The bizarre genius of the commencement speech is that it finds this struggle everywhere in life: in traffic jams and crowded supermarket aisles, in soul-killing muzak and corporate pop; in the “stupid and cow-like and dead-eyed and nonhuman” faces that stand as obstacles to our daily chore; even in “Have a nice day” from the checkout girl, said “in a voice that is the absolute voice of death.” Indeed, Wallace finds the struggle against banality, boredom, anger, and
