David Foster Wallace on Getting a Good Education
Courtesy of Bill, here is a university commencement address by David Foster Wallace. He makes a very sound argument for the value of the liberal arts education:
This, I submit, is the freedom of a real education, of learning how to be well-adjusted. You get to consciously decide what has meaning and what doesn’t. You get to decide what to worship.
It’s a bit high-minded in places, but I like his self-effacing tone and thebelieve in the central thesis of his talk.
In particular, I was interested in his thoughts on everyday activities as a kind of worship. I was speaking to somebody recently on the subject, and they pointed out that my blogging on a near daily basis is ritualistic. That, like religion or spirituality, blogging can be a search for the self or for greater meaning. This, of course, was an aspect of Julie Leung’s talk at Northern Voice and Gnomedex.
July 1st, 2005 at 4:10 pm
Blogging as a religious act ? I’d never thought of it that way
Errrr . . . like
Give us this day our daily blog,
And forgive us our comments,
As we forgive those who comment against us . . . ?
July 2nd, 2005 at 9:33 am
I’ve often thought that the real value of my arts degree has been that it taught me how to learn - how to approach new material, decide what is important from what isn’t for a specific goal and how to convey what I’ve learned to others. All that hunting through 16th century literature for themes somehow opened up a lot of doors, though at the time I was only there to be a literary snob.