. You should be extremely skeptical whenever anybody tries to sell you that everyone is born "wrong" and needs to be "fixed" (circumcision, original sin, chiropractic adjustments for all children, etc.). (Vaccination and water fluoridation are the only exceptions I know of, and those are supported by actual science.)

3. Same with anyone saying, "If you don't do this one thing (which almost nobody does), your whole life is going to be HORRRRRRIBLE!!!"

4. Standard religions most certainly do eat people alive: the people who desperately obsess about them the way his (mostly imaginary) targets obsess about money, power, etc.

5. The real message of the article is the style, and what it says, sentence after sentence, is: "The older, wiser fish knows that life is crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap. And BTW, you know I'm the older, wiser fish, because I'm such a soul-sapping drag. Oh, and BTW, I'm the older, wiser fish, and you're not, and if you can't see that, that only proves what a naïve little twit you are. One day, all you goddamned self-centered little successful optimistic goddamned twits will all be sorry!!!"

David Foster Wallace on Life and Work (unabridged)

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