WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.300 align:middle line:90% 00:00:03.300 --> 00:00:04.110 align:middle line:90% Thanks, Julie. 00:00:04.110 --> 00:00:05.580 align:middle line:84% Thanks, everyone else, for coming. 00:00:05.580 --> 00:00:08.590 align:middle line:90% 00:00:08.590 --> 00:00:12.960 align:middle line:84% So this is going to be a sort of talk for a little while, 00:00:12.960 --> 00:00:16.905 align:middle line:84% with probably a great number of geeky side tracks. 00:00:16.905 --> 00:00:20.310 align:middle line:90% 00:00:20.310 --> 00:00:23.120 align:middle line:84% We like the geeky side tracks, partially 00:00:23.120 --> 00:00:24.870 align:middle line:84% because I'm an essayist as well as a poet, 00:00:24.870 --> 00:00:27.030 align:middle line:84% and so the sidetrack is one of the things 00:00:27.030 --> 00:00:30.000 align:middle line:90% that I do to be paid cash money. 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:31.590 align:middle line:90% I get paid a lot of cash money. 00:00:31.590 --> 00:00:35.930 align:middle line:84% Actually every side track I take, it goes, cha-ching. 00:00:35.930 --> 00:00:37.882 align:middle line:90% It's kind of nice. 00:00:37.882 --> 00:00:39.840 align:middle line:84% And we're talking a little about the Labyrinth. 00:00:39.840 --> 00:00:42.570 align:middle line:84% We're going to talk a little while, 00:00:42.570 --> 00:00:44.588 align:middle line:84% and then you guys are going to do some writing. 00:00:44.588 --> 00:00:46.380 align:middle line:84% So I hope you brought things to write with. 00:00:46.380 --> 00:00:48.090 align:middle line:84% This is literally a generative workshop, 00:00:48.090 --> 00:00:52.440 align:middle line:84% so you'll need at least a pen, that'll be good. 00:00:52.440 --> 00:00:55.410 align:middle line:84% Or you can get a pencil, you can borrow something from someone, 00:00:55.410 --> 00:00:58.380 align:middle line:84% and then we can do a little bit of brainstorming. 00:00:58.380 --> 00:01:02.430 align:middle line:84% So about the Labyrinth, you'll see a lot of Labyrinth. 00:01:02.430 --> 00:01:04.739 align:middle line:84% The Labyrinth has been on my brain 00:01:04.739 --> 00:01:08.820 align:middle line:84% for the last couple of years, probably 00:01:08.820 --> 00:01:10.770 align:middle line:90% my whole life, actually. 00:01:10.770 --> 00:01:14.760 align:middle line:84% I mean, I think it's easily the central idea 00:01:14.760 --> 00:01:20.100 align:middle line:84% of almost everything that I do, twisty little passages, 00:01:20.100 --> 00:01:22.590 align:middle line:84% whether of the brain, or whether of the mind, 00:01:22.590 --> 00:01:25.920 align:middle line:84% or whether the dungeon, or whether, or whether, 00:01:25.920 --> 00:01:26.820 align:middle line:90% or whether. 00:01:26.820 --> 00:01:28.170 align:middle line:84% So we'll talk a little bit about the Labyrinth. 00:01:28.170 --> 00:01:29.790 align:middle line:84% This is an actual labyrinth that was 00:01:29.790 --> 00:01:34.290 align:middle line:84% built by Michael Ayrton, who's a really interesting polymath 00:01:34.290 --> 00:01:36.240 align:middle line:84% writer who died the year that I was born. 00:01:36.240 --> 00:01:39.480 align:middle line:90% 00:01:39.480 --> 00:01:42.855 align:middle line:84% So I'm a fan of, obviously, looking at work online, 00:01:42.855 --> 00:01:43.980 align:middle line:90% and of writing work online. 00:01:43.980 --> 00:01:45.700 align:middle line:84% I've got a really elaborate website, 00:01:45.700 --> 00:01:48.840 align:middle line:84% which is otherelectricities.com, which you can check out. 00:01:48.840 --> 00:01:53.670 align:middle line:84% And it is certainly labyrinthine in many of its own ways. 00:01:53.670 --> 00:01:55.920 align:middle line:84% In fact, I mean, I kind of lose track of some things, 00:01:55.920 --> 00:01:59.340 align:middle line:84% and connect all my books into like authors, another kind 00:01:59.340 --> 00:02:02.232 align:middle line:84% of container for the self, and an avatar, 00:02:02.232 --> 00:02:03.690 align:middle line:84% which we'll be talking a little bit 00:02:03.690 --> 00:02:06.670 align:middle line:90% about in the panel after this. 00:02:06.670 --> 00:02:10.530 align:middle line:84% So if we do believe in the web as something that's 00:02:10.530 --> 00:02:14.310 align:middle line:84% really worth doing for poets, for writers-- 00:02:14.310 --> 00:02:17.200 align:middle line:84% I run a magazine called Diagram, I believe in it. 00:02:17.200 --> 00:02:23.280 align:middle line:84% So if we do, if we believe that writing for the screen, 00:02:23.280 --> 00:02:27.270 align:middle line:84% or publishing online, offers something that is substantially 00:02:27.270 --> 00:02:31.290 align:middle line:84% and significantly different than the printed page, which 00:02:31.290 --> 00:02:34.870 align:middle line:84% I think some of us do, to various degrees, 00:02:34.870 --> 00:02:35.640 align:middle line:90% and I think I do. 00:02:35.640 --> 00:02:39.473 align:middle line:90% But I also love the old school. 00:02:39.473 --> 00:02:41.640 align:middle line:84% I don't know if you can read the little text or not. 00:02:41.640 --> 00:02:46.050 align:middle line:84% This is a weird setup, so people in the back, maybe not. 00:02:46.050 --> 00:02:51.240 align:middle line:84% I'm also a devotee of the regular page too. 00:02:51.240 --> 00:02:53.580 align:middle line:84% A lot of my labyrinth thinking, which I might go through 00:02:53.580 --> 00:02:56.244 align:middle line:84% a little bit here on the way to some of [? 00:02:56.244 --> 00:02:59.460 align:middle line:84% my--these little guerrilla ?] writing, and web writing, 00:02:59.460 --> 00:03:02.370 align:middle line:84% comes from this guy Michael Ayrton, who I mentioned before. 00:03:02.370 --> 00:03:06.120 align:middle line:84% And he was a British polymath, he was a BBC broadcaster. 00:03:06.120 --> 00:03:10.330 align:middle line:84% He's best known as a painter and as a sculptor. 00:03:10.330 --> 00:03:14.370 align:middle line:84% He did a lot of bronzes, and then also, while he was at it, 00:03:14.370 --> 00:03:16.200 align:middle line:84% he wrote a couple of novels, one of which 00:03:16.200 --> 00:03:18.618 align:middle line:84% is called The Maze Maker, and it's about Daedalus. 00:03:18.618 --> 00:03:20.910 align:middle line:84% And it's a really interesting novel, came out, I think, 00:03:20.910 --> 00:03:24.450 align:middle line:90% maybe 1967 or 68. 00:03:24.450 --> 00:03:28.290 align:middle line:84% And then this is a piece that he wrote sort of before that, 00:03:28.290 --> 00:03:31.710 align:middle line:84% "The Testament of Daedalus," which is a novella, oftentimes 00:03:31.710 --> 00:03:34.800 align:middle line:84% in verse, again, in the voice of Daedalus 00:03:34.800 --> 00:03:38.638 align:middle line:84% talking about Icarus, the whole Labyrinth thing, Minotaur, 00:03:38.638 --> 00:03:40.680 align:middle line:84% flying too high to the sun, et cetera, et cetera. 00:03:40.680 --> 00:03:43.452 align:middle line:90% 00:03:43.452 --> 00:03:44.910 align:middle line:84% So if we believe in the web, and we 00:03:44.910 --> 00:03:48.600 align:middle line:84% believe in the idea of the online medium, 00:03:48.600 --> 00:03:50.820 align:middle line:84% then I think we believe in the Labyrinth. 00:03:50.820 --> 00:03:52.633 align:middle line:84% And this is a Michael Ayrton image. 00:03:52.633 --> 00:03:55.050 align:middle line:84% I have a lot of Michael Ayrton images just sitting around, 00:03:55.050 --> 00:03:58.140 align:middle line:84% because I'm really interested in him, as a writer, 00:03:58.140 --> 00:04:00.090 align:middle line:84% and as a designer, and as an essayist, 00:04:00.090 --> 00:04:01.720 align:middle line:90% and all these other things. 00:04:01.720 --> 00:04:04.320 align:middle line:84% And this is an image sort of exploring 00:04:04.320 --> 00:04:06.330 align:middle line:84% one reason why we like the Labyrinth, 00:04:06.330 --> 00:04:08.100 align:middle line:84% because it's like the body, right? 00:04:08.100 --> 00:04:09.930 align:middle line:84% I mean, it's this maze of intestines, 00:04:09.930 --> 00:04:12.200 align:middle line:90% twisty little passages. 00:04:12.200 --> 00:04:13.120 align:middle line:90%