This video has been moving along nicely on social media for a week or so now, but here it is again. According to my Goodreads account, I have read eight books by David Foster Wallace and I believe none deserve your attention more than THIS IS WATER. What started as a commencement address to Kenyon College graduates became Wallace's most accessible and moving piece and now there is a short movie made about it. I'll admit it's a rather corny movie, but it has an interesting value by the mere fact that it was made. Now you can't say you won't read THIS IS WATER because you don't read. There is a freakin' movie about it. Only nine minutes to sit through and pay attention. That was already a manageable investment of time, now it's a really manageable one.
Another beautiful thing about this movie is that it's not the entire piece. Of course, it is available elsewhere on YouTube, but you'll have to sit through twenty-two minutes of a still image if you want to hear it. I don't consider this to be piracy or anything. I'm sure Wallace himself would have loved to see this message spread around like that. The majority of his work is so lengthy and complex anyway, it's impervious to any form of piracy anyway. You are not going to sit through a YouTube of WESTWARD THE COURSE OF EMPIRE TAKES ITS WAY and even less of INFINITE JEST. So I believe THIS IS WATER was his gift to everyone who can breathe and think.
Part of me hopes this won't launch another wave of unchecked David Foster Wallace worship. Dead-eyed hipsters will tell you he's a genius, a cryptic figure like Kurt Cobain who's impossible to fully understand. They have his words tattooed on his skin and don't understand why. They pride themselves in saying they took three months to read INFINITE JEST, with the help of a dictionary.I'll say it before and I'll say it again. I like Wallace's non-fiction better than his fiction (although his fiction can me amazing at times). I think he gave us better access to his own mind than through any mind he could have created and achieved his goal of clarity best through his essays. I'll let you be the judge. Watch THIS IS WATER and tell me what you think.
Another beautiful thing about this movie is that it's not the entire piece. Of course, it is available elsewhere on YouTube, but you'll have to sit through twenty-two minutes of a still image if you want to hear it. I don't consider this to be piracy or anything. I'm sure Wallace himself would have loved to see this message spread around like that. The majority of his work is so lengthy and complex anyway, it's impervious to any form of piracy anyway. You are not going to sit through a YouTube of WESTWARD THE COURSE OF EMPIRE TAKES ITS WAY and even less of INFINITE JEST. So I believe THIS IS WATER was his gift to everyone who can breathe and think.
Part of me hopes this won't launch another wave of unchecked David Foster Wallace worship. Dead-eyed hipsters will tell you he's a genius, a cryptic figure like Kurt Cobain who's impossible to fully understand. They have his words tattooed on his skin and don't understand why. They pride themselves in saying they took three months to read INFINITE JEST, with the help of a dictionary.I'll say it before and I'll say it again. I like Wallace's non-fiction better than his fiction (although his fiction can me amazing at times). I think he gave us better access to his own mind than through any mind he could have created and achieved his goal of clarity best through his essays. I'll let you be the judge. Watch THIS IS WATER and tell me what you think.