On May 21, 2005, David Foster Wallace gave the a commencement speech at Kenyon College. He was an award-winning American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and professor at Pomona College in Claremont, California.
This month the above video was produced with the core of that speech, and it has now gone viral on the internet.
There is a lot we can draw from this, alongside the explicit message being presented. There is the realisation that the last to notice the culture we live within are those living in it. We can also learn from the style of speaking; and from the way of the video presentation (oh that we might produce such quality).
Yes, many people who watch this point out that tragically
Wallace committed suicide by hanging himself on September 12, 2008. In an interview with The New York Times, Wallace’s father reported that Wallace had suffered from depression for more than 20 years and that antidepressant medication had allowed him to be productive. When he experienced severe side effects from the medication, Wallace attempted to wean himself from his primary antidepressant, phenelzine. On his doctor’s advice, Wallace stopped taking the medication in June 2007, and the depression returned. Wallace received other treatments, including electroconvulsive therapy. When he returned to phenelzine, he found it had lost its effectiveness. In the months before his death, his depression became severe.
The video has been removed for copyright reasons.