WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.870 align:middle line:90%


00:00:00.870 --> 00:00:03.330 align:middle line:84%
And so speaking
of destinations--

00:00:03.330 --> 00:00:09.970 align:middle line:90%


00:00:09.970 --> 00:00:13.390 align:middle line:84%
borrowing Cybele's
computer here--

00:00:13.390 --> 00:00:16.239 align:middle line:84%
almost like another
world, this is Antarctica.

00:00:16.239 --> 00:00:20.210 align:middle line:84%
So I want to close with a very
brief passage from The Fallen

00:00:20.210 --> 00:00:20.710 align:middle line:90%
Sky.

00:00:20.710 --> 00:00:24.580 align:middle line:84%
And actually, after I'm done
talking or just chatting,

00:00:24.580 --> 00:00:26.680 align:middle line:84%
I'm going to put some
aphorisms on the slide show

00:00:26.680 --> 00:00:30.373 align:middle line:84%
up here, a little sample
from a lyric prose collection

00:00:30.373 --> 00:00:32.540 align:middle line:84%
that I've been working on
for the better part of two

00:00:32.540 --> 00:00:33.400 align:middle line:90%
centuries, actually.

00:00:33.400 --> 00:00:35.470 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:00:35.470 --> 00:00:37.840 align:middle line:84%
And hoping this is the last
version of that manuscript

00:00:37.840 --> 00:00:40.390 align:middle line:84%
and that it'll get out
there in the world.

00:00:40.390 --> 00:00:42.940 align:middle line:84%
But let me just read
this very short passage

00:00:42.940 --> 00:00:44.675 align:middle line:90%
from The Fallen Sky.

00:00:44.675 --> 00:00:50.380 align:middle line:90%


00:00:50.380 --> 00:00:53.350 align:middle line:84%
As Adam said, The Falling Sky
is a book about meteorites

00:00:53.350 --> 00:00:55.510 align:middle line:90%
and the people who hunt them.

00:00:55.510 --> 00:00:59.028 align:middle line:84%
It's a book of science writing--
of sort of literary journalism,

00:00:59.028 --> 00:01:00.820 align:middle line:84%
I guess you'd say--
but it's also a memoir,

00:01:00.820 --> 00:01:04.280 align:middle line:84%
and it's a sort of odd
hybrid of those two things.

00:01:04.280 --> 00:01:06.400 align:middle line:84%
So it's about meteorites,
and there's actually

00:01:06.400 --> 00:01:08.345 align:middle line:84%
a meteorite over on
the book table, here,

00:01:08.345 --> 00:01:09.220 align:middle line:90%
that you can look at.

00:01:09.220 --> 00:01:11.530 align:middle line:84%
You can't buy, but
you can look at it.

00:01:11.530 --> 00:01:12.760 align:middle line:90%
It's about meteorites.

00:01:12.760 --> 00:01:14.080 align:middle line:90%
It's about meteorite hunters.

00:01:14.080 --> 00:01:17.110 align:middle line:84%
And therefore it's about
obsession, it's about wonder,

00:01:17.110 --> 00:01:19.240 align:middle line:90%
and the costs of wonder.

00:01:19.240 --> 00:01:23.860 align:middle line:84%
And for this project, I went
to Antarctica in late 2003,

00:01:23.860 --> 00:01:27.580 align:middle line:84%
early 2004, and one of my
expedition mates is here--

00:01:27.580 --> 00:01:29.800 align:middle line:84%
Tim Swindle, who
should raise his hand--

00:01:29.800 --> 00:01:32.890 align:middle line:84%
who teaches here at U of A
and is a planetary scientist,

00:01:32.890 --> 00:01:35.560 align:middle line:84%
and will be going to
Antarctica a week from today.

00:01:35.560 --> 00:01:36.910 align:middle line:90%
For your fourth trip?

00:01:36.910 --> 00:01:37.660 align:middle line:90%
Yeah.

00:01:37.660 --> 00:01:40.750 align:middle line:90%
Fourth time.

00:01:40.750 --> 00:01:42.760 align:middle line:90%
He's made of tough stuff.

00:01:42.760 --> 00:01:44.290 align:middle line:90%
It was cold.

00:01:44.290 --> 00:01:46.900 align:middle line:84%
I arrived in
Antarctica at the end

00:01:46.900 --> 00:01:48.940 align:middle line:84%
of several months--
almost two years--

00:01:48.940 --> 00:01:51.130 align:middle line:90%
of much personal upheaval.

00:01:51.130 --> 00:01:53.470 align:middle line:84%
And without giving the
book away-- the end

00:01:53.470 --> 00:01:56.710 align:middle line:84%
of the book away,
it doesn't go well.

00:01:56.710 --> 00:02:00.220 align:middle line:84%
So I will read just
this passage here.

00:02:00.220 --> 00:02:02.620 align:middle line:90%
This is at the first camp.

00:02:02.620 --> 00:02:04.510 align:middle line:90%
This is the LaPaz ice fields.

00:02:04.510 --> 00:02:06.700 align:middle line:90%
This is what it looked like.

00:02:06.700 --> 00:02:08.919 align:middle line:84%
Ralph is the leader
of the expedition.

00:02:08.919 --> 00:02:10.990 align:middle line:84%
This is an annual
expedition to Antarctica,

00:02:10.990 --> 00:02:14.050 align:middle line:84%
called the Antarctic Search
for Meteorites, or ANSMET.

00:02:14.050 --> 00:02:16.900 align:middle line:84%
I use that abbreviation in
here, and Andrew and Barb

00:02:16.900 --> 00:02:20.410 align:middle line:84%
are both scientists
on this expedition.

00:02:20.410 --> 00:02:26.090 align:middle line:84%
So a little taste
of the destination--

00:02:26.090 --> 00:02:27.740 align:middle line:90%
At the LaPaz ice fields.

00:02:27.740 --> 00:02:29.390 align:middle line:90%
We're camped on hard snow--

00:02:29.390 --> 00:02:32.840 align:middle line:84%
snow that's pocked or flat
or broken like flakes--

00:02:32.840 --> 00:02:34.520 align:middle line:90%
near dimpled blue ice.

00:02:34.520 --> 00:02:37.940 align:middle line:84%
We're surrounded by an Antarctic
prairie that in one direction

00:02:37.940 --> 00:02:40.790 align:middle line:84%
gives way to low rolls
and swells that remind me

00:02:40.790 --> 00:02:43.160 align:middle line:90%
of the Smoky Hills of Kansas.

00:02:43.160 --> 00:02:45.470 align:middle line:84%
The wind-shaped snow
extends to the horizon--

00:02:45.470 --> 00:02:47.720 align:middle line:84%
sastrugi, those
hard packed furrows

00:02:47.720 --> 00:02:50.300 align:middle line:84%
that metaphor can make
into hundreds of shapes.

00:02:50.300 --> 00:02:52.730 align:middle line:84%
Inches or feet
high, the sastrugi

00:02:52.730 --> 00:02:55.790 align:middle line:84%
become fishhooks and mesas,
plowshares and ridges,

00:02:55.790 --> 00:02:57.560 align:middle line:90%
catchy fins and talons.

00:02:57.560 --> 00:03:00.920 align:middle line:84%
Some sastrugi have
the aspect of tears.

00:03:00.920 --> 00:03:03.260 align:middle line:84%
Where snow gives
out, blue ice begins,

00:03:03.260 --> 00:03:06.860 align:middle line:84%
not smooth but scalloped like
a mold of mamatus clouds.

00:03:06.860 --> 00:03:10.550 align:middle line:84%
The ice itself is the color
of blue eyes with cataracts.

00:03:10.550 --> 00:03:13.640 align:middle line:84%
Compacted snow inside
the ice and crevasses

00:03:13.640 --> 00:03:16.310 align:middle line:84%
filled with snow on the
surface across this blue

00:03:16.310 --> 00:03:20.270 align:middle line:84%
like a Cubist rendering
of crazed kelp.

00:03:20.270 --> 00:03:23.030 align:middle line:84%
The low hills not far from
camp are the only relief

00:03:23.030 --> 00:03:25.250 align:middle line:84%
on the horizon, a
low hummocky ridge

00:03:25.250 --> 00:03:27.680 align:middle line:84%
topped with nubbles of
ice at regular intervals.

00:03:27.680 --> 00:03:29.090 align:middle line:90%
Pinnacles, they're called.

00:03:29.090 --> 00:03:30.800 align:middle line:84%
They are the round
ice peaks, Barb

00:03:30.800 --> 00:03:33.530 align:middle line:84%
tells me, of the
below-surface topography that

00:03:33.530 --> 00:03:36.530 align:middle line:84%
slows the flow of ice here,
sort of like the exposed tip

00:03:36.530 --> 00:03:38.340 align:middle line:90%
of an iceberg.

00:03:38.340 --> 00:03:39.710 align:middle line:90%
But again it's time for work.

00:03:39.710 --> 00:03:41.840 align:middle line:84%
We unload the plane,
using a snowmobile

00:03:41.840 --> 00:03:44.930 align:middle line:84%
to pull a sled piled with
boxes of food, emergency

00:03:44.930 --> 00:03:46.910 align:middle line:90%
supplies, and isopods.

00:03:46.910 --> 00:03:48.950 align:middle line:84%
The latter are white
metal bins in which

00:03:48.950 --> 00:03:52.100 align:middle line:84%
we'll store the bagged and
tagged meteorites for transport

00:03:52.100 --> 00:03:54.860 align:middle line:84%
out of the field, when
the searches are over.

00:03:54.860 --> 00:03:57.030 align:middle line:90%
The isopods hold my attention.

00:03:57.030 --> 00:03:58.970 align:middle line:84%
They were used during
Apollo missions

00:03:58.970 --> 00:04:01.160 align:middle line:84%
to carry lunar
rocks here on Earth.

00:04:01.160 --> 00:04:03.020 align:middle line:84%
Ralph will tell me
later that he doesn't

00:04:03.020 --> 00:04:05.720 align:middle line:84%
know if ANSMET'S
isopods were spares

00:04:05.720 --> 00:04:09.140 align:middle line:84%
or if they may have held, for
a time, samples of the Moon.

00:04:09.140 --> 00:04:11.480 align:middle line:90%
I like to think that they did.

00:04:11.480 --> 00:04:14.900 align:middle line:84%
A stiff wind slows us down, and
I have no idea how cold it is.

00:04:14.900 --> 00:04:18.170 align:middle line:84%
Cold enough that when I stop
lifting my sweat chills fast.

00:04:18.170 --> 00:04:21.290 align:middle line:84%
We haul over more tents, food,
sleep kits, and the survival

00:04:21.290 --> 00:04:23.600 align:middle line:84%
bags of snacks and
extra gear that we'll

00:04:23.600 --> 00:04:25.328 align:middle line:90%
carry on our snowmobiles."

00:04:25.328 --> 00:04:26.120 align:middle line:90%
Which you see here.

00:04:26.120 --> 00:04:28.162 align:middle line:84%
And I'll skip this next
part, but we would go out

00:04:28.162 --> 00:04:31.760 align:middle line:84%
on these searches in
these traverse lines,

00:04:31.760 --> 00:04:35.403 align:middle line:84%
looking from our snowmobiles,
looking for meteorites.

00:04:35.403 --> 00:04:37.070 align:middle line:84%
And we'd been at it
for, like, four days

00:04:37.070 --> 00:04:39.410 align:middle line:90%
when I finally see one.

00:04:39.410 --> 00:04:41.360 align:middle line:84%
"We're searching in
places we keep straight

00:04:41.360 --> 00:04:45.200 align:middle line:84%
with fictive subdivision names
such as Kozy Katabatic Kove

00:04:45.200 --> 00:04:46.865 align:middle line:90%
and Terrapin Landing Royale."

00:04:46.865 --> 00:04:48.590 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:04:48.590 --> 00:04:51.920 align:middle line:84%
Then, "I see a
meteorite-- no, two."

00:04:51.920 --> 00:04:53.030 align:middle line:90%
I see two.

00:04:53.030 --> 00:04:55.760 align:middle line:84%
"After nearly four days
at LaPaz and a handful

00:04:55.760 --> 00:04:57.380 align:middle line:84%
of weather-delimited
traverses, I

00:04:57.380 --> 00:04:59.870 align:middle line:84%
see two black chunks cut
in the middle by snow.

00:04:59.870 --> 00:05:01.220 align:middle line:90%
No mistaking it!

00:05:01.220 --> 00:05:04.850 align:middle line:84%
Revving the snowmobile standing,
I squint and hope and yell

00:05:04.850 --> 00:05:08.330 align:middle line:84%
and speed to the spot, my words
lost in the din of the engine

00:05:08.330 --> 00:05:12.050 align:middle line:84%
and the clattery-smacks of
snowmobile skis on uneven ice.

00:05:12.050 --> 00:05:15.230 align:middle line:84%
The stone-- the size of a small
gourd put out as a countertop

00:05:15.230 --> 00:05:16.520 align:middle line:90%
decoration in the fall--

00:05:16.520 --> 00:05:20.090 align:middle line:84%
sits behind a bit of snow that
made it appear to be two rocks.

00:05:20.090 --> 00:05:23.030 align:middle line:84%
When I get off my
snowmobile, I squat and peer

00:05:23.030 --> 00:05:25.430 align:middle line:84%
at the meteorite, and
I am disbelieving,

00:05:25.430 --> 00:05:26.690 align:middle line:90%
and I am thrilled.

00:05:26.690 --> 00:05:29.690 align:middle line:84%
Then I stand up, waving
briskly, people arriving.

00:05:29.690 --> 00:05:32.060 align:middle line:84%
I forget about the persistent
pain of throttle thumb

00:05:32.060 --> 00:05:35.330 align:middle line:84%
in my right hand and, absurdly
gloved, smack the cargo box,

00:05:35.330 --> 00:05:38.000 align:middle line:90%
saying, 'Hot damn!'

00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:39.050 align:middle line:90%
'Is this your first?'

00:05:39.050 --> 00:05:39.980 align:middle line:90%
Andrew asks.

00:05:39.980 --> 00:05:44.000 align:middle line:84%
I respond with an
enthused, 'Oh yeah.'"

00:05:44.000 --> 00:05:46.940 align:middle line:84%
I believe I'd found what
I've been looking for.

00:05:46.940 --> 00:05:48.710 align:middle line:84%
And later that day,
in the evening,

00:05:48.710 --> 00:05:50.540 align:middle line:84%
"beside the steady
whoosh of our stoves,

00:05:50.540 --> 00:05:53.360 align:middle line:84%
Ralph busy reviewing field
notes and photographs,

00:05:53.360 --> 00:05:55.040 align:middle line:84%
I recall a conversation
we had, when

00:05:55.040 --> 00:05:58.280 align:middle line:84%
we talked about the sense of
connection and dislocation one

00:05:58.280 --> 00:06:01.670 align:middle line:84%
feels when traveling across
the ice prairies of LaPaz.

00:06:01.670 --> 00:06:04.490 align:middle line:90%
Ralph had stunned me.

00:06:04.490 --> 00:06:06.950 align:middle line:84%
'You see what's in
your heart,' he said,

00:06:06.950 --> 00:06:09.500 align:middle line:90%
'not just what's around you.'

00:06:09.500 --> 00:06:11.660 align:middle line:84%
On some traverses
today, the sunlight

00:06:11.660 --> 00:06:14.330 align:middle line:84%
just right, I could
see my eyes reflected

00:06:14.330 --> 00:06:16.400 align:middle line:90%
on the inside of my goggles.

00:06:16.400 --> 00:06:20.000 align:middle line:84%
I stared at myself staring
at the sterile sublime,"

00:06:20.000 --> 00:06:21.800 align:middle line:90%
of Antarctica.

00:06:21.800 --> 00:06:23.560 align:middle line:90%
Thank you.

00:06:23.560 --> 00:06:30.208 align:middle line:90%