WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.660 align:middle line:90%


00:00:03.660 --> 00:00:06.330 align:middle line:90%
I'm going to skip ahead here.

00:00:06.330 --> 00:00:09.330 align:middle line:84%
These are poems
that-- so there's

00:00:09.330 --> 00:00:11.580 align:middle line:84%
a sort of a narrative
to this book,

00:00:11.580 --> 00:00:14.370 align:middle line:90%
and so she tells her story.

00:00:14.370 --> 00:00:15.960 align:middle line:84%
And then they're
out of the hotel,

00:00:15.960 --> 00:00:19.080 align:middle line:84%
and they're going towards the
borders, border of the desert.

00:00:19.080 --> 00:00:23.370 align:middle line:84%
And they're encountering
these characters.

00:00:23.370 --> 00:00:27.510 align:middle line:84%
I mean, in interviews,
I've said a lot about how

00:00:27.510 --> 00:00:32.910 align:middle line:84%
I've been reading Dante,
Stevens, Berryman, and so

00:00:32.910 --> 00:00:34.530 align:middle line:84%
forth when I was
writing this book,

00:00:34.530 --> 00:00:38.470 align:middle line:84%
but another book that sort of
inspired me was a childhood

00:00:38.470 --> 00:00:41.640 align:middle line:90%
book, The Phantom Tollbooth.

00:00:41.640 --> 00:00:44.080 align:middle line:84%
I noticed that it
was in the display,

00:00:44.080 --> 00:00:46.110 align:middle line:84%
and it just this
wonderful children's

00:00:46.110 --> 00:00:50.070 align:middle line:84%
book where language-- it's
like a theme park of language.

00:00:50.070 --> 00:00:52.410 align:middle line:90%
And I was thinking of that.

00:00:52.410 --> 00:00:56.220 align:middle line:84%
This is called "The
Auctioneer's Woo."

00:00:56.220 --> 00:01:02.010 align:middle line:84%
There's this auctioneer who's
auctioning off trademarks.

00:01:02.010 --> 00:01:04.739 align:middle line:90%
"The Auctioneer's Woo."

00:01:04.739 --> 00:01:07.350 align:middle line:90%
"First up is a mint, a classic.

00:01:07.350 --> 00:01:09.510 align:middle line:90%
May I have this dance--

00:01:09.510 --> 00:01:12.780 align:middle line:84%
a phrase for thy
empire waisted who

00:01:12.780 --> 00:01:15.810 align:middle line:84%
know the finickeries
and fineries of a pearl,

00:01:15.810 --> 00:01:18.330 align:middle line:90%
small and mottled as a current.

00:01:18.330 --> 00:01:22.500 align:middle line:84%
A fetish for yore, when
ladies sat by wayside

00:01:22.500 --> 00:01:28.320 align:middle line:84%
while sideburned men in frippery
whispered an ear-shaped shall.

00:01:28.320 --> 00:01:33.480 align:middle line:84%
Gay buyers, this is a proper
woo, a very proper woo,

00:01:33.480 --> 00:01:36.900 align:middle line:84%
with societal promises
of velvet crushed cossets

00:01:36.900 --> 00:01:41.850 align:middle line:84%
and a lock of Anglophine
hair as keepsake, when joy,

00:01:41.850 --> 00:01:47.040 align:middle line:84%
now ineluctable as waltz, was
momentary surrender and not

00:01:47.040 --> 00:01:49.530 align:middle line:90%
a holiday reminder.

00:01:49.530 --> 00:01:53.070 align:middle line:84%
Here here, for those
who pang for manners,

00:01:53.070 --> 00:01:56.580 align:middle line:84%
who will by code fan gnats
from a sylph's bosom,

00:01:56.580 --> 00:01:59.820 align:middle line:84%
yet dare not touch
her pomegranate lips.

00:01:59.820 --> 00:02:01.650 align:middle line:90%
Use it sparingly.

00:02:01.650 --> 00:02:06.330 align:middle line:84%
This phrase's hoary delicacy
may fray with slattern use.

00:02:06.330 --> 00:02:08.280 align:middle line:90%
Come all for this mint.

00:02:08.280 --> 00:02:10.020 align:middle line:90%
May I have this dance?

00:02:10.020 --> 00:02:13.370 align:middle line:90%
The bidding will start at once."

00:02:13.370 --> 00:02:14.000 align:middle line:90%