George Sauders has a knack of writing what one critic has dubbed 'stealthy' short stories, knocking you off your bearings, mixing humor and darkness in equal measure, taking familiar locations like a theme park, and making it something very different.

'Why, 42 years later,am I still thinking about it'

No surprise then that Saunders managed to produce something special for the occasion when he was invited, in May 2013, to give the commencement speech at Syracuse University (where he's a faculty member for the MFA program). These commencement speeches have at this stage become like candyfloss - pretty, sugary, expected and insubstantial, and immensely popular. This speech, though, while initially seeming to be part of that 'think different / be who you are ' adspeak, manages to take the wind out of you and actually make you think.

The short animation featured above - from Above Average works beautifully along side the speech.