WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.690 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.690 --> 00:00:02.550 align:middle line:90% Well, that is something. 00:00:02.550 --> 00:00:04.950 align:middle line:84% You'll see something of the problems of the language 00:00:04.950 --> 00:00:09.240 align:middle line:84% there of trying to imagine Raleigh 00:00:09.240 --> 00:00:12.240 align:middle line:90% writing a letter to his son. 00:00:12.240 --> 00:00:14.700 align:middle line:84% I'm not sure, I solved all of those problems adequately. 00:00:14.700 --> 00:00:17.820 align:middle line:84% But to do in a modern, what really amounts 00:00:17.820 --> 00:00:21.780 align:middle line:84% to a modern English in language if not syntax, 00:00:21.780 --> 00:00:25.470 align:middle line:84% and imitation of the feel of that language. 00:00:25.470 --> 00:00:30.000 align:middle line:84% It's tricky sense for me since his own prose 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:31.360 align:middle line:90% is so magnificent. 00:00:31.360 --> 00:00:34.830 align:middle line:84% And I didn't precisely imitate that, I just suppressed it 00:00:34.830 --> 00:00:37.170 align:middle line:84% as much as I could in this book so that it 00:00:37.170 --> 00:00:39.450 align:middle line:84% wouldn't stand in terrible contrast 00:00:39.450 --> 00:00:41.280 align:middle line:90% to what they were reading. 00:00:41.280 --> 00:00:43.718 align:middle line:84% Well, while doing that, I was, that book 00:00:43.718 --> 00:00:45.885 align:middle line:84% over a long period of time, doing some other things. 00:00:45.885 --> 00:00:48.443 align:middle line:90% 00:00:48.443 --> 00:00:50.610 align:middle line:84% Some of which have come to light and others of which 00:00:50.610 --> 00:00:53.490 align:middle line:84% are buried in trunks, and getting 00:00:53.490 --> 00:00:56.680 align:middle line:84% on the backs of sheets of paper and so forth. 00:00:56.680 --> 00:01:01.020 align:middle line:84% And one of the things was this three long stories, 00:01:01.020 --> 00:01:03.000 align:middle line:84% which were put together in a little book 00:01:03.000 --> 00:01:05.940 align:middle line:90% and brought out last Christmas. 00:01:05.940 --> 00:01:09.660 align:middle line:84% Not widely known because, as I told one writing class, 00:01:09.660 --> 00:01:14.550 align:middle line:84% my publisher explained to me that I was to consider it 00:01:14.550 --> 00:01:18.690 align:middle line:84% a Christmas card from Doubleday to their friends and mine. 00:01:18.690 --> 00:01:22.380 align:middle line:84% Not a large commercial venture or something like that, 00:01:22.380 --> 00:01:23.910 align:middle line:84% and you'll see why in a few minutes. 00:01:23.910 --> 00:01:27.643 align:middle line:84% Well, two or three the things that were necessary for me 00:01:27.643 --> 00:01:30.060 align:middle line:84% in doing these things, which were done at different times, 00:01:30.060 --> 00:01:36.030 align:middle line:84% were keeping touch with, if not sanity, 00:01:36.030 --> 00:01:38.220 align:middle line:84% at least with the century that I was living in. 00:01:38.220 --> 00:01:40.410 align:middle line:84% Every once in a while, I surfaced and noticed 00:01:40.410 --> 00:01:43.810 align:middle line:90% stuff was going on in the 60s. 00:01:43.810 --> 00:01:46.110 align:middle line:84% Otherwise, it might have missed the 60s completely. 00:01:46.110 --> 00:01:48.597 align:middle line:90% 00:01:48.597 --> 00:01:50.430 align:middle line:84% These were, I'm only going to read from one, 00:01:50.430 --> 00:01:53.970 align:middle line:84% but I came together in this case with three long stories 00:01:53.970 --> 00:01:59.250 align:middle line:84% or short novels done according to different rules of the game. 00:01:59.250 --> 00:02:04.110 align:middle line:90% One, a lead one, is a fable. 00:02:04.110 --> 00:02:08.880 align:middle line:84% In the middle one is a story or tale straight. 00:02:08.880 --> 00:02:14.100 align:middle line:84% And the last one is an attempt to bring up in manner and style 00:02:14.100 --> 00:02:17.670 align:middle line:84% the medieval form of the Fab Leo. 00:02:17.670 --> 00:02:21.120 align:middle line:84% But the fable one has to do with a man 00:02:21.120 --> 00:02:24.930 align:middle line:84% that I'll read you a little about, and it's a fable. 00:02:24.930 --> 00:02:28.785 align:middle line:84% Primarily, if it doesn't deal with talking animals and rocks, 00:02:28.785 --> 00:02:34.860 align:middle line:84% it deals with a what if situation in human experience. 00:02:34.860 --> 00:02:37.920 align:middle line:84% In this case, a very simple proposition 00:02:37.920 --> 00:02:42.120 align:middle line:84% that goes a little bit beyond conventional possibility, 00:02:42.120 --> 00:02:44.790 align:middle line:84% whatever that may be in these days. 00:02:44.790 --> 00:02:48.570 align:middle line:84% Now, this proposition is as follows. 00:02:48.570 --> 00:02:52.290 align:middle line:84% A rather serious minded young man, 00:02:52.290 --> 00:02:57.090 align:middle line:84% at the beginning, by the name of Jacob Quirk who 00:02:57.090 --> 00:02:59.850 align:middle line:84% has certain natural talent then develops this, 00:02:59.850 --> 00:03:03.030 align:middle line:90% becomes an impersonator. 00:03:03.030 --> 00:03:07.050 align:middle line:84% He has great success on things like television and nightclubs 00:03:07.050 --> 00:03:09.010 align:middle line:90% up to a point. 00:03:09.010 --> 00:03:11.310 align:middle line:84% But he gets more and more interested in the art 00:03:11.310 --> 00:03:14.740 align:middle line:84% of impersonation rather than the people he's doing. 00:03:14.740 --> 00:03:18.150 align:middle line:84% And finally gets into some trouble with his agent 00:03:18.150 --> 00:03:20.050 align:middle line:90% and retires. 00:03:20.050 --> 00:03:21.300 align:middle line:90% He has enough money to retire. 00:03:21.300 --> 00:03:25.080 align:middle line:84% He's living in the city and just giving up on everything. 00:03:25.080 --> 00:03:29.520 align:middle line:84% When he decides that he really are to take, he stopped short. 00:03:29.520 --> 00:03:31.650 align:middle line:84% He ought to take his art form of impersonation 00:03:31.650 --> 00:03:34.470 align:middle line:84% as far as you could possibly take it, which 00:03:34.470 --> 00:03:35.850 align:middle line:90% is what he proceeds to do. 00:03:35.850 --> 00:03:39.120 align:middle line:84% That is to say, by the time we're in chapter two, 00:03:39.120 --> 00:03:45.030 align:middle line:84% is discovered how he can literally turn himself 00:03:45.030 --> 00:03:49.740 align:middle line:90% into anybody anytime. 00:03:49.740 --> 00:03:51.510 align:middle line:84% Some of you grew up with Captain Kangaroo 00:03:51.510 --> 00:03:52.920 align:middle line:90% will remember Tom terrific. 00:03:52.920 --> 00:03:57.090 align:middle line:90% Well, this is a Jacob Quirk. 00:03:57.090 --> 00:03:58.830 align:middle line:84% It's a little bit like Tom terrific 00:03:58.830 --> 00:04:00.645 align:middle line:90% and whom I'd forgotten about. 00:04:00.645 --> 00:04:04.830 align:middle line:84% He get to the end of this and how to end the story, 00:04:04.830 --> 00:04:06.280 align:middle line:90% tom terrific was a big help. 00:04:06.280 --> 00:04:09.870 align:middle line:84% But when we pick up work, he has just 00:04:09.870 --> 00:04:16.290 align:middle line:84% learned that he can do this and rehearsed himself into it. 00:04:16.290 --> 00:04:20.820 align:middle line:84% Because this is the beginning of his first real, real 00:04:20.820 --> 00:04:24.260 align:middle line:84% impersonation in the neighborhood where he lives.