Tag Archives: David Foster Wallace

Random Philosophical Observations

This is Water

I think I’ve already mentioned this brilliant man before, his name is David Foster Wallace, he is a university professor of English and creative writing, and an American novelist.

I quoted him in a graduation speech he made in my post The Pages, Not the Book; basically in his speech, he was trying to impart his philosophies on work life and the conscious mind. Wallace used the analogy of a fish who meets another school of fish and says “Careful folks, the water’s a bit unsteady back there.”, and one of the fish responds with “What the hell is water?”. Water I’m assuming is a reference to life itself; as i understand it, the metaphor is trying to show us that moving forward aimlessly is never a good idea, we need to keep reminding ourselves that “Yes, this is water”, so that we don’t miss out on all the gems life offers us daily.

The best part of the speech is when he discusses our conscious decision to always assume everything happens to us, and not to everyone. He explains that we always have the choice to realise that yes, sometimes it sucks, and it’s hard, and unfair, and boring but that doesn’t mean that everyone else is any better off than you, that they don’t understand what you’re going through; and that’s why we should always choose to see any situation, whether stuck in line at a supermarket, or repeating the same tasks every single day at work, as a cynical reminder of how awesome it is to be human. We’re all in the same boat on this journey, we’re born, we live our lives, then we die; so instead of complaining about the fat old lady at the register, let’s revel in the moment and admire the beauty of being human.

Not that any of that is necessarily true, but it’s always a nice thought to keep in the back of your head when you feel like life is taking you nowhere.

And now for another lesson on life, by Jim Carrey this time!

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Thoughts

The Pages, Not the Book

This may have been a few weeks ago, but Adrian spoke about a very interesting concept that i think is valuable both in terms of network literacy and life as a whole. Using the analogy of the book, he tried to explain that it was the relationship between each page that creates our understanding of the whole book, and it is this relationship between parts that is essential. The network of relationships (or ecology) that results from this is so much more important than what it represents as a whole.

Without getting too philosophical, I think this is a great way to look at life. I feel that people are always wishing things were better without ever stopping to think about how good things already are; they overlook the pages, some of which are filled with excitement and joy, to focus on the book, which they see as a failure.

It reminds me of a video I saw a long time ago; it’s a university professor’s graduating speech discussing life and work, and how we can choose to feel like everything is in our way, or “experience a crowded, hot, slow, consumer hell-tight situation as not only meaningful, but sacred, on fire with the same force that makes the stars”. Professor David Foster Wallace reminds us sometimes even the most boring book about 8 hour jobs day after day can be filled with beautiful epiphanies of life’s beauties.

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