• In two healthy paragraphs, summarize the speech and show (with framed quotes and paraphrase from the text) what you believe to be the author’s three main points/arguments. Support with textual evidence and include your own initial response to the material. //

David Foster Wallace’s speech “This is Water” is a commencement speech to the graduating class of 2005 at Kenyon College. He begins with an assessment of the liberal arts education that the students have just received, saying that their teachers were “teaching you how to think” (Wallace p. 1). But what does that actually mean? What were they teaching them how to think? Wallace proposes that the most important thing they learn is “to be just a little less arrogant. To have just a little critical awareness about [yourself] and [your] certainties.” (p.2)
Wallace continues, asking the graduates to look outside themselves and consider that everyone around them are suffering just the same, if not more than, they are. “It is extremely difficult to stay alert and attentive, instead of getting hypnotised by the constant monologue inside your own head.” (Wallace p. 3). How do you escape your own head to realize that there are others around you? How do you breathe when you realize that everyone around you is suffering? What do you do when you can’t tune them out and focus on your own struggles? That’s what I wish DFW had talked about more in his speech, because that is just as important as how important he highlighted looking outside of yourself to be.

• Do you agree with DFW’s main arguments? Why or why not? Explain. //

Yes, 100%. This is was such a fun read and I was so actively engaged the entire time. DFW is so amazingly articulate in his descriptions of adulthood and human suffering. I only wish he had validated individual suffering- saying that what you feel is real and important, that you don’t have to constantly be looking out to realize that everyone around you is also suffering, or possibly suffering more. Your own struggles are real and valid.

• Do you believe DFW is referring to empathy, even though he never uses the word? Or is he hinting at something else? //

I think DFW is very clever in his wording- never quite defining the emotions and experiences he’s talking about as nothing more than “thinking” or being “well-adjusted” (Wallace p2). He’s stressing the importance of looking outward when all we’ve ever known is how to look inward. Doing so is so much more than just empathy.

• Find one DFW quote that evoked a strong response. Paste the direct quote from his piece, then write a few sentences in which you challenge or support his statement. //

“Anything […] you worship will eat you alive.” (Wallace p5). WOW. Where do I even start!! This is such an amazing one-liner. I had to take a second to really let that whole paragraph sink in. To propose the idea that what we idolize and hold most important are the things we’re insecure about is such an incredible idea. I never thought about it like that before, but it makes so much sense.

• How do DFW’s main points interact with those of Paul Bloom (from our last reading)? //

DFW’s main points are difficult to connect to Bloom’s “Is Empathy Overrated” because Wallace never explicitly defines what he’s talking about as empathy. However, they do share some similarities of how we as humans take our biases and place them onto how we view others. Bloom goes into detail, expressing that we can’t empathize with people different from us, like victims of sexual assault (p. 3). Wallace says “consider the likelihood that everyone else in the supermarket’s checkout line is just as bored and frustrated as [you are].” (p. 5). Wallace suggests that we can only empathize with someone in the same situation as ourselves, just as Bloom proposes.