This Is Water: The Original David Foster Wallace Recording

Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life

By: David Foster Wallace

Narrated by: David Foster Wallace

In this rare peak into the personal life of the author of numerous bestselling novels, gain an understanding of David Foster Wallace and how he became the man that he was.
Only once did David Foster Wallace give a public talk on his views on life, during a commencement address given in 2005 at Kenyon College. The speech is reprinted for the first time in book form in This is Water. How does one keep from going through their comfortable, prosperous adult life unconsciously? How do we get ourselves out of the foreground of our thoughts and achieve compassion? The speech captures Wallace's electric intellect as well as his grace in attention to others. After his death, it became a treasured piece of writing reprinted in The Wall Street Journal and the London Times, commented on endlessly in blogs, and emailed from friend to friend.

Writing with his one-of-a-kind blend of causal humor, exacting intellect, and practical philosophy, David Foster Wallace probes the challenges of daily living and offers advice that renews us with every reading.

Critic reviews

"David Foster Wallace's unbelievable graduation speech...will inspire you."—Daily Candy

"We read Wallace because he forces us to think. He makes us consider what's beneath us and around us--like water."—Alicia J. Rouverol, The Christian Science Monitor

"Think of it as The Last Lecture for intellectuals."—Time

"None of the cloudlessly sane and true things he had to say about life in 2005 are any less sane or true today...[This is Water] reminds us of [Wallace's] strength and goodness and decency--the parts of him the terrible master [the mind] could never defeat, and never will."—Tom Bissel, New York Times Book Review

"Striking...is [Wallace's] evocative insight and humor."—Mark Follman, Mother Jones

taoism from the tortured modern American soul.

living with Conscientious awareness of our surroundings and the people in our daily lives and choosing how we respond to it all. The eternal capital T truth is that man must learn how to endure his own internal monolog if he ever wishes to find harmony.

Thought-provoking

A fascinating, thought-provoking commencement address--a must-listen for those in education. The insights from his talk have stayed with me since first hearing it years ago.

#thought-provoking #greatforeducators #tagsgiving #sweepstakes

He gets it

Or he got it. But in the end keeping the beauty and mystery at the forefront was too difficult a task. I wish there was a world where he could have lived

Review of This is Water. Amazing short story of consciousness awareness and open mindedness. I really enjoyed it

I loved this, great sense of awareness and metaphor! I loved this short read, so much covered in such a little time

Yes!

How often I've tried to articulate this, but not nearly so well. I should listen to this every week.