David Foster Wallace's "Kenyon Commencement Speech"

          David Foster Wallace's "Kenyon Commencement Speech” is one that is rather far from the normal.  Wallace opens up his speech with a story saying “There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes “What the hell is water?””.  This story coincides with the theme of his speech which he keeps referring to as the human “default setting”.  He talks about growing up and getting a job and how it is no fun.  So people tend to revert back to their default setting, where everything is about you, other people are slowing you down, in your way and you immediately get upset or flustered.  Wallace points out an obvious point that we only know life from our own view and that all information we perceive is through are interpretation.  So this default setting is hard to avoid however if you think about it you can change it.  By putting yourself in others shoes you can imagine what they may be going though that makes them act the way they do.  He talks about not letting your mind be the master of yourself as a whole.  Wallace sums it up nicely saying “That is real freedom. That is being educated, and understanding how to think. The alternative is unconsciousness, the default setting, the rat race, the constant gnawing sense of having had, and lost, some infinite thing.”  The infinite thing he is talking about is something, some being or someone that we worship and we will never be fulfilled with the amount we have.  Wallace concludes his speech by going back to the fish story and saying “this is water this is water” we all need to keep reminding ourselves to stay conscious and alive through the real world. 

In today’s culture no matter what someone does or archives it seems as though they are told they are a winner.  Obviously this is not true and I like that Wallace avoids that mentality and talks about awareness of everything around the person instead.  He talks about the default setting of a person to be like a rat race where everyone is concerned only with themselves and getting what they desire.  I find this very true for my life even know Wallace is talking of the employed life outside of collage.  I have just arrived at college and already three weeks in I can notice that I start to enter my “default setting.”  My main concern is my grades and absorbing all the knowledge I possibly can.  Thus I find that I am not as outgoing to meet new people or even have time to talk with other people.  That being said my grades will never be good enough at so the race continues.   To be able to be the master of your mind and use it as a tool is incredibly hard.   It requires being educated and understanding how to think.  Distancing oneself from the default setting and achieving what Wallace calls true freedom is something I cannot yet achieve.

 The main themes that run throughout the speech are very true.  However, he supplements his point of the mind being a terrible master saying this “It is not the least bit coincidental that adults who commit suicide with firearms almost always shoot themselves in: the head. They shoot the terrible master.”  Connecting these two points is a big stretch that I think cannot be made.  People shoot themselves in the head because it is the quickest way to kill them with a firearm.  Nerveless, Wallace has very strong themes that run through his speech that I can relate to and find true.  Wallace’s aspect on the truth about life is just another way to look at things and should be at least considered.