The Glossary create a neat video for amazing David Foster Wallace speech

Date
9 May 2013

I’m not going to argue with you here dear reader, you simply must take time out to watch this because it’s utterly, utterly brilliant. You may be aware that in 2005 author David Foster Wallace gave the commencement address to the graduating class of Kenyon College. Entitled This Is Water it’s a wonderfully intelligent and inspirational meditation on the true value of education, which he believes “has nothing to do with knowledge and everything to do with awareness.” As is the way with the internet every now and then the speech resurfaces and does the social media rounds but this latest incarnation is really something. LA-based film company The Glossary have taken a 10-minute excerpt of the speech and created this video which focuses on what Foster Wallace calls “the boredom, routine and petty frustration” of daily adult life and how “real freedom” comes from choosing how you will react to your fellow human beings in these moments of mundanity. Uplifting but not cheesy, it’s just a privilege to hear an intellect like his reflect on such quotidian concerns.

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The Glossary: David Foster Wallace – This Is Water (still)

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The Glossary: David Foster Wallace – This Is Water (still)

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The Glossary: David Foster Wallace – This Is Water (still)

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The Glossary: David Foster Wallace – This Is Water (still)

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About the Author

Rob Alderson

Rob joined It’s Nice That as Online Editor in July 2011 before becoming Editor-in-Chief and working across all editorial projects including itsnicethat.com, Printed Pages, Here and Nicer Tuesdays. Rob left It’s Nice That in June 2015.

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