In David Foster Wallace’s This is Water he reiterates that it is
up to everyone, individually, to not give in to “… [our] natural
default-setting of being… alone day in and day out” (3), and in doing so we can
save ourselves from both mental and, eventually, physical suicide. I do not
believe that to be true. This idea of being conscious may work for some people,
but for someone who has one of hundreds of neurological disorders (depression,
schizophrenia, etc.), the act of being aware is not always enough. Take, for
instance, the author of this commencement speech. Three years after preaching
about ways to avoid suicide to college seniors, his body was found by his wife
after he hung himself. I feel that the fact that Wallace wrote a fairly moving
speech on evading death, then proceeded to kill himself completely undermines
his entire point (given that he at least attempted to follow his own advice).
Over the past few years, I have
known people to commit suicide. These people were not zombies going about the
day-to-day monotony being dead while living. Nor were these people selfish and
self-centered (at least not to the extent Wallace talks about in the speech).
All of them were diagnosed with depression or some form of schizophrenia, and
no amount of being conscious did or could have helped. While this idea of
making an attempt at sincere empathy and understanding that other people exist
is a brilliant idea to help avoid thinking that everything revolves around you,
it will not magically fix everything in your life.
I agree with your idea of consciousness not being enough to solve problems, however, so did Wallace. He specifically says that it's about choice and making a conscious DECISION to change certain outcomes. For example, you mention that Wallace committed suicide a few years after giving this speech, but are you aware that he first CHOSE to stop taking his antidepressants before ending his life? He was no longer trying to take the necessary steps to avoid his end, although he was aware of the possible outcomes. I think that if he’d chosen to continue the use of his medication, he’d still be here, but he made the conscious decision to stop. Thus, he chose unhappiness. Wallace didn’t merely preach that consciousness was key, he acknowledged that one had to have the will to change their perception.
ReplyDeleteI overall agree with your argument. Especially when you mentioned that the fact that the author committing suicide undermines his entire point. I felt the same way when I found that out. To me, it defeated the purpose of the speech and ruined its credibility. I also understand the point you made towards the end when you said that being aware and thinking consciously will not fix issues that you have in your life. Doing this might save you some stress/frustration, but it will not solve all of your problems, nor will it push you away from committing suicide. Often times, it is hard to change your mind once a decision of this caliber has been made. The author is a prime example of this; even though he practiced the things he mentioned in the speech, he still did it. He did not change his mind.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your ideas you stated above. I too have had family members commit suicide and it had nothing to do with frustration or the dullness of everyday life. Each one of them committed suicide because they were mentally depressed and were also avid drug users. They were clinically not healthy and refused the help of others. In fact the author's father claimed that Mr. Wallace suffered from depression at the time of his suicide which further alludes to the fact that it is more often than not our mental health that takes us down the path to suicide, not the stress and worries of life. I also agree with you when you specifically point out that the author committed suicide despite encouraging others to look past themselves and take others into consideration which comes off as hypocritical based on what he said in This Is Water. Instead of following hos own advie and look past his own dilemas, he rejected it and gave into his depreesion further showcasing his hypocrisy in this otherwise well thought out speech.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, Wallace is right to an extent. We do have the power to keep us from becoming "zombies" and saving ourselves from suicide. I believe it is up to the person to make their days bright and not let anything come between that. That's why I personally don't believe in depression. It's a mind game that you decide if you win or lose. But then there's the mentally ill that can't decipher between what's real and what's not making it harder for them. I still believe that you can beat suicide even with those disorders it just depends on one's will power. Wallace not following his own advice, I do not understand neither. Which makes me wonder what was the point of him telling us all of this, if he did not believe in it himself.
ReplyDeleteAbout your last statement Tony, where you sort of write-off Wallace's idea that being empathetic could possibly cure narcissism - which can lead to depression, etc. - by relating people which you've known and therefore are immediately biased to, but man - you’re forgetting your own emotions. You've got to read deeper into his speech. Like say… a page later in the second and third paragraphs when he legitimately describes how much of a daily choice we make, between working the boring repetitive days, and not working them - aka suicide - and so I ask you Tony. Do you not feel like you have a choice? Do you believe in your heart that you must work and you must be autonomous and discover this lonesomeness? Or do you believe you have a choice like Wallace says? Because by not giving ourselves a choice we’re taking away our freedom, our will, our ability to escape. And by choosing to be empathic we’re virtually trapping ourselves.
ReplyDeleteHe goes into depth at the bottom of page 6 –
“It will actually be within your power to experience a crowded, loud, slow, consumer-hell-type situation as not only meaningful but sacred, on fire with the same force that lit the stars — compassion, love, the sub-surface unity of all things.”
In this quote, he is describing the ability to choose as a very positive one that reveals the only time in the speech when he uses words that are associated with optimism. At this point he breaks away from his constant negativity and describes the path away from it as being empathetic. And it must be assumed that the only cure for depression is optimism, because curing it with anything else would just be counterintuitive.
All I’m saying is, as I said before, you must consider your own emotions when you ponder such underlying ideas. Because if you were to simply ask yourself to be empathetic, maybe go the whole day smiling and being thoughtful towards your peers, maybe volunteer somewhere or donate to a non-profit organization, I would say that it’s not as easy as just doing it. Therefore, making the statement that the people that you knew wouldn’t benefit (or at least they wouldn’t be ‘magically fixed of everything’), is inconclusive due to the fact that none of them even had the willpower to try empathy. In this speech Wallace knows how hard it is, day in and out, to go against this root of narcissism and care about other people and to think from a different perspective when reviewing everyday life. But David Foster Wallace did go against his natural ‘default-setting’ and he was able to fight the omnipresent pessimism that was buried deep inside of him, and seemed to continue doing so until his untimely death a few years after the speech.
The point is, the obvious way to eliminate bad thoughts and negative feelings in your life is to be optimistic and empathetic – to distance yourself from well… yourself – and if you’re able to succeed at it I wouldn’t doubt if you could then fix everything in your life, at the very least you’d be able to move away from depression. The greatest variable, the one that is most substantial to each person, is the value of willpower and choosing to be like this, because even someone who seemed so put together and in control like Wallace can be lose it, and trust me when I say – the easy part is pulling the trigger.