WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.311 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:00:03.311 --> 00:00:07.570 align:middle line:90% 00:00:07.570 --> 00:00:08.560 align:middle line:90% Thank you, Cathy. 00:00:08.560 --> 00:00:11.890 align:middle line:84% OK, we have time for some questions, and we're, as usual, 00:00:11.890 --> 00:00:14.840 align:middle line:84% recording this for VOCA, our audio-video library. 00:00:14.840 --> 00:00:16.840 align:middle line:84% So if you have a question, just raise your hand, 00:00:16.840 --> 00:00:18.173 align:middle line:90% and I will bring the mic to you. 00:00:18.173 --> 00:00:20.170 align:middle line:84% If you can speak into the mic, that'd be great. 00:00:20.170 --> 00:00:32.060 align:middle line:90% 00:00:32.060 --> 00:00:32.570 align:middle line:90% Hi. 00:00:32.570 --> 00:00:34.370 align:middle line:90% Hi. 00:00:34.370 --> 00:00:36.290 align:middle line:84% So I've been really worried in my writing 00:00:36.290 --> 00:00:38.270 align:middle line:84% lately about finding the right word, 00:00:38.270 --> 00:00:40.728 align:middle line:84% and I noticed that your poems are so full of-- 00:00:40.728 --> 00:00:41.270 align:middle line:90% I don't know. 00:00:41.270 --> 00:00:43.187 align:middle line:84% It's beautiful language, just beautiful words. 00:00:43.187 --> 00:00:45.200 align:middle line:84% I'm wondering when you run across a word 00:00:45.200 --> 00:00:46.640 align:middle line:84% that you really like or that really speaks to you, 00:00:46.640 --> 00:00:48.420 align:middle line:84% do you keep track of things like that? 00:00:48.420 --> 00:00:51.350 align:middle line:84% Or do you just remember or write down? 00:00:51.350 --> 00:00:55.010 align:middle line:84% I mean, I'm jotting down words constantly, all the time. 00:00:55.010 --> 00:01:01.520 align:middle line:84% I have just a vast storehouse, but it sounds 00:01:01.520 --> 00:01:03.230 align:middle line:90% more organized than it is. 00:01:03.230 --> 00:01:07.160 align:middle line:84% It's just in random notebooks, or it's just in Word docs 00:01:07.160 --> 00:01:09.560 align:middle line:90% and so forth. 00:01:09.560 --> 00:01:13.130 align:middle line:84% I was talking earlier today about random dictionaries 00:01:13.130 --> 00:01:17.210 align:middle line:84% that I had, and I like reading dictionaries. 00:01:17.210 --> 00:01:22.820 align:middle line:84% And so I jot them down, and then I 00:01:22.820 --> 00:01:25.910 align:middle line:84% think that act of kind of writing down 00:01:25.910 --> 00:01:30.590 align:middle line:84% words and free writing and kind of collaging in those words, 00:01:30.590 --> 00:01:31.433 align:middle line:90% it just helps you. 00:01:31.433 --> 00:01:33.100 align:middle line:84% And then when you're writing your poems, 00:01:33.100 --> 00:01:35.750 align:middle line:84% a random word or phrase like "buck nun" 00:01:35.750 --> 00:01:40.220 align:middle line:84% will suddenly appear in my mind, and a lot of it 00:01:40.220 --> 00:01:43.460 align:middle line:84% is also influenced by sound, too. 00:01:43.460 --> 00:01:46.670 align:middle line:90% And so that helps. 00:01:46.670 --> 00:01:50.030 align:middle line:84% I mean, I tend to be more of a maximalist, 00:01:50.030 --> 00:01:52.580 align:middle line:90% as you can see, with words. 00:01:52.580 --> 00:01:55.550 align:middle line:84% I mean, of course, there are other poets-- 00:01:55.550 --> 00:01:57.200 align:middle line:90% say, someone like Louise Glück-- 00:01:57.200 --> 00:02:00.160 align:middle line:90% who's all about using as-- 00:02:00.160 --> 00:02:03.860 align:middle line:84% her craft is about having as limited a vocabulary as 00:02:03.860 --> 00:02:06.530 align:middle line:84% possible and using what you can from that. 00:02:06.530 --> 00:02:08.990 align:middle line:84% But I think it's always very important. 00:02:08.990 --> 00:02:12.729 align:middle line:84% I mean, for me, it's always important to write down words. 00:02:12.729 --> 00:02:13.229 align:middle line:90% Thanks. 00:02:13.229 --> 00:02:22.110 align:middle line:90% 00:02:22.110 --> 00:02:24.870 align:middle line:84% You said when you were reading from the last section of Engine 00:02:24.870 --> 00:02:28.320 align:middle line:84% Empire that the smart snow was a technical device 00:02:28.320 --> 00:02:29.790 align:middle line:90% or something like that. 00:02:29.790 --> 00:02:32.610 align:middle line:84% Could you say more about that, more about the snow 00:02:32.610 --> 00:02:33.900 align:middle line:90% throughout that last section? 00:02:33.900 --> 00:02:37.110 align:middle line:90% Oh yeah, I hesitate to-- 00:02:37.110 --> 00:02:39.810 align:middle line:84% I mean, I'll explain it to you, but I kind of 00:02:39.810 --> 00:02:43.560 align:middle line:84% want it to be sort of ambiguous what the smart snow is, 00:02:43.560 --> 00:02:49.110 align:middle line:84% because I want there to be kind of metaphorical possibilities 00:02:49.110 --> 00:02:50.310 align:middle line:90% for the smart snow. 00:02:50.310 --> 00:02:52.380 align:middle line:84% But I will tell you how I thought 00:02:52.380 --> 00:02:54.310 align:middle line:90% of it, which was kind of dumb. 00:02:54.310 --> 00:02:56.970 align:middle line:90% I mean, it was really obvious. 00:02:56.970 --> 00:02:59.520 align:middle line:90% Someone inspired me. 00:02:59.520 --> 00:03:04.750 align:middle line:84% Someone said, this woman, an artist, Suzanne Bocanegra-- 00:03:04.750 --> 00:03:07.530 align:middle line:84% she was commissioning these poets and artists to write 00:03:07.530 --> 00:03:11.190 align:middle line:84% recipe poems, which is always fun, 00:03:11.190 --> 00:03:14.590 align:middle line:84% so write a poem using the format of a recipe. 00:03:14.590 --> 00:03:18.360 align:middle line:84% And so I was struggling to write this poem for her, 00:03:18.360 --> 00:03:24.210 align:middle line:90% and I was doing research of-- 00:03:24.210 --> 00:03:28.350 align:middle line:84% maybe I'm giving too much away-- but smart dust. 00:03:28.350 --> 00:03:34.320 align:middle line:84% And this is something that a lot of scientists and people 00:03:34.320 --> 00:03:37.950 align:middle line:84% in the tech world have been inventing, 00:03:37.950 --> 00:03:41.310 align:middle line:84% and these are basically motes that are sensors. 00:03:41.310 --> 00:03:44.640 align:middle line:84% And they could go to, say, volcanic areas 00:03:44.640 --> 00:03:46.920 align:middle line:84% and be able to get the temperature and so forth. 00:03:46.920 --> 00:03:51.000 align:middle line:84% And so I was just sort of reading up on that, 00:03:51.000 --> 00:03:53.220 align:middle line:90% and then there was a blizzard. 00:03:53.220 --> 00:03:54.570 align:middle line:90% And I was like, smart snow. 00:03:54.570 --> 00:04:00.300 align:middle line:90% 00:04:00.300 --> 00:04:02.610 align:middle line:84% So that was sort of my initial spark, 00:04:02.610 --> 00:04:08.130 align:middle line:84% but I was kind of thinking about what would a ubicomp world 00:04:08.130 --> 00:04:13.458 align:middle line:84% look like, basically where information or just media 00:04:13.458 --> 00:04:14.250 align:middle line:90% is just everywhere. 00:04:14.250 --> 00:04:15.750 align:middle line:84% It's just embedded all around us. 00:04:15.750 --> 00:04:17.399 align:middle line:84% I mean, we're already kind of there. 00:04:17.399 --> 00:04:20.850 align:middle line:90% But I wanted to have a kind of-- 00:04:20.850 --> 00:04:23.250 align:middle line:84% I didn't want it to be just so explicit, 00:04:23.250 --> 00:04:26.730 align:middle line:84% so that was kind of sort some of the issues 00:04:26.730 --> 00:04:28.140 align:middle line:90% that I was grappling with. 00:04:28.140 --> 00:04:33.480 align:middle line:84% And also, I was thinking about James Joyce, "The Dead," 00:04:33.480 --> 00:04:38.460 align:middle line:84% in the last passage about the snow and how snow is falling, 00:04:38.460 --> 00:04:40.720 align:middle line:84% and it's like, snow is falling in Ireland 00:04:40.720 --> 00:04:41.970 align:middle line:90% and everywhere and everything. 00:04:41.970 --> 00:04:44.730 align:middle line:84% And I was thinking about just sort 00:04:44.730 --> 00:04:47.310 align:middle line:84% of the smart snow as a connective tissue 00:04:47.310 --> 00:04:49.570 align:middle line:84% that kind of connects everyone together, 00:04:49.570 --> 00:04:53.070 align:middle line:84% but how this sense of connection can also be burdensome. 00:04:53.070 --> 00:04:56.700 align:middle line:84% So that was what was going through my mind. 00:04:56.700 --> 00:05:05.190 align:middle line:90% 00:05:05.190 --> 00:05:10.380 align:middle line:84% So you mentioned that you wrote a poem when you went to Japan, 00:05:10.380 --> 00:05:12.570 align:middle line:84% and now since you're in Tucson, you 00:05:12.570 --> 00:05:14.350 align:middle line:84% think you'll write a poem about Tucson? 00:05:14.350 --> 00:05:18.187 align:middle line:84% I got to write a poem about a Tucson toilet. 00:05:18.187 --> 00:05:19.770 align:middle line:84% Toilets don't look that different here 00:05:19.770 --> 00:05:22.920 align:middle line:90% than they do in New York. 00:05:22.920 --> 00:05:24.300 align:middle line:90% Yeah, I will. 00:05:24.300 --> 00:05:25.775 align:middle line:90% I mean, I love the-- 00:05:25.775 --> 00:05:27.900 align:middle line:84% I mean, I'm actually really inspired by the desert. 00:05:27.900 --> 00:05:32.640 align:middle line:84% I come from LA, so I mean, the desert 00:05:32.640 --> 00:05:34.560 align:middle line:84% is something that's always in my mind. 00:05:34.560 --> 00:05:39.130 align:middle line:90% So I went this afternoon. 00:05:39.130 --> 00:05:42.070 align:middle line:84% We went to the desert, and it was just really beautiful. 00:05:42.070 --> 00:05:46.440 align:middle line:84% So maybe I'll write a cactus poem 00:05:46.440 --> 00:05:49.830 align:middle line:84% or some poem that sort of inhabits the Arizona landscape. 00:05:49.830 --> 00:06:01.470 align:middle line:90% 00:06:01.470 --> 00:06:04.690 align:middle line:84% So in your poems, you use a lot of words 00:06:04.690 --> 00:06:07.060 align:middle line:84% that are from different-- or specifically in Dance Dance 00:06:07.060 --> 00:06:10.360 align:middle line:84% Revolution use words that are from different languages 00:06:10.360 --> 00:06:12.460 align:middle line:84% that your readers might not necessarily 00:06:12.460 --> 00:06:13.760 align:middle line:90% know how to read properly. 00:06:13.760 --> 00:06:17.218 align:middle line:84% So what do you do to ensure that your readers will read it well, 00:06:17.218 --> 00:06:19.760 align:middle line:84% like get the right sound out of it or the right [INAUDIBLE]?? 00:06:19.760 --> 00:06:23.050 align:middle line:90% I mean, I don't care. 00:06:23.050 --> 00:06:26.710 align:middle line:84% Yeah, I think that it's really up to you, 00:06:26.710 --> 00:06:28.790 align:middle line:90% whatever sound you get from it. 00:06:28.790 --> 00:06:32.930 align:middle line:84% And I didn't initially think of it this way. 00:06:32.930 --> 00:06:35.320 align:middle line:84% I think when I started writing it, I was just writing it. 00:06:35.320 --> 00:06:37.670 align:middle line:84% I wasn't thinking about readers at all. 00:06:37.670 --> 00:06:41.590 align:middle line:84% But once it was actually out there, 00:06:41.590 --> 00:06:43.660 align:middle line:84% I think it kind of needs to be read out loud. 00:06:43.660 --> 00:06:44.830 align:middle line:84% I mean, that's what people have told me, 00:06:44.830 --> 00:06:46.580 align:middle line:84% that you have to read it out loud in order 00:06:46.580 --> 00:06:50.290 align:middle line:90% to make any sense of it. 00:06:50.290 --> 00:06:53.080 align:middle line:84% And I really like that idea, that people are reading it 00:06:53.080 --> 00:06:58.022 align:middle line:84% out loud, and they all have very different ways of reading it. 00:06:58.022 --> 00:06:59.980 align:middle line:84% And I welcome that, and I'm totally open to it. 00:06:59.980 --> 00:07:04.390 align:middle line:84% I mean, it's a book of mispronunciations, 00:07:04.390 --> 00:07:10.330 align:middle line:84% so you should mispronunciate as much as possible. 00:07:10.330 --> 00:07:14.380 align:middle line:84% And in fact, I think even the way 00:07:14.380 --> 00:07:17.380 align:middle line:84% that I read it is not always-- it's not consistent. 00:07:17.380 --> 00:07:22.720 align:middle line:84% It's changed throughout, because this came out in 2007. 00:07:22.720 --> 00:07:25.480 align:middle line:84% And I've told people this before. 00:07:25.480 --> 00:07:29.950 align:middle line:90% 00:07:29.950 --> 00:07:32.440 align:middle line:84% I heard the voice in my head, but I never 00:07:32.440 --> 00:07:34.880 align:middle line:84% actually read it out loud while I was writing it. 00:07:34.880 --> 00:07:37.600 align:middle line:84% And so when it actually came out and I 00:07:37.600 --> 00:07:40.060 align:middle line:84% was asked to do these readings, I 00:07:40.060 --> 00:07:42.490 align:middle line:84% was petrified because I was like, I don't know 00:07:42.490 --> 00:07:45.820 align:middle line:90% how I'm going to read this. 00:07:45.820 --> 00:07:49.780 align:middle line:84% So I think I read in terrible, I mean, accents before. 00:07:49.780 --> 00:07:52.990 align:middle line:84% I think it was Rastafarian, Irish. 00:07:52.990 --> 00:07:53.770 align:middle line:90% Who knows? 00:07:53.770 --> 00:07:55.470 align:middle line:90% So it's definitely morphed. 00:07:55.470 --> 00:07:56.470 align:middle line:90% It's definitely morphed. 00:07:56.470 --> 00:08:00.430 align:middle line:84% And the way I'm reading it now might change again five years 00:08:00.430 --> 00:08:01.060 align:middle line:90% from now. 00:08:01.060 --> 00:08:02.770 align:middle line:90% And I've heard people say-- 00:08:02.770 --> 00:08:05.230 align:middle line:84% different people have said, oh, it's not 00:08:05.230 --> 00:08:08.060 align:middle line:90% how I imagined the voice to be. 00:08:08.060 --> 00:08:09.550 align:middle line:84% I'm like, well, you should read it. 00:08:09.550 --> 00:08:13.300 align:middle line:84% And I would love to do a rendition of Dance Dance 00:08:13.300 --> 00:08:16.150 align:middle line:84% Revolution where I'm not reading, where 00:08:16.150 --> 00:08:18.970 align:middle line:84% some other people are reading in the guide's voice 00:08:18.970 --> 00:08:23.410 align:middle line:84% because I think that's more in the spirit of the book. 00:08:23.410 --> 00:08:25.390 align:middle line:84% Sometimes, my husband likes to make fun of me 00:08:25.390 --> 00:08:27.850 align:middle line:90% in the guy's voice. 00:08:27.850 --> 00:08:30.610 align:middle line:84% This was when I was working revising it. 00:08:30.610 --> 00:08:32.350 align:middle line:90% I was really frustrated by it. 00:08:32.350 --> 00:08:35.350 align:middle line:84% But yeah, so does that answer your question? 00:08:35.350 --> 00:08:36.900 align:middle line:90% Yeah? 00:08:36.900 --> 00:08:38.000 align:middle line:90%