David Foster Wallace’s ‘This is Water’ Speech in Short Film

By Maryann Yin 

The Glossary has created a short film incorporating an abridged version of David Foster Wallace‘s “This is Water” commencement speech.

We’ve embedded the project above–what do you think? Follow this link to listen to the address in its entirety.

Wallace originally delivered this speech in 2005 during Kenyon College’s graduation ceremony. Little, Brown and Company reprinted it in a 2009 book entitled This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life.

If you are looking for more wisdom from the late novelist, another David Foster Wallace-inspired short film project surfaced recently.

Blank on Blank, a Brooklyn-based nonprofit organization, developed an animation featuring his 1996 interview with WNYC’s Leonard Lopate. Click on this link to watch “David Foster Wallace on Ambition.”