18 Words — Part 2

An adaptation of David Foster Wallace's 2005 Kenyon College Commencement Address appeared last Friday, September 19, 2008 in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

The next day (September 20, 2008) I linked to it in a 4:01 p.m. post, adding "It is the best thing I have read this year."

That evening Laura Camacho emailed me as follows:

Joe,

I loved the article you linked to, but it states that it is "adapted" from his commencement speech. I found what claims to be a transcription of the actual speech here: www.marginalia.org/dfw_kenyon_commencement.html. It doesn't mention the shooting oneself in the head (not sure where that came from, but I do think it a bit macabre of someone to ADD IT IN after he's killed himself!!!!!!!).

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That got my attention, and so I went to the link Laura so kindly provided and read the transcription for myself, very carefully, with the same result.

I then emailed Bill Stilwell, who hosts the above-referenced transcription, and asked if he could help unravel the mystery.

He replied Sunday morning, September 21, 2008, as follows:

Hi Mr Stirt,

I can only really lay claim to hosting the transcript — I don't have an original recording. You can see the original posts on the wallace-l mailing list.

I suspect that the WSJ published something adapted from the actual published version, from "The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2006". I don't have a copy to verify this though.

It could be that Wallace diverged from his written remarks, or reworked them slightly for publication. I agree that it would be horrible if the line was added by someone, but I think it's unlikely.

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I posted the results of my inquiries at 10:01 a.m. the same day, noting that I'd gone to the link Mr. Stilwell provided and read the transcription as posted there, without finding a trace of the 18-word sentence ("It is about making it to 30, or maybe 50, without wanting to shoot yourself in the head") that triggered this investigation.

I emailed the WSJ, asking about the source of its published adaptation, and posted a comment in the comments section below its September 19, 2008 piece to the same effect.

The next day (Monday, September 22, 2008) Marshall emailed me as follows:

[Joe,]

According to page 363 of the copyright 2006 version of "The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2006" on my wife's night stand, "The capital-T Truth is about life before death. It is about making it to thirty, or maybe even fifty, without wanting to shoot yourself in the head. It is about the real value of a real education, ...."

This appears to be a reference to a previously mentioned tidbit on page 358 that states, "... It is not the least bit coincidental that adults who commit suicide with firearms nearly always shoot themselves in ... the head. And the truth is that most of these suicides are actually dead long before they pull the trigger."

And the sentence [in question] appears to have been omitted in that linked transcript. I have no idea what was actually said at the commencement — I just happen to have a copy of the book and wanted to verify and share what it said. Not sure if this helps anybody.

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Marshall, it helped a lot.

In a follow-up email 10 minutes later Marshall wrote:

[Joe,]

Oh, and in the book's CYA copyright pages it states, "Kenyon Commencement Speech" by David Foster Wallace. Copyright 2005 by David Foster Wallace. Reprinted by permission of the author."

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And that was where things stood until Tuesday, September 23, 2008.

Two things happened that day:

1) My copy of "The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2006" arrived via Amazon Prime (I'd ordered it Sunday after Bill Stilwell suggested the WSJ might've used that version in its adaptation).

2) My comment on the WSJ article disappeared from the newspaper's website. In fact, the entire comments section

for that particular article vanished into the memory hole. At the top of this post is what you'll see when you click on the link that up to Tuesday held about eight comments, of which mine was the most recent before the paper's web team pulled the plug. Guess Rupert's minions know better than to tolerate people like me questioning the provenance of their content.

I should have known better and made a screen grab of the comments section.

I mean, I noted earlier this year Patrick Radden Keefe's advice on the importance of printing out and making files of documents and web pages that might "disappear."

I wrote in my September 21 blog post, "... I put this question to the WSJ: Who wrote those words — and where may we find proof that they are in fact Wallace's rather than those of an anonymous staffer seeking to heighten the heart-rending impact of Wallace's suicide nine days ago at the age of 46?"

Seems like a reasonable question, doesn't it?

Especially since the WSJ didn't cite any source for the adaptation it published?

But what do I know about journalism, anyway?

Anyway, I read Wallace's essay as published in the 2006 book, where it occupies pride of place as the final piece in the volume, and the facts are precisely as noted above by Marshall.

Which leaves the question of who edited Wallace's address into the shape in which it finally appeared in the WSJ on Friday, September 19, 2008?

I doubt the piece would've appeared had he not committed suicide on September 12, 2008.

So that leads me to the conclusion that someone at the WSJ took Wallace's 2005 address as published in the 2006 compendium and edited it to make its impact even greater than if it had appeared as published in 2006.

I still would like to see the WSJ acknowledge that their journalist(s) were responsible for the final cut — but with the deletion of the paper's comments section on the piece as the only apparent response to my inquiry, I'm not holding my breath.

Still, you never know — it's amazing how often little birdies tweet stuff to me when I least expect it....