WEBVTT

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For many of you, Manuel
Muñoz needs no introduction.

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So I had a lot of
bad ideas for what

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to do with this introduction.

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The thing about
bad ideas, though,

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is that I'm convinced
if you push on them hard

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and long enough, they
sometimes become good ideas.

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Maybe they stay bad ideas.

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We'll find out.

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My first inclination was to play
you the video for the memorable

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if not seminal
1996 Mark Morrison

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song, "Return of the
Mack," and maybe do

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some freestyling over it.

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Always reasonable
Aurelie Sheehan

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talked me down from this idea,
but it stayed stuck in my head.

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I rested it for a
week on the bench.

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I put it in a bathtub of ice.

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Pinkly, it still kicked and
asserted itself, said, try me.

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So perhaps you
remember the song.

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The lyrics were
indecipherable aside

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from the refrain of,
"You lied to me."

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Like Manuel's new novel,
What You See in the Dark,

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Morrison's song builds
on another, absent text.

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It samples the rhythm line
from the Tom Tom Club classic,

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"Genius of Love," which
you need to check out

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if you haven't listened to.

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It's got a good video, too.

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Though What You See
in the Dark never name

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checks or samples Psycho, Janet
Leigh, or Alfred Hitchcock,

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the novel intersects
with the filming

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of the film in surprising
and delicious ways

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that I won't spoil for those of
you who haven't read the novel.

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You will after seeing him
read tonight, I'm sure.

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What You See in the Dark
is about the seemingly

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unbridgeable spaces between
Bakersfield and Hollywood.

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Or you might as well
call Bakersfield

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the small town where
you're from and Hollywood

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any place that seems like it
matters more, has stories.

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The book is in part about, and
this is a quote from Manuel,

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"the way people in a place
they consider nowhere

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think outside of
themselves through dreaming

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and imagination and fantasy,
like that moment you look

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at people or US Weekly and read
about celebrities whose lives

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and stories seem more exciting
than your own," end quote.

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It is also about the
seemingly endless spaces

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within and between our public
and private identities,

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the boundaries of our
worlds and our desires,

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and what happens
when they rupture.

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Manuel's work has
always been careful,

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attentive to the salient details
of the lives of the silent,

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or if not silent, those who
aren't often written about

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and might not believe that
they have a story to tell.

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It turns out that
they do, that we do.

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You might see the
seeds of What You

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See in the Dark in his
first collection, Zigzagger.

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Take any story.

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For instance, "The
Unimportant Lila Parr."

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Like the later novel,
this early story

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is structured primarily
around three characters

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and how their lives
are intersected,

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how they're observed
and gossiped

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about by the community, and
how they come together and are

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split apart by sex, love, work,
jealousy, race, domesticity,

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a violent death, and a betrayal.

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Sounds pretty noir, doesn't it?

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Also noir in many
ways, in obvious ways,

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is What You See in the Dark,
which takes some of these ideas

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and maxes them out,
goes filmic, panoramic,

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lights them up on a big screen.

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On the screen, these
stories are not minimized.

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But like objects close
into a light source,

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the shadows they project
are writ larger, darker,

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something to see.

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Paying attention
to Manuel's fiction

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and how the stories and the
novel see their characters

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means that you start to
see the current swirling

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under everything, your own
life, your home, your silences,

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your darknesses, your town where
nothing really ever happens

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except when something does.

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Consider some more instructive
parallels between Manuel Muñoz

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and Mark Morrison.

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Both have names adorned by
pairs of alliterative M's.

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The two are nearly the same age.

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Like Morrison, Manuel Muñoz
dresses sharply and sports

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an impeccably smooth flow.

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Both nearly achieved a
number-one single in America

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in 1996, but were stymied
by the success of Hanson's

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tenacious song, "MMMBop."

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Both were peripherally
involved in the Tottenham

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riots in England last month.

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Seriously, check Wikipedia
right after this.

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And as any of the lucky students
of either Morris or Muñoz can

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tell you, Manuel is indeed
the Mack and a fine friend

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and human and writer.

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And he has indeed returned.

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So please welcome Manuel Muñoz.

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[APPLAUSE]

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