This Is Water preserves in slim hardcover form what has become one of the most widely circulated commencement speeches in modern American culture, David Foster Wallace's 2005 address to Kenyon College graduates, which opens with a small parable about two young fish who don't know what water is until an older fish swims past and asks how the water is, a story Wallace uses to build a genuinely serious argument about the invisible, unexamined default settings that govern most people's automatic thinking. Wallace, whose novels were famous for their maximalist complexity and length, delivers here something entirely different, a compact, direct meditation arguing that the real value of education isn't accumulated knowledge but the capacity to consciously choose what to pay attention to and how to construct meaning from ordinary, often frustrating daily experience, from standing in a long grocery store line to sitting in traffic, and this small book, published posthumously after Wallace's death, has taken on additional emotional weight as one of his most direct, personally revealing public statements about the daily struggle for genuine awareness and compassion.
The Fish Parable and Unexamined Default Settings
Wallace's opening parable about young fish unaware they're swimming in water gives the speech its title and its central, genuinely accessible metaphor for the invisible, unexamined mental default settings that govern most automatic, unreflective thinking.
Freedom as the Capacity to Choose Attention
Wallace's central, genuinely counterintuitive argument, that true freedom isn't the absence of constraint but the conscious capacity to choose what to pay attention to and how to interpret frustrating daily experience, reframes freedom in a way that has resonated widely beyond the original graduating audience.
The Everyday Grind as Philosophical Territory
Rather than abstract philosophy, Wallace grounds his argument in genuinely mundane daily frustrations, grocery store lines, traffic jams, tedious errands, giving the speech unusual practical relevance for ordinary daily life rather than only lofty occasions.
Compassion as a Deliberate Practice
The speech's argument that choosing to imagine sympathetic explanations for frustrating strangers, rather than defaulting to irritation, requires active, deliberate mental effort offers a genuinely practical framework for practicing compassion in ordinary daily interactions.
Wallace's Own Struggle Made Visible
Knowing Wallace's own documented struggles with depression, which led to his death by suicide three years after this speech, gives the text's discussion of the exhausting daily effort required to maintain awareness and avoid despair added, genuinely poignant weight.
A Genuinely Different Register From His Fiction
Readers familiar with Wallace's famously maximalist, digression-heavy novels will find this slim, direct, accessible speech offers a genuinely different entry point into his thinking, more immediately approachable than his longer fiction.
The Physical Book as a Slim, Standalone Object
This edition presents the speech as a genuinely slim, quickly readable standalone hardcover, distinct from anthologized versions, making it a distinctive physical object suited to gift-giving or repeated brief re-reading.
Warning Against Unconscious Worship
Wallace's extended discussion of how everyone worships something, whether money, beauty, power, or intellect, by default, and how unconscious worship of these things will eventually consume a person, offers the speech's most philosophically serious and demanding section.
Who Should Read This Book
This Is Water is valuable for graduates, students, and any reader wrestling with questions of meaning and daily attention, as well as longtime Wallace readers wanting his most direct, personally revealing public statement.
The Premium Hardcover Edition
This hardcover edition presents the speech as a physically distinctive slim volume appropriate for a text widely regarded as one of the most significant commencement addresses of the past several decades, with binding quality suited to gift-giving.
Pros and Cons
Pros:
- The fish parable gives readers a genuinely accessible, memorable metaphor for unexamined default thinking
- Reframes freedom as the conscious capacity to choose attention rather than absence of constraint
- Grounds abstract philosophy in genuinely mundane daily frustrations, giving it practical relevance
- Offers a practical, deliberate framework for practicing compassion in ordinary daily interactions
- Slim, quickly readable format makes it accessible to readers intimidated by Wallace's longer fiction
Cons:
- Very short length means some readers may want more extended development of its core ideas
- Knowledge of Wallace's later death by suicide can add heaviness some readers may find difficult
- The speech's arguments, while resonant, offer philosophy rather than concrete step-by-step guidance
Frequently Asked Questions
How long is this book?
It's a genuinely slim volume, since it publishes a single commencement speech rather than a full-length book, making it a very quick read compared to Wallace's famously long novels.
Do I need to have read Wallace's novels first?
No, this speech is written for a general graduating audience and stands entirely independently of his fiction, making it accessible to readers unfamiliar with his longer work.
What does the fish parable mean?
It illustrates how people are often unaware of their own automatic, unexamined default thinking patterns, just as fish swimming in water don't consciously notice the water itself.
Is this book primarily philosophical or motivational?
It blends both, offering genuine philosophical argument about attention and meaning while also functioning as a motivating, practical call to conscious awareness in daily life.
Final Verdict
This Is Water preserves David Foster Wallace's genuinely influential 2005 commencement speech in a slim, distinctive standalone hardcover, built around the memorable fish parable and a serious argument that true freedom means consciously choosing what to pay attention to. Its brevity is a genuine strength, delivering real philosophical weight without requiring familiarity with Wallace's longer fiction. This premium hardcover is essential, quietly moving reading for anyone wrestling with the daily grind of attention and meaning.
Rating: 9.0/10