Infinite Summer » Blog Archive » How to Read Infinite Jest. A Supposedly Fun Blog. Like putting a fish in water and other thoughts. David Foster Wallace on Life and Work The Wall Street Journal adapted this essay from a commencement speech given by David Foster Wallace to the 2005 graduating class at Kenyon College.
Wallace, 46, died earlier this month, apparently committing suicide. There are these two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, "Morning, boys, how's the water? " And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, "What the hell is water? " David Foster Wallace (Harper's Magazine) Many comedians consider stand-up the purest form of comedy; Doug Stanhope considers it the freest.
“Once you do stand-up, it spoils you for everything else,” he says. “You’re the director, performer, and producer.” Unlike most of his peers, however, Stanhope has designed his career around exploring that freedom, which means choosing a life on the road. Perhaps this is why, although he is extremely ambitious, prolific, and one of the best stand-ups performing, so many Americans haven’t heard of him.