When I'm simply just sitting listening to a person talk my mind tends to drift off. It's not always because I find what the person is saying boring or unappealing, just that my thoughts go in a completely different direction. However, reading Wallace's speech I think he would have had my apt attention through out the entire thing. There were so many points he made that I could relate to. Almost like "Oh! Some one else thinks the same thing I always do!" This realization only adds proof to his claim we think in a very self-centered way. Therefore is there anyone in the world that's truly non-selfish and a GOOD person?? Maybe that's why out of all the people that have walked this earth there's not too many that have been named saints. For me, it's enough that I simply strive to be a decent, good person. An "A" for effort.
It especially resonated when he talked about entering the adult world and its routines. Coming to college, I feel like that's what my life has become-one giant routine. I go to class, come home, do homework, eat, study, then wake up the next day and do it all over again. Occasionally I'll have a meeting or event to attend and even earn myself some R&R (which is rare!), but those somehow work themselves into the life i live during the school week.
I thought it was ironic that Wallace mentioned suicide and how people killed the "master" because isn't that how he died?
As I said in class, he hung himself (or did I say that?).
ReplyDeleteStill, yes, I think that DFW was tortured by his mind--isn't that the reason that any non-sick person wants to commit suicide?
I like how DFW includes himself as a selfish person--perhaps this is what tortured him so much? Perhaps he couldn't give himself "A" for effort.