Work
for David Foster Wallace’s “This is Water”
Individual work (15 minutes):
In
your notebook, I asked you to write about which passages you would choose to
include in a hypothetical short film based on this commencement speech. Look at
those passages and draw from them three major themes or idea categories that
you would want to hit on in this hypothetical film. Also in your notebook, list
them in short phrases (no more than ten words; a single word is fine) and
choose a one- or two-sentence quotation that you think illustrates each of them
especially well. Spend about five minutes on this.
Now
shift gears for ten minutes, putting the film idea on hold and writing in
response to this prompt: David Foster Wallace says “In the day-to-day trenches
of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such
thing as not worshiping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what
to worship.” What do you worship now, as a not-yet-adult, and how do you
feel about that? And what do you aspire to worship as an adult, five years out
of college or so, and beyond? (It’s okay if the two are the same. It’s also
okay if either or both answers might make you look good––or bad––in the eyes of
others. Try not to judge your own answers too much; just be as honest as you
can).
Fifteen
minutes of group work:
Back
to the film idea. Get into groups of three or four and share your ideas
about a film based on “This Is Water,” which passages you would want to
include, what ideas or themes you would want to highlight, and what visual
strategies you might use to bring them to life (as well as music, typography,
special effects, and any other tools filmmakers have at their disposal). Agree
on a rough and preliminary vision, and create a fewer-than-120-word pitch for a
short film, along with a working title. Record your group members’ names, your
pitch, and your working title in this Google Doc. (The title can’t
be “This Is Water.” Come up with your own!)
