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I really didn't like this at all. It was pedestrian thinking at best, driven home like 25 nails to hold up one 2 x 4. No, we don't have to worship. He said we do, but no, we don't. I don't understand why it lives on here in print. All your work is so much better than this.

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Sorry you didn't like it. What I have found over all these years is that all of us have very different responses to absolutely everything. David Foster Wallace wrote one of my all time favorite essays: Consider the Lobster. You might like that better.

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After writing the above I looked him up on Wikipedia. He was a very sad story, and a very sad person who should never have been invited to give a commencement speech. Toxic is not too strong a word to describe him. I've known a few children of famous college professors, and their road is not easy. He is one who suffered...

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He did suffer a lot but some of his writing (especially the essay I mentioned, and that whole book of essays) really wonderful.

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I will read it.

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Love to know what you think

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I read the analysis of the lobster essay, and I feel the same way - I'm not at all comfortable about cooking them alive, and I no longer partake. I'm more concerned about how disordered the poor man's life was. In and out of mental facilities, and delivering that address less than 3 years before taking his own life. I'm glad I was not there. It reminds me of G. W. Bush's response to Trump's inaugural address.

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Thanks for letting me know Yes he was very troubled and sad. But I found so much of his writing wonderful. It's funny how a kind of beauty (with language or music or painting) always trumps other things for me. I see your point absolutely though. And am glad you let me know your reaction.

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Vartan Gregorian: Don't send your school more money. Doing your work is a better gift.

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