January 17th, 2012 — Great Speeches
Listen here:
DFW – 21 May 2005 – Kenyon College Commencement
The world of letters has lost a giant. We have felt nourished by the mournful graspings of sites dedicated to his memory (“He was my favourite” ~ Zadie Smith), and we grieve for the books we will never see. But perhaps the best tribute is one he wrote himself …
Special to MORE INTELLIGENT LIFE
This is the comencement address he gave to the graduates of Kenyon College in 2005. It captures his electric mind, and also his humility–the way he elevated and made meaningful, beautiful, many of the lonely thoughts that rattle around in our heads. The way he put better thoughts in our heads, too. (Many thanks to Marginalia.org for making this available.) Continue reading →
January 16th, 2012 — THE WORLD/CULTURES
December 18th, 2011 — ISSUES
December 18th, 2011 — Homelessness, HUMAN INTEREST, ISSUES
December 18th, 2011 — Homelessness, HUMAN INTEREST, ISSUES
December 18th, 2011 — ENVIRONMENT
December 18th, 2011 — HUMAN INTEREST
December 11th, 2011 — EDUCATION, HUMOR
TOTALLY LIKE WHATEVER
In case you hadn’t noticed,
it has somehow become uncool
to sound like you know what you’re talking about?
Or believe strongly in what you’re saying?
Invisible question marks and parenthetical (you know?)’s
have been attaching themselves to the ends of our sentences?
Even when those sentences aren’t, like, questions? You know?
Declarative sentences – so-called
because they used to, like, DECLARE things to be true
as opposed to other things which were, like, not -
have been infected by a totally hip
and tragically cool interrogative tone? You know?
Like, don’t think I’m uncool just because I’ve noticed this;
this is just like the word on the street, you know?
It’s like what I’ve heard?
I have nothing personally invested in my own opinions, okay?
I’m just inviting you to join me in my uncertainty?
What has happened to our conviction?
Where are the limbs out on which we once walked?
Have they been, like, chopped down
with the rest of the rain forest?
Or do we have, like, nothing to say?
Has society become so, like, totally . . .
I mean absolutely . . . You know?
That we’ve just gotten to the point where it’s just, like . . .
whatever!
And so actually our disarticulation . . . ness
is just a clever sort of . . . thing
to disguise the fact that we’ve become
the most aggressively inarticulate generation
to come along since . . .
you know, a long, long time ago!
I entreat you, I implore you, I exhort you,
I challenge you: To speak with conviction.
To say what you believe in a manner that bespeaks
the determination with which you believe it.
Because contrary to the wisdom of the bumper sticker,
it is not enough these days to simply QUESTION AUTHORITY.
You have to speak with it, too.
December 5th, 2011 — HUMAN INTEREST
The National Book Awards Acceptance Speech for Poetry November 16, 2011
Ciprianis New York, New York
One: We begin with history. The Slave Codes of SC, 1739:
a fine of one hundred dollars and six months in prison will be imposed for anyone found teaching a slave to read, or write, and death is the penalty for circulating any incendiary literature.
The ones who longed to read and write, but were forbidden, who lost hands and feet, were killed, by laws written by men who believed they owned other men. Their words devoted to quelling freedom and insurgency, imagination, all hope; what about the possibility of one day making a poem? The kings mouth and the queens tongue arranged, perfectly, on the most beautiful paper, sealed with wax and palmetto tree sap, determined to control what can never be controlled: the will of the human heart to speak its own mind.
Continue reading →
November 30th, 2011 — ISSUES
