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Nathan Hong

Professor Tae Sung

Writing 39B

7 May 2017

In 2005 David Foster Wallace gave a commencement speech at Kenyon College

that broke every convention of a standard graduation speech, and placed itself on the

top charts of numerous commencement speeches according to Huffington Posts Sam

Levine. Wallaces speech gained so much popularity that after his suicide his speech

was published into a book by the Little, Brown and Company, and would then further be

adapted into a short video format created by The Glossary. The words between each of

these three mediums remained mostly the same, with the exception of additions and

omissions from the original, but the message became altered in the process. As

Marshall McLuhan put in his book, Understanding Media The Extension of Man, the

medium is any extension of ourselves(5). Each medium version was created by

different parties that extended their own intentions through their words, thus altering the

message. Wallace intended to impart his experience, Little, Brown and Company

sought profit, and The Glossary aimed to gain publicity. McLuhan also wrote in his book,

...it is the medium that shapes and controls the scale and form of human association

and action(7). This leads us to believe that each producer of each respective medium

made changes to the message to better suit their needs and to invoke a different

responses from their audience. We will analyze the rhetoric of the original speech and
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compare it to that of the video and book adaptations. By analyzing each one separately

we can contrast the underlying messages as well as identify changes and their effects

on the overall message.

David Foster Wallace was a man of brilliant self reflective thoughts and was even

considered The most influential writers by David Ulin of the New York Times.

Wallaces commencement speech at Kenyon Colleges graduation caught the attention

of many due to its deep message and hyper realistic scenarios for the future to come

for the new graduates. In order to fully analyze the speech, we must understand

Wallaces intentions for writing the speech. Wallace being a critic of consumerism, as

seen when he refers his time in the market as a consumer hell-type situation most

likely did not accept the job for a large amount of money. It was also unlikely that he did

it for the publicity because normally commencement speeches are not broadcasted.

Wallace being a liberal arts graduate, teacher, and philosopher likely wanted to impart

his knowledge of his experiences to the younger generation for the betterment of

society. He aimed to push forward the idea that an education is the key to allow

individuals to think for themselves, rather than just learning to think. Wallace has gone

through life and realized that he was in a default setting and needed to break out of it.

But the message is only as important as the way it is said. Wallace begins his speech in

an obscure fashion by nervously opening with the quote, If anybody feels like

perspiring, go ahead because I sure am going to. This quote not only establishes his

ethos but tears down the predisposed image the audience might have of him. Although
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these lines are intentional his shaky voice and awkward tone are not necessarily part of

the way he imagined his speech. Sam Levine, an editor at the Huffington Posts, wrote a

story that traced the backstory of the speech. In the article Levine wrote that Wallace

would refer the commencement as The big scary ceremony, which displayed the

underlying anxiety Wallace had going into the speech. Wallace throughout the latter part

of the speech spoke calmly and clearly, and always reiterated that he was not preaching

a sermon or teaching a moral lesson. This makes it clear his intention is to only invoke

thought on the subject rather than get everyone to the same conclusion. The speech is

a unique medium because amongst the three mediums we are analyzing it is the only

one that involves interaction between the audience and the speaker. Wallace belittles

the people driving large cars, sucking up a bunch of gas, to which the crowd responds

with jeers of laughter and applause. Wallace is able to respond to the audiences cheers

with the words, Thats not how you should respond. The ability to respond and guide a

listeners thoughts while not completely destroy the imagination is unique to the medium

of speech. Speaking to an audience gives the speaker a certain level of control that is

only available to this specific medium. The speaker can control body language, inflect

their voice, as well as control the pace to which they are speaking. This control is

manipulated easily to invoke thought, emotions, and reactions in some cases. Speakers

are also able to use common strategies like alliteration, repetition, and imagery to

strongly get points across. Speeches do have cons despite having so many good

qualities. The amount of information that a speech can deliver is limited by how fast the

speaker can talk and how much the audience can comprehend at that speed. According
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to John Coleman of Harvard Business Review, the average speed for speaking is about

150 words per minute meaning that a one thousand word speech would take about

seven minutes, therefore words need to be deliberate and concise to hold the attention

of the audience or else they would get bored.

The next analysis is the book adaptation of the speech, This is Water by David

Foster Wallace. The primary purpose for any company to publish a book is with the

intention to profit off the written work, and secondarily to have their work to reflect

positively of them. This book was published by the Little, Brown and Company, the

same group who published Wallaces past works such as Infinite Jest, a mere seven

months after the death of Wallace himself. One could argue that the publishers printed

this book was an homage to Wallace since parts were modified to reference his suicide.

These initially seem like good additions, since they to paid respects to Wallace but it

detracts away from the original message. Wallace intended to invoke thought amongst

his audience to guide them towards thinking about their thoughts and prioritize others

situations. The book alternately states the main point as It is about making it to thirty, or

maybe even fifty, without wanting to shoot yourself in the head(Wallace, 130). This

draws back to self-centered attitudes which Wallace warns about as the default setting.

Wallace didnt want the focus to be about the death to come, but rather to enjoy life in a

state of mind that is not selfish.

There are other aspects that are modified, not pertaining to suicide, that are

intended to promote sales of the book. These changes affected Wallaces ethos by

making him more appear more confident despite his nervous demeanor during his
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speech, also changing the rhetoric between speech and book. The reason for these

changes is to make Wallace fit the conventional speech mold of displaying confidence

to emphasize that it is a good speech. The alterations begin with the absence of

Wallaces the awkward introduction, which makes the readers first perceive Wallace

much more confident than he actually was while giving the speech. The editors also

sought to make Wallaces image stronger by making him more aggressive. This can be

seen on page seventy-seven of the book he uses fuck as an adjective, despite never

even cursing once in the speech. Other changes include page twenty-three where the

book adds The atheist rolls his eyes like the religious guy is a total simp. These

changes take away from Wallaces calm and awkward persona, so therefore it complete

flips his ethos and therefore the rhetoric of the book.

The last major difference between the book and the speech is the contradiction in

values. As said before Wallace was a harsh critic of modern consumerism so his values

and the intentions of the publishers clash in a magnificent way. This is an absurd price

for a small book with a mere one hundred thirty-seven pages, some filled with a single

sentence. The book, at release, was sold for fifteen USD. The timing of this book also

factors into the money making strategy because it has been observed that artists sales

increase drastically after death, and this most likely applies to authors as well. This

works because the general public and fans want to pay respect to the individual and do

so by buying products associated with their name, thus increasing sales enormously.

The book also has another element to it that allows the audience to meditate on the

words, or have control of their own experience. This contrasts that of a speech which
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has the speaker in full control of how the audience is supposed to feel about the topic in

front of them. This control involves the speed, tone, and imagination left to each

individual.

The last iteration that we are analyzing is the video version of This is Water. This

short film was created and produced by The Glossary a small visual marketing team at

the time which is now an Emmy nominated company. Through analyzing email

interviews with the team as well as analyzing the alterations made to the original speech

we can see they intended to showcase their own skills to any possible clients in the

future. The email interview is between the AdFreak and the Glossary which begins by

questioning where the inspiration came from. The director, Matthew Friedel, who

stumbled upon the infamous commencement speech of two thousand five, claimed he

wanted to, ...spread the message. In the same interview the Glossary claims the

project was ...purely a passion project, and therefore felt exempt from asking

permission to use the audio in their video stating Sometimes it is easier to ask for

forgiveness rather than permission. The company also allocated a budget to hire actors

to play the main roles rather than just have friends play the part of their main characters.

This mentality puts their intentions into question because a small company would not

spend money on something that would not profit for them regardless if it was considered

a passion project. The Glossary understood very well how the speech was received by

the masses seen when they respond to the question if they were were worried about

doing the speech justice with Absolutely we were worried! Wallace has an extremely

passionate following and we knew it wouldnt be easy to adapt the original version.
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Knowing this they purposefully set out to recreate this video to prove to the masses they

were a capable visual marketing team. The final statement in the interview from the

Glossary said, But were always looking for whats next, so wed welcome anyone who

enjoyed This Is Water to get in touch with us. This reaffirms the idea that this was a

marketing ploy from them to get into the public spotlight.

We now know that there was a separation of intentions between the speech and

the book but there were other obvious misrepresentations of messages being

conveyed. Wallace in his speech promoted individual, free thought. This means that

even while listening to the speech he wanted the speech to reach every individual in a

meaningful way to them, and imagine how his message applies to their lives. On the

contrary, the Glossary promotes the idea of relinquishing thought over to them so that

they can produce what the client wants. This is representative in their film where the

you in Wallaces speech is now associated with the face of an actor rather than every

individual. The biggest irony is in the scene that defines what real freedom is, thus

confining the meaning of having freedom for the individual to think about. Music in the

background sets the mood for the audience to experience the film, and on screen texts

emphasizes points that the Glossary deems as main ideas. There is another issue

which takes the reader from the beginning of the speech straight into the story of the

individual in the store. This takes away from the complexity of Wallaces speech by only

giving the audience a part of the entire story with no context that it is for a

commencement ceremony. The random addition of a love interest also boggles the

main purpose of the speech since love had no place in the original speech, but this
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worked in favor of the Glossary who wanted to reach a large base. The Glossary

drastically altered the message to better suite their needs and to work within their

budget.
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Work Cited

McLuhan, Marshall. Understanding media: the extensions of man. Cambridge

(Mass.): The MIT Press, 2013. Print.

Levine, Sam. "David Foster Wallace's Famous Commencement Speech Almost

Didn't Happen." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 24 May 2016. Web.

07 May 2017.

Coleman, John. "A Speech Is Not an Essay." Harvard Business Review. N.p., 05

Nov. 2014. Web. 07 May 2017.

Griner, Davod. "The Story Behind 'This Is Water,' the Inspiring Video People Can't

Stop Watching." Adweek. Adweek, 09 May 2013. Web. 07 May 2017.