| Title | : | This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0316068225 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780316068222 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 138 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2009 |
How does one keep from going through their comfortable, prosperous adult life unconsciously? How do we get ourselves out of the foreground of our thoughts and achieve compassion? The speech captures Wallace's electric intellect as well as his grace in attention to others. After his death, it became a treasured piece of writing reprinted in The Wall Street Journal and the London Times, commented on endlessly in blogs, and emailed from friend to friend.
Writing with his one-of-a-kind blend of causal humor, exacting intellect, and practical philosophy, David Foster Wallace probes the challenges of daily living and offers advice that renews us with every reading.
This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life Reviews
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David Foster Wallace was a beautiful fucking person who said a lot of beautiful fucking things.
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‘the really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and being able to truly care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over every day. that is real freedom.’
continuing my tradition of starting off the new year with some words of reflection and perspective (see previous years:
2021,
2020,
2019, and
2018).
this address is a little different from most of the uplifting and positive words that are usually shared with graduates. DFW pulls back the curtain and really examines the experiences of day to day life, extending the challenge of choosing to view even the most insignificant moments with meaning.
with life having been disrupted for the past 20 months, its such a great reminder that how we view certain situations is a choice. and for 2022, i am going to try to choose to give meaning to every situation and make it a chance to help others rather than make it about myself, rather than seeing how a situation is only affecting me.
so for this year, i wish you all opportunities to find meaning in your everyday routine and the freedom to care about others.
PS - for those interested, here are links to the
text and
audio of the commencement address.
↠ 4.5 stars -
This is Water, like The Communist Manifesto, is an unfortunate document. Both are occasional pieces written for a narrowly prescribed purpose. Both appear to be distillates of a much broader, systematic force of thinking. Both are of a genre which have very tight constraints--the commencement speech and the manifesto--which dictate and limit the possibilities for both form and content. Both are widely read by those not familiar with that systematic thought. By not taking into account the genre of each or the larger body of work of which each appears to be a precis, both are broadly wrongly evaluated.
The commencement address, as a genre, is perhaps the most kitschy of our literary genres. There is little one can say which hasn’t been repeated ad nauseum. Even the clichés about how forgotten they immediately become have to be acknowledged in any standard commencement address, both that they are cliché and that they will be forgotten. The genre is a perfect opportunity for DFW to exercise his project of overcoming and moving out from and beyond irony to a second naivete of a direct, sincere, unselfconscious mode of communication.
He won’t escape irony nor its attendant self-consciousness; it is built into language. But, as the AA material in Infinite Jest demonstrates, indulging that irony can be deadly. The alternative is to embrace the banal platitude, something for which commencement speeches are designed. “Banal platitudes can have life-or-death importance. That may sound like hyperbole, or abstract nonsense.” Of course he knows how platitudinous he will sound. His is to rescue the cliche:“‘Learning how to think’ really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think.”
The trick is to not read the cliché naively, but to read the cliché as rescued by means of one’s position within an “I survived irony,” post-critical second naivete.
“Think of the old cliché about ‘the mind being an excellent servant but a terrible master.’ This, like many clichés, so lame and unexciting on the surface, actually expresses a great and terrible truth.”
Just as John Barth undertook to say all that which “goes without saying,” so too does DFW undertake to say the cliché , to uncliché the cliché, to un-ironize the unavoidably ironized platitude, finding there a means to continue as a non-zombiod human being, one capable of paying attention. Maybe he doesn’t succeed.
Should we evaluate This is Water for the kind of document it is, and refuse our chip on the shoulder that it wasn’t something else, we ought to acknowledge its superiority among other such specimen of the genre. Few commencement addresses are remembered, preserved, or subsequently published. To my mind, only Vonnegut has produced a piece as successful within the constraints of the genre.
Thus, despite all of our literary puritanism, our anti-market sympathies, it seems appropriate that the Kenyon Commencement Address, a document born as a kitschy occasional piece, would come to be marketed as a kitschy cash-register gift book. This is only appropriate.
Transcript can be found
here.
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‘This is Water’.
Water - Now I love that metaphor. I end up addressing many things and their traits and their progresses and their declines through this unbound source of immense satiation. But how does this fit into a speech delivered to students, facing a future that’s unknown and by that very virtue, intimidating?
Ah well, the thoughts weaved into this beautiful message says it all. For a text that I ended up highlighting half of, I would like to take this particular insight with me, forever.You get to consciously decide what has meaning and what doesn't. You get to decide what to worship...
Don’t take my word for it though. Read it. And find your meaning.
Because here's something else that's true. In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And an outstanding reason for choosing some sort of God or spiritual-type thing to worship — be it J.C. or Allah, be it Yahweh or the Wiccan mother-goddess or the Four Noble Truths or some infrangible set of ethical principles — is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. -
So much of the language I use everyday is centred around 'I'.
I feel it too.
I get you.
I understand what you're going through.
I. Me. Mine.
Somewhere within these juxtapositions of the objective reality as it exists and my personal view of it, lies the fine line between empathy and self-obsession. I sometimes worry that I'm so far beyond the line that I'll forget there ever was one. I sometimes worry that our language structures are evolving to support more self-centredness.
This is water is a short speech but so profound in its message that it will have you questioning your thought process. DFW asks us to think about the self-centredness that clouds our perspectives.
Everything in my own immediate experience supports my deep belief that I am the absolute center of the universe, the realest, most vivid and important person in existence.
Academic education has taught me to intellectualise my self-centredness, to think of it as a skill that was cultivated through conscious effort, while the truth is that self-centredness is one of the most natural human dispositions.
To say "this is water" is to look around you and see the reality that is hard to imagine without the 'I' in it. It is to look around you and see the truths that would exist in a world devoid of you and say "this is reality." This is water. -
Non c'è superficie
Introdotti da un memorial speech di De Lillo e curati con postfazione da Luca Briasco, scritti tra il 1984 e il 1991, i cinque racconti qui raccolti gettano uno sguardo sullo stile e la personalità letteraria di David Foster Wallace. Il tema principale è l'amore nelle diverse declinazioni, che danno spazio al tragico e al grottesco, e grande rilievo ha anche la riflessione psicologica, con il discorso personale e sincero sull'esperienza della depressione e del dolore, che sono osservate dallo scrittore americano come fonte di mistero e evoluzione. A completare l'opera, il celebre testo conferenza sulla consapevolezza tenuto al Kenyon College di Columbus, in Ohio (2005). Come sono fatti i personaggi dello scrittore di Ithaca? Sono eccentrici, stravaganti e insieme universali, hanno una forma emotiva complessa e sono spontanei, sono ipercoscienti e analitici o furiosamente creativi e di forza esplosiva. Le loro lacrime sono silenziose, silenzioso è il fluire del dolore. Di cultura smisurata, Wallace è un filosofo pratico; interpreta Wittgenstein e invita a agire su sé stessi e gli altri, sulla vita nella sua inafferrabile tensione alla trasformazione. Guardare le cose naturali come le più difficili da comprendere; scegliere a cosa pensare e come farlo. Cose che Wallace suggerisce di tenere sempre a mente; fuggire dalle trappole dell'ego, che abbia l'abito di schiavo o di padrone. Siamo fragili, effimeri e illusori quando crediamo di essere protagonisti. Wallace è maestro del margine e si definiva solidamente realista, come scrittore, perché era suo stile mettere l'immaginazione al servizio della moralità. È amaro: le persone più coraggiose ci lasciano. A ricordare. -
This may come as a surprise to people who know me, but I never read this before it came out in book format. I knew it existed, but like most of the occasional and short pieces by DFW I held off on reading them. At the time his writing came out so infrequently, that I always wanted to have things of his to read at some point in the future, when I would really want something new of his. Of course that has changed to their being nothing new to release, except for unpublished things that might see the light of day. After his death I heard about the relevance of this speech, but I didn't go out of my way to read it then either. Now that it's in a nice consumer format I have read it though, something I could have read for free for a few years now.
My friend Connor, along with most of the reviews I quickly glanced at, seem obsessed with the format of the book. The format is a little weird. Each page has a sentence on it. One of the sentences runs on to a second page, but basically it ends up sort of looking like an inspirational / devotional book. It also makes what is probably at most a ten page speech into a 135 page book, which the cynic in me screams out money-grubbing, it also seems like it might be aimed for the upcoming graduation market, trying to get in on the lucrative market that Dr. Seuss' Oh, The Places You Will Go makes an annual killing off of.
I can see the problem with the format of the book, and I agreed until reading it. The one sentence a page format forced me to read the speech slower than I would have. No quickly skimming at points, every line was read as if it was the first line in a chapter. Maybe this is a bit arrogant to make the reader engage a text in this fashion, but I know I'm guilty of quick reading certain parts of a text. I appreciated the format, although I can't say I would like this to become a norm.
The book makes two references to suicide, one can read into them what they want. Reading this speech as a suicide note is probably missing a huge chunk of what DFW was really trying to say, but it is impossible (for me at least) to completely put it out of my head while reading these lines. Too soon after this speech would be given, he would begin his nosedive depression, and twenty eight (or so) months later he hung himself. The advice he gives in the speech is in a way a remedy against the destructive thinking that will destroy one self, but it's not an easy remedy, but one that takes a constant awareness to live a life that isn't the mindless death of daily drudgery nor a cancerous and nihilistic solipsism from living a life trapped in the mind.
This book depresses me, in a good way I guess, but it still depresses me. If someone smarter and more successful than me can't manage this kind of Herculean feat of seeing the beautiful and True in the world, what kind of hope do I have? -
so. it gets five stars because of how terribly sad i still am. i read this online, of course, years and years ago, but i reread it in book form, just to see if anything had been added. it hasn't. just the fact of his death on the flap. i'd really rather have added material than that fact, wouldn't you? and i also would have liked this to have been delivered at my graduation (i mean, i had quincy jones, i can't complain too much, but still... despite all the good advice in this book, i am a complainer) so, a five star, five gun farewell salute to dfw, from me.
come to my blog! -
...μικρή αναγνωστική μπουκίτσα, διαμαντάκι!
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5 ⭐️
This is Water is the title of a commencement speech given by David Foster Wallace at Kenyon College on the 21st of May, 2005. This book is an (almost) word for word transcription of that speech. My thanks to Infinite (Jen) for sending me to YouTube for a gander, well worth it.
The essence of Wallace’s speech is the importance of being well-educated/well-adjusted enough to be able to choose to do the work of getting free of our "hardwired default setting", being that — "Everything in my own immediate experience supports my deep belief that I am the absolute centre of the universe, the realest, most vivid and important person in existence" — and "learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think."
This control of thought, Wallace posits, is the freedom of real education… "You get to consciously decide what has meaning and what doesn’t. You get to decide what to worship." He makes probably the most appealing case that I’ve heard for worshipping some sort of deity or set of ethical principles and that is, simply, that "pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive."
"If you worship money and things — if they are where you tap real meaning in life — then you will never have enough. Never feel you have enough. It’s the truth. Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly, and when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally plant you. Worship power — you will feel weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to keep the fear at bay. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart — you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. And so on."
If I’d read a printed copy of this book rather than the Kindle version, I’d have had to hang it out to dry with the amount of highlighting I did (as you can probably tell from my blatant copy-paste quote review). It’s not that anything Wallace says is ground-breaking or life-changing; on the contrary, the points he makes are, most likely, points that have been part of all of our inner-monologues at one time or another but which many of us might struggle to put into words with as much lucidity and simplicity as Wallace. What it is more than anything is a reminder to keep your head out of your ass and choose the right mindset to approach the "boredom, routine and petty frustration" of adult life; To be more compassionate and less self-centred. I’ve made this sound very "self-help" but I assure you it’s not, at least not in the usual lecturey-roll-your-eyes way.
I’m considering a ‘Check yourself before you wreck yourself’ shelf for books/speeches that would be helpful to re-read periodically as a kind of personal calibration when one feels themselves straying into a negative, caustic headspace. This speech would certainly deserve a place. As David says himself, we all know this stuff, "the trick is keeping the truth up front in daily consciousness".
"... there are all different kinds of freedom, and the kind that is most precious you will not hear much talked about in the great outside world of winning and achieving and displaying.
The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day. That is real freedom... The alternative is unconsciousness, the default setting, the “rat race” — the constant, gnawing sense of having had and lost some infinite thing." -
I listened to this speech online and there is something about listening to David Foster Wallace talk that I find soothing
As a speech it’s worth reading or listening to and offers a more compassionate way to view life. -
Και αυτό εδώ είναι ένα πολύ όμορφο βιβλίο. Πρόκειται ουσιαστικά για την ομιλία που έδωσε ο Wallace στην τελετή αποφοίτησης των μαθητών του Κολλεγίου Kenyon η οποία ήταν τόσο επιτυχημένη που οδήγησε στην έκδοση του συγκεκριμένου βιβλίου.
Αν δίνονταν περισσότερες τέτοιου είδους ομιλίες, αντί για χιλιοειπωμένους inspirational speeches που ξεφουσκώνουν την ίδια στιγμή που βγαίνουμε εκεί έξω να αντιμετωπίσουμε την ζωή, ίσως ο κόσμος μας να ήταν έστω και λίγο καλύτερος.
Αξίζει να διαβάσετε την ελληνική μετάφραση γιατί κράτησε αυτούσια κάποια σημεία του λόγου του, τα οποία στην αμερικάνικη έκδοση αλλοιώθηκαν ελαφρώς λόγω της αυτοκτονίας του συγγραφέα. -
Better heard spoken for the full sting. A powerful speech but the message seems to be rather simple: don’t be a selfish asshat. Or is that a little reductive? Anyway—one star for the cash-in and four stars for the speech. Coming soon from Little, Brown in DVD & books: The Best Hesitant Pauses on KCRW’s Bookworm, The Ten Best Awkward Selfconscious Squirming Moments on Charlie Rose, and Half-Remembered Conversations Anyone Has Ever Had With DFW. Also available from the DFW Tacky Cash-in Emporium: DFW headbands. For that sweaty public reading! DFW scrunchies. For that 80s ponytail look! DFW spectacles. For staring into the soulful eyes of Wallace on Google! Etc and so forth.
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“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?"
What DFW wanted to get across with this little story was that the most obvious realities are often the hardest ones to talk about. To David Foster Wallace, this difficuilt, but most obvious reality was that we, as individual beings, believe ourselves to be the absolute center of the universe.
The way in which we can rid ourself of our self-centeredness, is, in David's opinion through a myriad of little unsexy doings throughout our everyday life. Doing these things will not only make everyone else's life better, but also our own.
DFW uses the example of an adult coming home from work, tired, then realizing that he/she needs to buy groceries. On the way to the grocery store there is traffic, because of course everyone else had to buy groceries as well. And in front of you there was a a huge SUV that always stayed below the speed limit.
And then, when you got to the grocery store, there was a huge line, and so you had to wait, and you noticed how stupid and silly everyone else in front of you looked, and how useless they all were. And in front of you there was a kid screaming, and the mother was yelling at him.
Then, DFW tells us how we can make this common life situation so much easier:
Maybe the annoying person in the SUV had just survived a life threatening car accident, and his therapist urged him to buy an SUV as it was the only way he could ever dare to drive again. And maybe the woman screaming at her kid in the grocery store had been awake for over 24 hours taking care of her husband who had lung cancer. These things are of course unlikely, but the very possibility of it makes it worth considering.
Maybe if we realized that these everyday actions were just as annoying to everyone else, our life would be so much easier
DFW, through this story, wishes to show us how we can live a more compassionate life, and while the message is simple, it is absolutely necessary, and deeply moving. -
This Is Water is kind of like a modern version of Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet. With the exception, of course, that This Is Water is not a collection of letters, does not discuss poetry or writing, and is not addressed to a single individual but to a college’s entire student body. Other than that, though, they’re pretty much the same thing.
What I mean is that there’s something very inspirational (for lack of a better word) in these texts whose words seem to have been composed on-the-fly, were not intended for publication, and are delivered to a person (or to a group of persons) in a manner that is simple and direct, essentially conversational, but which have the unintended consequence of breaking out beyond the scope of the limited audience for which they were intended. Others discover these “gems of life” (ugh, I sound like Mitch Albom now) and they become words of wisdom for the masses.
Spoken as the Kenyon College commencement address in 2005, This Is Water is about David Foster Wallace’s assertion that perspective, a necessary absolute in the life of the well-adjusted individual, is a conscious choice (albeit not always an easy one to make), and that the greatest thing we can do for ourselves as humans is to forcibly extricate ourselves from the natural thought-path of viewing every situation as inherently ABOUT MEEE!, which is natural only by the fact that we exist in a perpetual state of self-centric experience—everything that happens to us happens, of course, to us—but which subsequently limits our ability to be happy. I mean there’s something rather lonesome about the “me” perspective, isn’t there?
Well, DFW’s argument here is that the ultimate goal of higher education is less about learning how to think than it is about learning the value of the thought process itself, realizing the importance of putting ourselves in one another’s shoes, acquiring an empathetic point-of-view, not just for the benefit of any kind of global betterment (though I suppose that could be a nice secondary effect) but for the benefit of each of us living our mundane, daily lives. Waiting in a excruciatingly slow checkout line, for example, and concluding that the “this sucks FOR ME” attitude, while understandably the default attitude most people would assume in such a circumstance, isn’t the only attitude, and is certainly not the best attitude for maintaining a happy internal disposition. Maybe the line is slow because someone is holding it up with all her coupon scanning, coupons she has been saving out of desperation to make ends meet after the loss of her husband’s job, and maybe if you knew this you’d understand that things are possibly worse off for her than they are for you, and maybe it will seem less of an annoyance that you’ll be home seven minutes later than you had planned to be.
I mean it’s also possible the line is slow because the checkout guy is being a complete dumbfuck, but the point is that it is not going to help you by getting upset at how the situation is inconveniencing you. Your overall and long-term happiness depends more on scrambling out of that depressing “it’s all about me” trap which, admittedly is not always possible to do, than it does on satisfying your immediate need to get out of the checkout line as soon as possible. -
A volte mi diverto a fare delle associazioni tra possibili protagonisti di romanzi distinti, o tra autori.
Tipo Mrs Bridge, verso la quale ho uno stupido pregiudizio di insofferenza (senza peraltro averne nemmeno letto il libro) la vedrai ben maritata insieme al suo corrispettivo maschile Mr Stoner, magari di due noiosi ne verrebbe fuori una persona sufficientemente simpatica.
Leggendo i racconti di Wallace ho pensato che sarebbe stato carino fare conoscere a DFW, non platonicamente o per via letteraria, ma in carne ed ossa la protagonista di Una campana di vetro, ovvero la sua autrice Sylvia Plath, i due autori hanno alcuni punti, non tutti ma alcuni, in cui collimano e lo stesso Wallace in uno dei racconti la cita esplicitamente.
Magari conoscendosi e unendo le loro due depressioni che invece se li sono risucchiati via, lei sotto una campana di vetro, lui appeso ad un cappio, si sarebbero salvati e il mondo non avrebbe dovuto suonare ancora una volta la campana (cit.)
Due personalità estremamente sensibili profonde, ironiche, e specchio di come sono questi bellissimi racconti.
Sono racconti molto lunghi e dai titoli difficilmente memorizzabili, strutturati e affatto semplici da leggere e seguire, ma credo che nulla uscito dalla testa di DFW sia mai stato semplice.
Solomon Silverfish è uno dei racconti sull’amore coniugale più bello che io abbia mai incontrato, senza un minimo di retorica o di sentimentalismo appicicaticcio, di una tenerezza sconfinata, c’è un marito coinvolto in una situazione assurda che si dedica alla moglie malata terminale, prendendola anche in giro dolcemente, come solo con le persone a cui si vuole davvero bene si può fare
Sophie […] Una moglie priva di importanti attributi femminili, che le pupille di quest’uomo ancora si dilatano quando i suoi occhi la guardano. Un uomo che mi guarda ridurmi a un mucchietto d’ossa e protuberanze e odora il mio odore e asciuga le mie lacrime e quando serve porta via i miei escrementi come fossero regali e pulisce il mio vomito quando non faccio in tempo ad andare in bagno e non mi fa mai sentire debole, sporca, o meno persona, o meno Sophie del giorno in cui ha ballato insieme a me.
[…]
Sophie è la vita di Solomon e viceversa, non si discute. Dopo trentadue anni di simile fortuna e felicità, Sophie non sa nemmeno da dove cominciare a ringraziare Dio in ginocchio. Il tempo da malata insieme a Solomon è molto meglio del tempo normale in qualsiasi altro luogo, e viceversa: Solomon considera allo stesso modo il tempo passato con Sophie malata
In Ordine e fluttuazione a Northampton Wallace racconta di un tentativo di arrembaggio amoroso pianificato a tavolino da un certo Mr Dingly, uomo di mezza età che gestisce un negozio di prodotti macrobiotici.
Questo singolare uomo è strabico, con i denti sporgenti e i calzini bianchi dentro i sandali, goffo e impacciato e gran misantropo ma! Si è innamorato della commerciante dirimpettaia del suo negozio.
Emblematica l’immagine che Wallace suggerisce quando descrive l’uomo innamorato come posseduto dall’amore che alberga dentro di lui quasi fosse una cosa separata da se stesso elemento estraneo con cui Dingly colloquia, si confida e a cui chiede consiglio per portare a termine il suo assalto amoroso.
Poi c’è il racconto sulla depressione Il pianeta Trillafon in relazione alla Cosa Brutta, autobiografico, come un testamento che lo scrittore consegna prima di lasciarci e lo si legge con un senso di angoscia e simbiosi crescente, senza che Wallace faccia mancare quel senso di lievità e di ironia che accenna ai tormenti dell’esistenza come fossero situazioni che possiamo invece facilmente risolvere e controllare.
Finora, tranne una breve incursione in Infinite Jest rimandata alle prossime calende greche, avevo sempre letto DFW solo nella sua veste di saggista o di filosofo del reale, questa volta invece ho voluto metterlo alla prova dentro il ring della narrazione, tout court.
Non solo non mi ha delusa, ma al contrario ho trovato i suoi racconti di una piacevolezza, originalità e tenerezza inaudita.
David Foster Wallace novello Schliemann che gratta via i nove strati che si nascondono sotto la superficie o di Troia o di un qualsiasi fenomeno, svelandone sfaccettature e realtà che il nostro sguardo microscopico e miope fatica a mettere a fuoco, riesce eccellentemente a farlo anche quando si cimenta a confezionare storie, seppur brevi fatte di un inizio, con uno svolgimento e di un epilogo, con una sensibilità direttamente proporzionale alla sua intelligenza, e le due cose non è detto che sempre si accompagnino. -
Μου πηρε λιγοτερο απο μιση ωρα για να διαβασω αυτο εδω το βιβλιο αλλα ειμαι σιγουρη πως θα το σκεφτομαι για πολυ περισσοτερες ωρες και θα επανελθω σε αυτο πολυ περισσοτερες φορες..ο wallace ταιριαζει πολυ στα γουστα μου ως συγγραφεας(το ειχα συνειδητοποιησει και στη "σκουπα" αυτο) και αυτο μου το απεδειξε και με αυτη την τρομερα inspiring oμιλια του.θιγει πολυ σημαντικα θεματα με κυριοτερο-για μενα- οτι το "κεφαλι" μας ειναι "κουρδισμενο" να σκεφτεται παντα με εναν πολυ συγκεκριμενο ατομικιστικο και καταστροφικο για εμας τους ιδιους(ΑΥΤΟ και αν το ηξερε καλα ο wallace) τροπο.για αυτο το λογο αν θελουμε να επιβιωσουμε στον ενηλικο κοσμο , να λεγομαστε μορφωμενα οντα και να μπορεσουμε να ειμαστε κυριοι εμεις στο κεφαλι μας , στις σκεψεις μας που μας σαμποταρουν και οχι το αντιστροφο, θα πρεπει να επαναλαμβανουμε στον εαυτο μας κατι πολυ αυτονοητο αλλα και πολυ βασικο..οτι αυτο εδω ειναι νερο!!!! ξανα και ξανα...και να κολυμπαμε...
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This is water.
And I have to learn to breath in it.
This is water. -
Questo è Wallace
3 settembre 2009
Solo il discorso tenuto al Kenyon College nel 2005 per il conferimento delle lauree (già letto online) merita quattro stelle periodiche: questa è la vita, questo è Wallace.
- l'introduzione di Don DeLillo è commovente, le sue parole aumentano il rimpianto ed il rammarico per una scomparsa tanto prematura.
- Salomon Silverfish trasuda amore e pietà umana da tutte le parti: la descrizione di Sophie-malata-di-cancro e dell'amore che unisce Salomon e Sophie è struggente. poi alla fine una visione, che è quasi un'aurora boreale, che lascia senza parole e con una marea di punti interrogativi.
- Il pianeta Trillafon e la cosa brutta.
cosa dire di non banale, di non retorico, di non?
Non soffro di depressione, per fortuna, ma ho sofferto (anzi in parte soffro ancora) di attacchi di panico e riesco a capire in millesima parte il dramma che si annida in questo racconto.
quando si sta male, quando a fare male non è un piede, quando il dolore parte da un luogo indefinito del proprio essere: beh, quello è il momento in cui si vorrebbe scappare sul pianeta Trillafon, anche se è fuggire dalla vita, anche se non è guarire. sempre meglio della cosa brutta in fondo.
[edit - 01/11/2010]
Alla fine l'ho finito e l'idea finale è quella espressa anche da molti altri lettori qui su aNobii: non è la miglior raccolta possibile di quanto scritto da DFW; è una bieca operazione commerciale; non si capisce perché i racconti e il discorso non siano stati inseriti in ordine cronologico; nonostante tutto però è una raccolta che mostra che grande perdita sia stata quella di David Foster Wallace per noi lettori e per l'intero panorama culturale e letterario mondiale.
Siamo tutti un po' più soli, perché il suo occhio sul nostro mondo, sui nostri difetti, ma anche sul nostro futuro e sulle nostre grandi potenzialità inespresse, quell'occhio tanto speciale e sensibile, ironico, divertente e molto più spesso divertito, non sarà più aperto su di noi e per noi.
7 ottobre 2011
Ieri sera ascoltavo il
discorso fatto da Steve Jobs alle Lauree all'Università di Stanford, quell'ormai famosissimo «Stay hungry, stay foolish», e pensavo anche, ieri pomeriggio "twitterando" (e qui Steve sarebbe orgoglioso di me :-)) con un'amica, a quell'altro meraviglioso discorso fatto al Kenyon College da David Foster Wallace, «Questa è l'acqua», e a quanto sarebbe bello se anche i nostri ragazzi, che si affacciano alla vita pieni di entusiasmo e di speranze, potessero godere oggi di insegnamenti di vita così scevri da ogni retorica, così ottimisti e capaci di proiettarli in un futuro che avrebbe tutte le potenzialità per essere luminoso.
Tutto questo ascoltavo e pensavo guardando Steve Jobs in televisione, tanto che prima di andare a dormire non ho potuto fare a meno di rileggere ancora una volta le parole di David Foster Wallace e metterli a confronto, ciascuno con la sua propria semplicità e con la sua genialità e non ho potuto non pensare a quanto mi ha detto qualche settimana fa il mio psicoterapeuta a proposito della genialità, quella che solo alcuni di noi ricevono in dono; che è come avere una Ferrari, mi diceva rispondendo alla mia domanda riguardo all'alta incidenza di suicidi tra gli artisti, bisogna saperla guidare, altrimenti non appena al volante ci si schianta contro il primo muro che si incontra.
Steve Jobs, quella Ferrari, aveva imparato a guidarla, David Foster Wallace, purtroppo, no; forse semplicemente perché nessuno era riuscito ad insegnarglielo oppure perché andando e tornando dal pianeta Trillafon si era dimenticato di quanto le strade della vita fossero impervie e della facilità con cui si rischia di perdere il controllo; restano comunque due bellissimi discorsi, da leggere, da ascoltare, da meditare, entrambi ricchi ed emozionanti: questa è l'acqua in cui nuoti, questi sono i puntini che disegnerai oggi per unirli domani, e questo, quel girino che nuota, sei tu.
«I am tomorrow, or some future day, what I establish today. I am today what I established yesterday or some previous day.»
(James Joyce)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oObxND...
9 ottobre 2011
Che poi, prima del sette ottobre, il motivo per cui avevo deciso di riprenderlo dallo scaffale era rileggere "Il pianeta Trillafon e la cosa brutta". *****
Penso che lo rileggerò spesso, di tanto in tanto, perché è una di quelle cose è una di quelle cose che mi fanno stare malissimo. E poi bene. E poi ancora malissimo. E poi -
In questa sintassi di incisive che sono parentesi continue (tonda quadra graffa) Wallace dilata situazioni e personaggi. Io cerco di stare a galla.
Ambienti, atmosfere, fatti della vita ma anche personaggi nel loro aspetto interni ed esterno sono deformati e acquistano la comicità.
Entrare nelle sue storie è per me pura botta
Ehi ehi un attimo cosa stai dicendo?
Torno indietro rileggo cerco il filo, lo prendo e poi suona il telefono il citofono quello che volete Ecco no! Non interrompetemi è stata n flusso continuo che necessità della massima attenzione.
Il grottesco mi assale... (26/09/21)
----------------------------
Queste le brevi e farneticanti mie annotazioni durante la lettura del primo racconto(Solomon Silverfish) di questa raccolta che raduna cinque scritti pubblicati tra il 1984 ed il 1991 oltre al testo di un discorso tenuto da Wallace ai giovani laureati del Kenyon College, nel 2005.
I racconti sono scritti pubblicati su riviste un po’ di nicchia e non inclusi in altre raccolte ma solo in questa edizione italiana.
Accompagnati da una prosa martellante e frenetica, si passa facilmente dal riso al pianto.
L’ironia con cui sono descritti alcuni personaggi segue l’iperbole nota a chi ha già letto DFW.
Ma è veramente impossibile parlare di questi scritti in poche righe.
Difficile dimenticare alcuni personaggi così come il racconto (“Il pianeta Trillafon in relazione alla Cosa Brutta”) di un dolore così profondo chiamato depressione.
Una sofferenza su cui si riesce a riflettere solo a distanza.
Leggere Wallace è sempre un invito a lasciarsi andare; essere disponibili a compiere un viaggio di cui non si conosce né itinerario né meta ed accogliere l’invito stesso contenuto nel discorso fatto ai neo-laureati e che chiude questa raccolta:
” «Imparare a pensare» di fatto significa imparare a esercitare un certo controllo su come e su cosa pensare. Significa avere quel minimo di consapevolezza che permette di scegliere a cosa prestare attenzione e di scegliere come attribuire un significato all’esperienza. Perché se non sapete o non volete esercitare questo tipo di scelta nella vita da adulti, siete fregati.” -
La mente, ottimo servo ma cattivo padrone.
Primo incontro con DFW. Non avevo neanche mai letto il suo discorso ai laureandi che dà il titolo alla raccolta e che gode, giustamente, di gran fama.
Niente da dire: stupendo. Verrebbe da condividerlo con l'umanità tutta (e ammetto un po' l'ho fatto sull'onda dell'entusiasmo).
Ma veniamo ai racconti: me ne sono piaciuti tre su cinque, e probabilmente anche in questa scelta non sono originale. I rimanenti proprio non li ho compresi, magari necessitano maggior applicazione o capacità di cui sono priva.
Il racconto di amore coniugale mi ha fatto piangere tutte le mie lacrime.
Il racconto sulla depressione (che apprendo essere la prima cosa in assoluto pubblicata da lui) triste, disarmante e sconfortante. Riesce a far toccare con mano "il male oscuro" o "la cosa brutta". Credo che alcune immagini difficilmente mi usciranno di mente (e forse vorrei che uscissero).
Il racconto poi della improbabile storia d'amore monodirezionale tra Ding e Myrnaloy è ironico ma angosciante al contempo: quali i livelli di solitudine cui si può arrivare nella vita. Mi ha fatto ridere ma con senso di colpa: un po' l'effetto Fantozzi, ecco.
Credo che il filo rosso che tiene insieme la raccolta si possa ritrovare in questo inciso:
Il genere di libertà davvero importante richiede attenzione, consapevolezza, disciplina, impegno e la capacità di tenere davvero agli altri. [..] Questo è imparare a pensare. L'alternativa è l'inconsapevolezza, la modalità predefinita, la corsa sfrenata al successo: essere continuamente divorati dalla sensazione di aver avuto e perso qualcosa di infinito. -
FURTHER UPDATED REVIEW (consolidation of general remarks of mine from review comment threads for this book/speech):
Is This Speech Depressing?
I have to respectfully disagree and say that I found this to be uplifting in a really serious way--like my version of a Chicken Soup For The Soul sense of uplifting (er, uh, something)--which is a feeling of redemption via facing messy truths and feeling my own thoughts to be extremely validated by his beautiful ideas and phrasings. I'd read it many times over before he died though--so perhaps that's more or less responsible for the difference in our interpretations?
Of course everything takes on a new weight and tone post-death, especially the obvious things like his explicit mentions of people committing suicide, blowing their brains out in order to destroy the awful master (the mind). But I guess that I just have such strong associations with reading this at a time when he was alive and it was the exact thing I needed to read that this explains my continued sense of it being life-affirming and not so depressing.
Personal Ruminations on DFW's Suicide (based heavily upon reading the following:
"Lost Years & Last Days of David Foster Wallace" &
"The Unfinished")
You want dark and creepy? Here's another excerpt from DFW's first ever published piece of writing in college (
which I posted along with other things in the woefully inactive DFW Goodreads group):
"All this business about people committing suicide when they're "severely depressed;" we say, "Holy cow, we must do something to stop them from killing themselves!" That's wrong. Because all these people have, you see, by this time already killed themselves, where it really counts. By the time these people swallow entire medicine cabinets or take naps in the garage or whatever, they've already been killing themselves for ever so long. When they "commit suicide," they're just being orderly."
--
THE PLANET TRILLAPHON AS IT STANDS IN RELATION TO THE BAD THING
I was surprised, too. I thought he was well beyond that level of, um, maladjustment. I knew about the troubles around the time he wrote the "Planet Trillaphon..." piece but that was in his early twenties. I thought he was this enlightened-beyond-depression kind of guy in his matured age. Which I think he actually was in a lot of ways, and that's what's so damn sad about it: it really sounds like he was just having a mix up with transitioning to a new medication and that he fought really hard. I can't stop thinking about his mom making him his favorite comfort foods and having these wonderful-sounding parents and wife supporting him and comforting him while his brain's chemicals were going haywire and how none of this could prevent the worst from happening. It's scary to think that someone with that kind of mental fortitude and cognitive command, that sort of sane and balanced outlook on life, someone supplied with a network of emotionally and intellectually supportive family and friends can still wind up "eliminating their map" because of a switch from one medicine to another. But maybe it's more complicated than that. For some reason I sort of hope it is.
_____________________________________________________
UPDATED "REVIEW" (more of a superficial critique of the packaging than anything else):
I just pulled this from my mailbox. Mystery solved: it's the same exact version of the speech I've read dozens of times over the last few years. It's stretched to 137 pages by virtue of its being a tiny book (guessing about 4.5 x 7 inches) and there's an average of one sentence printed per page. Having each sentence broken up page per page adds some aphoristic profundity, though it took a few minutes to get used to as the quicker flow of reading it in paragraph form online was what I was extremely accustomed to and is more aligned with Wallace's rather fast talking style.
Actually, the choice to print it this way is really disappointing. It seems a bit too much influenced by his suicide and an attempt to make what were already wonderful and profound thoughts...somehow more profound. It reeks of the kind of mythologizing that seems inevitable when a well loved public figure dies tragically. For instance, the inside jacket refers to Wallace as a "writer and philosopher", a description I've never seen before and for good reason: Wallace would never refer to himself as such. He studied philosophy and had a B.A. in it but certainly didn't teach it or publish "philosophy" in the academic sense of the term.
There was a slight twinge of a thought of "this is the publishing company milking the dead cow of DFW" but that was quickly thrown to the wayside when I realized that publishing this beautiful speech will surely propagate it to more people than would have otherwise found it on the 'net. Slight disappointment in a lack of additional material notwithstanding it's a tremendously beautiful speech and now I own a hard bound copy of it.
_____________________________________________________
ORIGINAL "REVIEW":
So I just got an e-mail from amazon.com recommending this to me. I've read the transcript of the speech dozens and dozens of times over the last few years, because, yes, it's just that good to me.
What I'm confused about is how this book will manage to be 140-some pages if it is only the speech. What I'm hoping for is that Wallace wrote a speech that was much, much longer than the one he delivered. The one he delivered can be read here (the same link I've visited over and over, sent to people, etc):
http://web.archive.org/web/2008021308...
I just realized that this must not be the entire speech, even though it flows like one. Much has been edited out apparently. And now I am going to pre-order this book from amazon right now, knowing for sure that the speech is much longer than the one I've read and re-read and re-reread...
Here's the amazon link for those who want to pre-order (it comes out in April apparently):
http://www.amazon.com/This-Water-Deli... -
If you want something to make you think about the every day life, here. read.
-
En 2005, en la Universidad de Kenyon, David Foster Wallace dio un discurso en la ceremonia de graduación titulado ‘Esto es agua’ (This Is Water). El discurso es un alegato a favor de la educación y la compasión. Más que enseñar a pensar, Wallace aboga por saber en qué pensar, y resalta la importancia de comprender nuestro entorno, de intentar empatizar con aquello y aquellos que nos rodean. Es un texto corto pero profundo que hace reflexionar.
-
Νυστέρι
-
People get used to the sadness of everyday life. Then they find a goal that then becomes the anchor they cling to in order to survive.
People live without awareness like the Lotus-eaters in The Odyssey: they live only to live; in and of itself.
People I know, above all in the city, are unhappy. They think that the system framed them. Sometimes it happens to me as well.
You wonder why you are doing things that you wouldn't normally do. I like my life and I am a positive person: after a good walk all the dark thoughts go away, and the problems become opportunities, but it is also true that on the train or on the bus I see faces without expression and I know how it can be frustrating doing things as a robot. Living an anodyne life will drive you to madness. And time goes by. And you are blocked by fear, by parent's ideas, by society’s expectations and you continue to live day by day a grey life.
Ah, the great maybe! Yes, there is a maybe. Not for all. You can spend a lifetime waiting for the great maybe, a day in which to live, a day in which everybody will hold you in high esteem or you can wonder: “How is the water?”. Yes, I am speaking of David Foster Wallace’s speech at Kenyon University.
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?"
And so, I think that Wallace wants to say to us: "Your studies, can be a comfort to you, because thanks to philosophy and literature you are not a robot, you know that you are living and that every action has a value, even something as banal as queuing at the supermarket".
Wallace wrote: It is about simple awareness -- awareness of what is so real and essential, so hidden in plain sight all around us, that we have to keep reminding ourselves, over and over: "This is water, this is water.
This nasty system tells us to wait for the great moment which in turn creates frustration. But even unpleasant work could prove to be useful, as Joseph Conrad wrote in Heart of Darkness:
I don't like work--no man does--but I like what is in the work--the chance to find yourself. Your own reality--for yourself not for others--what no other man can ever know. They can only see the mere show, and never can tell what it really means.
The chance to know yourself, this is your journey, little fish.
I wonder if David had known and read these lines, written by Edgar Lee Masters, the metaphor of the sea still remains:
I HAVE studied many times
The marble which was chiseled for me—
A boat with a furled sail at rest in a harbor.
In truth it pictures not my destination
But my life.
For love was offered me and I shrank from its disillusionment;
Sorrow knocked at my door, but I was afraid;
Ambition called to me, but I dreaded the chances.
Yet all the while I hungered for meaning in my life.
And now I know that we must lift the sail
And catch the winds of destiny
Wherever they drive the boat.
To put meaning in one’s life may end in madness,
But life without meaning is the torture
Of restlessness and vague desire—
It is a boat longing for the sea and yet afraid.
And so guys, go forth! Go away from golden traps and seize the day, create your own life and give a sense to your time. -
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?"
My first literary quote shirt (received as a present). On the shirt, the utterances make up the fish themselves. I'm waiting for the day when someone sees my shirt, walks up to me, and says "This is Water."
The speech (delivered as a commencement address to graduating undergrads) is great, but there's no need to buy it in book form where there's only like one sentence on each page. I should have realised it would be online - I found a link to the transcript in
the comment thread to Samadrita's review (thanks Garima):
http://web.archive.org/web/2008021308...
January 20, 2017
-
Η πρώτη επαφή με τον Γουάλας ήταν με τη Σκούπα και το Σύστημα, δεν με άγγιξε, ίσως και να με ενόχλησε, σίγουρα δεν ένιωσα θαυμασμό απέναντι σ αυτόν τον συγγραφέα που έχει περάσει στη μυθοποίηση, ειδικά μετά την αυτοκτονία του. Το ότι είχα διαβάσει και συνέντευξη μιας πρώην συντρόφου του, επίσης συγγραφέα, όπου μίλησε για την ιδιαιτέρως αμπιούζιβ σχέση τους (που την έκαναν τουμπεκί στην βιογραφία του στα πλαίσια αυτής της μυθοποίησης; ) δεν βοήθησε πολύ, αν και έχω κάπως ξεκάθαρη άποψη σε σχέση με τον διαχωρισμό του έργου από τον καλλιτέχνη.
Το Δις Ιζ Γουότερ είναι το χόλι γκρέιλ των ομιλιών αποφοίτησης, αυτό που μεγάλα ιδρύματα δίνουν ένα σκασμό λεφτά σε διάσημους ανθρώπους που ήδη έχουν αρκετά λεφτά, για να κάνουν μια ινσπιρέισοναλ ομιλία σε αποφοίτους και γονείς που καταγράφουν τα πάντα με κάμερα. Το ρεζουμέ είναι ότι η πραγματική ελευθερία έρχεται με πολύ αγώνα και κόπο, όταν καταφέρουμε να σκεφτόμαστε διαφορετικά από την εγω-κεντρική εργοστασιακή μας ρύθμιση και αντιμετωπίζουμε τους ανθρώπους γύρω μας με έμπαθι και καλοσύνη, αλλά όλα αυτά ενώ συγχρόνως μας λέει ότι ΠΡΟΣ ΘΕΟΎ εγώ δεν κάνω διδακτισμούς ��ιατί δεν είμαι τέτοιος τύπος, είμαι ταπεινό χαμομηλάκι και εσείς είστε πολύ έξυπνοι και ιδιαίτεροι για να σας το κάνει κάποιος, οπότε το κάνει τελικά χωρίς να το κάνει, αφού είπε ότι δεν το κάνει, σοοο. Και αυτό ακριβώς που περιγράφω, δεν ξέρω αν ήταν θέμα του Γουάλας αλλά της γενιάς των αναγνωστών που απευθύνεται, το είδα να το σχολιάζει και ο Έλις (Αμέρικαν Σάικο, που βέβαια έχει πει και επικές μαλακιάρες), ότι δηλαδή απευθύνεται σε μια γενιά που αναζητούν αναγνώσματα που θα κάνουν τους ΊΔΙΟΥΣ να αισθανθούν έξυπνοι και το πριτένσιους ύφος του Γουάλας το δίνει απλόχερα.
Τώρα. Δεν είναι ότι είμαι άνθρωπος κυνικός. Όμως. Έχω πολύ μεγάλο πρόβλημα με τη μπουφάν και τα ινσπιρέισοναλζ, γι αυτό και δεν μπορώ τους λάιφ κότσεζ και τα σελφ ιμπρούβμεντ βιβλία. Αντιλαμβάνομαι ότι υπάρχουν άνθρωποι που τα απολαμβάνουν και λειτουργούν πάνω τους καλά, σε γενικές γραμμές όμως πιστεύω ότι μάνιουαλζ μπορεί να δώσει μόνο ο κατασκευαστής που γνωρίζει τις ιδιαιτερότητες του δημιουργήματός του και τελικά ούτε κι αυτός, αφού με τα χρόνια είμαστε "πειραγμένοι", "κωλοφτιαγμένοι", κάποιοι "χαμηλωμένοι" και δεν είμαστε πλέον μαμάαααα, όχι δεν είμαστε μαμάαααα. -
Se c’è qualcuno che Foster Wallace non lo conosce ed ha delle curiosità può cominciare da qui. Senza troppo formalizzarsi, visto che è il primo volume pubblicato postumo.
L’ormai mitologico discorso del 21 maggio 1985 ai laureandi non è solo una cosa che andrebbe messa in pianta stabile sul comodino o regalata a tutte le persone a cui teniamo. È anche una sintesi efficace del suo modo di pensare la vita e quindi una ottima introduzione alla lettura dei sui libri (se dovessi indicare una parola, una soltanto, da mettere al centro dell'universo di Wallace sceglierei "attenzione": è lo spazio di attenzione disponibile in ogni istante che fa la qualità delle vite e delle persone). Comunque, il discorso si trova anche in rete. Almeno quelle, sono poche paginette, vogliatevi bene: ri/leggetele.
Poi ci sono almeno tre dei sei racconti che danno bene l’idea del suo mondo e del suo modo di raccontarlo; e sono abbordabili, come livello di difficoltà di lettura.
Si scopre per esempio quanto si può essere romantici e divertenti e cinici parlando di una malata terminale e del suo innamoratissimo marito avvocato. Oppure ci si può fare un’idea microscopicamente precisa e però in un’atmosfera rarefatta, da un altro pianeta, di cosa significa sentire fisicamente, dentro, i sintomi della depressione.
E poi si può far l’esperienza di leggere un cartone animato. Una cosa a colori sull’amore e sull'attitudine a farsi possedere dall’amore, tanto più perniciosa in quando assolutamente indipendente dalle qualità dell’oggetto d'amore. Il soggetto è un uomo (che, a “guardarlo”, è proprio un uomo da fumetto) che cerca di conquistare una donna molto poco ben disposta (anche lei: te la disegni in testa, leggendo). La donna ha una cagnetta e vorrebbe accoppiarla. Lui si compra un cane della stessa razza per garantirsi la possibilità di un approccio e tentare di conquistarsi almeno una affettuosa gratitudine. Chi glielo vende però non gli dice che il setterino ha una perversa e furiosa sensibilità per il più segreto degli afrori femminili. Lui le prepara la sorpresa con tutta la scema devozione dell’amore. Basta. -
Η πρώτη μου επαφή με τον Wallace ήταν συγκλονιστική. Κατά τύχη επέλεξα να διαβάσω το "Αυτό εδώ είναι νερό" το οποίο είναι ουσιαστικά η ομιλία του συγγραφέα σε αποφοίτους γνωστού κολεγίου. Ο λόγος του απλός και κατανοητός, όμως τόσο μα τόσο ουσιαστικός. Τον λάτρεψα!! Αγάπησα τις απόψεις του και προσωρινά έστω, κάτι άλλαξε μέσα μου. Απορείς πώς ένας άνθρωπος που μπορεί να σκέφτεται με αυτόν τον τρόπο, αποφασίζει να δώσει ο ίδιος τέλος στη ζωή του. Το βιβλιαράκι αυτό έχει και μια μικρή ανάλυση στο τέλος, που κατά τη γνώμη μου, καλύπτει με πολύ σωστό τρόπο το ορθόν ή όχι της πράξης του συγγραφέα. Είναι δεδομένο ότι το βιβλίο θα το διαβάσω ξανά και ξανά και ξανά και σίγουρα θα αγοράσω όλα τα βιβλία του και θα ξεκινήσω διάβασμα!!!
