One main issue I have with this speech is the notion of monopoly Wallace paints higher education with. It seems as though he thinks that university is the only place that could teach you "what to think about". Note, I am not in contention with the statement that I need to learn what to think about. My issue stems from the fact that this can and does occur outside of schooling. Therefore, I don't see the point of claiming that university can teach you what to think about when it is not unique in this way.
It's been awhile since I've listened to/read this, but I don't think he ever makes that contention. He certainly focuses on the higher education liberal arts thing because it's an address at a liberal arts college.
>>7359932
However, in a general sense, I do enjoy and agree with this speech.
I don't think he's saying that it's the only place you can learn it, just that that's the reason you should go.
It would be like saying the reason to go to a grocery store is to buy groceries. There are other things you can do there, but the most efficient use of your time in the grocery store is to buy groceries. If you don't want groceries your time would be better spent elsewhere.
He was just trying to tie the speech's setting and occasion to what he really wanted to talk about, dont think too hard about it.
>>7359938
He mentions at the beginning of his speech. The point of the speech is to tell students why their education was important. So, in response to this, he creates the argument that higher education teaches you what to think about.
>>7359944
but at no point does that rule out other avenues of reaching the same destination
hes just saying that YOU (the audience) chose the higher education route
>At Barnes and Noble
>Perusing aisles
>See girl with every DFW novel surrounding her
>She is confused
>I ask "Having trouble deciding?"
>She says yes and goes on to ask if I saw the documentary that came out and if I'm familiar with the "This is Water" speech
>I cringe intensely internally, possibly externally
>She asks which one to read first
>Start with the greeks
>Left store and never turned back
I think higher education allows you to develops such a perception (more than if you head straight into the wage system), because it's a time where you have a lot of time - and this was true for me, even while doing a PhD in physics.
Another factor of having time is not having kids. Pursuing girls also doesn't help tbqh.
>>7359962
That's up to you. It's not the argument he's making. His argument is that, since you've chosen to enter higher education, here's how to most efficiently spend your time here.
>>7359962
a lot of people cant do it on their own
why go to an expensive rehab program when you can just quit doing heroin
>>7359956
Thanks for the blog R9K.
I so fucking glad this fag killed himself. I laugh out loud every time I see a picture of him.
>>7359990
Nice blog! Where can I subscribe, friend? :)
I also want to discuss his statement of there being a default worshipping. I feel as though it is literally impossible to disconnect yourself from a form of worshipping. Let's say you quit tv to become a great mathematician. Wouldn't you, after awhile, install mathematics as your new god. What once was noble and pure becomes another play thing to distract yourself from an impending death. There is no escape. The only true way to live is to stare at the abyss constantly, but we can't live in this way. Every action we perform that is not acknowledging our own death is a vice. Therefore, I feel like our vices are necessary and just in themselves.
>>7359992
>he thinks we don't know that /lit/ is the LiveJournal of 4chan
>>7359932
>who /autodidact/ here?
>who smart but lazy?
>I don't need no education
And the real reason is because he is doing a speech at a university. He is supposed to be discussing the merits of university education- at least, ostensibly. What he really did was give those students some affirmations that would help them in life in a broader sense, instead of just spouting meaningless platitudes to get them pumped up for university. He did this under the guise of talking about how their education would help contribute to this selfless mentality. You might have recognized this if you had received a college education yourself, family.
Agreee with you OP and I said the same thing on here recently.
What's bothering me about the hysteria of the normies when thye see Yale SJWs or whatever, is this unspoken assumption that university is a sacred place where all the world's learning takes place, omg, if idiots are at university then all of mankind is doomed!... no, I don't accept this. I don't care about idiocy at yale anymore than idiocy in ghettoville, detroit
>>7360235
Why did you waste your time writing that pompous meaningless garbage?
>>7360345
Its only meaningless if you are a baka without a college education
DFW spent his whole life in some academic institution or other. To him, university was the only way to learn.
His books are FUBU for white kids in school.
>>7360350
yikes! again with the smug posting
>>7360383
There is nothing smug or pompous about coming down on someone over their incapacity to appreciate a responsibility that most people honour in western society
>>7359932
That's not the focus of it at all.
He's just trying to add some meat to the traditional cliche that justifies a liberal arts education. And thereby justify his own life choices.
Remember that these threads of meaning he wove couldn't hold him and he killed himself. The ultimate refutation.
>>7359932
Can we all agree that this is is Magnum opus?
>>7360743
Brief Interviews #20
>>7359938
This. Since he was invited to speak at a college, to college graduates it would have been rude to shit on college education.
reminder that dfw packed on the reg and if you want to be literary you gotta pack fatties
>>7360775
>implying dipping makes you a better writer
>>7360784
Nicotine is a writer's best friend.
>>7360766
He kind of does shit on the typical idea of why you'd go to a liberal arts college. It's WAKE UP SHEEPLE AND SMELL THE COFFEE retranslated for liberal arts students.
The best part of the speech is when he's describing the least optimal, most brainless way of thinking about the world and everyone starts laughing as if it's true. It's only true insofar as everyone resorts to this silly, automatic way of thinking that only makes them more miserable and more likely to be a total asshole instead of a human being with agency and the ability to think.
I think that's why the dude killed himself. He tried to say what he thought was important and kind of sad and everybody laughed instead.
>>7360784
>implying a plump lip doesn't stimulate creativity and efficiency simultaneously
>>7360815
His problem was not subscribing to absurdism. We keep trying to look at where we stand in history and what the meaning of our time is, but in reality we are the same as every other civilization. Irony and sarcasm are not illnesses of modern man. They're illnesses of man. His hope to escape "modern hell' is where his problem lies. Life is absurd.
>>7359962
Learning on your own is good
Learning with others is better
Learning with others in a structured learning environment is even better
Simple
>>7360939
learning with others is better only to stimulate learning on your own, i think
it's not better if learning with others influences your views in a way that learning on your own wouldn't
you spend your time with people interested in a certain thing and you will inevitably become interested in that thing as well
i'm not saying you can be free from influence but you can keep your influences fairly impersonal, so you don't feel like you owe people something
nor must you feel like you owe yourself anything, say, to look smart or argue for consistent opinions
