Dit onderwerp is gemarkeerd als "slapend"—het laatste bericht is van meer dan 90 dagen geleden. Je kan het activeren door een een bericht toe te voegen.
3edwinbcn
This is water. Some thoughts, delivered on a significant occasion, about living a compassionate life
Finished reading: 26 December 2012
This is water. Some thoughts, delivered on a significant occasion, about living a compassionate life consists of the text of a lecture delivered by David Foster Wallace to the 2005 graduating class of Kenyon College.
In the lecture, Wallace tries to outline what could be a possible meaningful life: not greed, not power, not vanity, not consumerism.
The really important kind of freedom
involves attention, and awareness, and
discipline, and effort, and being able truly
to care about other people and to sacrifice
for them, over and over, in myriad petty
little unsexy ways, every day. (p. 120)
Other books I have read by David Foster Wallace:
Consider the lobster, and other essays
The pale king
Finished reading: 26 December 2012
This is water. Some thoughts, delivered on a significant occasion, about living a compassionate life consists of the text of a lecture delivered by David Foster Wallace to the 2005 graduating class of Kenyon College.
In the lecture, Wallace tries to outline what could be a possible meaningful life: not greed, not power, not vanity, not consumerism.
The really important kind of freedom
involves attention, and awareness, and
discipline, and effort, and being able truly
to care about other people and to sacrifice
for them, over and over, in myriad petty
little unsexy ways, every day. (p. 120)
Other books I have read by David Foster Wallace:
Consider the lobster, and other essays
The pale king
4absurdeist
3> Thanks for that, edwinbcn. I've listened to the speech but never yet taken the time to read it and reflect upon it's wisdom.
Is the power of its wisdom or truth or whatever you want it to call it, lessened because of his suicide, anybody think? He took some heat for it after he died when the commencement address was widely circulated online prior to its publication; criticized to one degree or another for not heeding his own advice.
Is the power of its wisdom or truth or whatever you want it to call it, lessened because of his suicide, anybody think? He took some heat for it after he died when the commencement address was widely circulated online prior to its publication; criticized to one degree or another for not heeding his own advice.
5FlorenceArt
Does not heeding your own advice mean it was bad advice? Or that you didn't really mean it? Or that sometimes good advice is damn hard to follow?
6anna_in_pdx
5: I agree with the way these questions are heading. It's easy to dish out advice, not so easy to take it - even from yourself.
Also, he had chronic depression and went off his meds, meaning he had an illness and is not totally accountable for his actions. I have to admit that while reading some of the things he wrote I feel angry at him for "giving in" to his demons but the fact is, I do not have a mental illness and it is kind of awful for me to be mad at someone who does, because on a very fundamental level I will never be able to understand what it's like, his great descriptions of depression notwithstanding. So I just feel very sad, and wish that he had stayed medicated and alive and had written more.
Also, he had chronic depression and went off his meds, meaning he had an illness and is not totally accountable for his actions. I have to admit that while reading some of the things he wrote I feel angry at him for "giving in" to his demons but the fact is, I do not have a mental illness and it is kind of awful for me to be mad at someone who does, because on a very fundamental level I will never be able to understand what it's like, his great descriptions of depression notwithstanding. So I just feel very sad, and wish that he had stayed medicated and alive and had written more.
7slickdpdx
I think there is a sinister side to this is water as there is no escaping it, no entertainment that will take you out of it if you are finding existence itself to be the problem. However, I could be way off since I haven't read or listend to the speech in its entirey. Most things I would consider to rise to the level of a "sacrifice" (see quote at 3 above) don't jive with the way Wallace uses it. Maybe he was being a bit loose but would that be typical? I wonder why he characterized what I might call normal accommodations of other people (that I also receive!) "unsexy" "petty" "sacrifices"?
8anna_in_pdx
I just watched, a couple of days ago, a video that was made with DFW's "This is Water" commencement address voiced over a film of people going to the supermarket and various other footage. It was very cool. It was also apparently an infringement of the copyright on the speech which belongs to his heirs so it was taken down. (Weird because i think the entire speech's text is available on line.) Anyhow, if the dispute is resolved I will post a link.
