This is Water.

David Foster Wallace talks about what is means to be an adult with a liberal arts degree. His speech is mostly a cautionary tale to these graduates that warms them from slipping into monotony and falling victim to their own thoughts and thinking. He says that their degrees and education have been there to teach them how to think and to prevent this from happening. I think he chose this subject because he clearly saw this as a problem that commonly occurs with graduates and probably in him, too. As a student currently pursuing a liberal arts degree it’s almost like a glimpse of what awaits me. It doesn’t necessarily apply to my near future like it does for his implied audience but it is still applicable enough not to wave off. It doesn’t hold as much weight and impact as it would if I were in the realms of his implied audience.

Wallace as an author is relaxed and informal. His writing exhibits a clear finesse but it isn’t heady and pompous, as one would expect from someone who is asked to give a speech of this caliber or who has the amount of accolades that this man does. Because his writing is so accessible, it feels as if you are just having a conversation with a wise peer or uncle. He doesn’t try or there just isn’t an effort on his part to make him seem as if he is smarter than the graduates and that he knows exactly what to do. He’s easy going and it’s clear that he was chosen to be the speaker for the commencement speech because he’s relatable and it not a lecture for him. It’s just clear words of encouragement that he has the conviction to share because he seems that it is a real problem that occurs in his eyes. His goal is very much to impart them with the knowledge to keep from living the monotonous lives that many in their position fall into.

Wallace assumes that the graduates don’t already know how to think outside of their own minds. He assumes that the graduates don’t already worship power, intellect, or beauty. He assumes that this speech will prevent the worship from happening. Someone who didn’t attend college or who dropped out may feel slighted by this speech because Wallace assumes that without this education one would have no knowledge of “how to think” or be subject to tedium.

I agree with Wallace because as a college student you’re given all this knowledge that can all ultimately mean nothing if you don’t recognize that there are other things besides just what you think and what happens to you. Professors are giving you the tools to step outside of your own discoveries. Leaving college with all this perspective gives you the knowledge to reach beyond your own tedium, worries and selfish thinking to do something bigger with the education you received.