WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.840 align:middle line:84% We have time for a short Q and A. And, you want to come back up? 00:00:03.840 --> 00:00:05.768 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:00:05.768 --> 00:00:08.018 align:middle line:84% I'll give you this one, because you're walking around. 00:00:08.018 --> 00:00:14.240 align:middle line:90% 00:00:14.240 --> 00:00:17.090 align:middle line:84% And if you have a question, if you could speak it into the mic 00:00:17.090 --> 00:00:20.390 align:middle line:84% so that we can get it onto the recording that we are doing. 00:00:20.390 --> 00:00:23.690 align:middle line:84% And I'll start with the question actually. 00:00:23.690 --> 00:00:25.250 align:middle line:90% I love your reading style. 00:00:25.250 --> 00:00:28.370 align:middle line:84% I think all poems should be read in this style. 00:00:28.370 --> 00:00:31.940 align:middle line:84% And I'm wondering what the inspiration and origins 00:00:31.940 --> 00:00:34.160 align:middle line:90% of your style is? 00:00:34.160 --> 00:00:35.413 align:middle line:90% Life and death. 00:00:35.413 --> 00:00:38.251 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:38.251 --> 00:00:39.200 align:middle line:90% 00:00:39.200 --> 00:00:40.534 align:middle line:90% OK, next question. 00:00:40.534 --> 00:00:43.498 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:43.498 --> 00:00:47.950 align:middle line:90% 00:00:47.950 --> 00:00:49.930 align:middle line:84% More an observation than a question, 00:00:49.930 --> 00:00:54.730 align:middle line:84% though love and death may be the answer to all questions. 00:00:54.730 --> 00:00:56.140 align:middle line:90% You'll forgive me-- 00:00:56.140 --> 00:00:56.860 align:middle line:90% I'll forgive you. 00:00:56.860 --> 00:00:58.960 align:middle line:90% Many years ago-- thank you-- 00:00:58.960 --> 00:01:00.880 align:middle line:84% I was fortunate-- this is a long time ago-- 00:01:00.880 --> 00:01:03.130 align:middle line:84% and I was sitting to hear Brodsky. 00:01:03.130 --> 00:01:05.830 align:middle line:90% And you are an echo of him-- 00:01:05.830 --> 00:01:06.730 align:middle line:90% I hope so. 00:01:06.730 --> 00:01:09.340 align:middle line:84% --in both the content, and, if anybody has heard 00:01:09.340 --> 00:01:18.610 align:middle line:84% Brodsky read, even in the rhythmic, near chant-like, 00:01:18.610 --> 00:01:20.830 align:middle line:90% Russian bells, if I may say so. 00:01:20.830 --> 00:01:21.977 align:middle line:90% It was really quite-- 00:01:21.977 --> 00:01:22.810 align:middle line:90% [INTERPOSING VOICES] 00:01:22.810 --> 00:01:23.935 align:middle line:84% Do you know what they called Brodsky in Russia 00:01:23.935 --> 00:01:24.950 align:middle line:90% for the way he read? 00:01:24.950 --> 00:01:25.450 align:middle line:90% What? 00:01:25.450 --> 00:01:28.030 align:middle line:84% The called him rabbi on the top of a locomotive. 00:01:28.030 --> 00:01:29.350 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:01:29.350 --> 00:01:31.550 align:middle line:90% Well, you are the second coming. 00:01:31.550 --> 00:01:33.070 align:middle line:90% [INAUDIBLE] 00:01:33.070 --> 00:01:37.920 align:middle line:84% But he was a great Russian poet, no question about it for me. 00:01:37.920 --> 00:01:40.420 align:middle line:84% I don't love his [INAUDIBLE] translations if you [INAUDIBLE] 00:01:40.420 --> 00:01:41.510 align:middle line:90% work as much. 00:01:41.510 --> 00:01:43.780 align:middle line:84% I do love his essays in English however. 00:01:43.780 --> 00:01:44.900 align:middle line:90% They're great essays. 00:01:44.900 --> 00:01:46.150 align:middle line:90% In Russian, he's a great poet. 00:01:46.150 --> 00:01:59.720 align:middle line:90% 00:01:59.720 --> 00:02:02.840 align:middle line:84% Thank you, Ilya, for that beautiful reading. 00:02:02.840 --> 00:02:08.270 align:middle line:84% I've been enjoying the book that you edited, a God in the House, 00:02:08.270 --> 00:02:13.550 align:middle line:84% and I'm curious if you can talk about faith and your faith 00:02:13.550 --> 00:02:15.275 align:middle line:84% and its orientation to your poetry. 00:02:15.275 --> 00:02:20.380 align:middle line:90% 00:02:20.380 --> 00:02:23.162 align:middle line:84% I'm going to talk about my faith to myself. 00:02:23.162 --> 00:02:24.620 align:middle line:84% I'm not going to do that in public. 00:02:24.620 --> 00:02:27.280 align:middle line:84% But I do want to talk about the difference between the word 00:02:27.280 --> 00:02:31.270 align:middle line:84% faith and the word belief, and why we put that on the cover. 00:02:31.270 --> 00:02:36.680 align:middle line:84% Because belief implies some certain barriers. 00:02:36.680 --> 00:02:38.250 align:middle line:84% It implies times that you believe 00:02:38.250 --> 00:02:41.250 align:middle line:84% and other people who don't believe in are a problem. 00:02:41.250 --> 00:02:44.225 align:middle line:84% And the word faith, for me, and that maybe also Russian-- and I 00:02:44.225 --> 00:02:46.350 align:middle line:84% think some way, I don't know if it's with religion, 00:02:46.350 --> 00:02:47.808 align:middle line:84% but if it's not, please correct me. 00:02:47.808 --> 00:02:50.190 align:middle line:84% But for me it implies more faith in the world, 00:02:50.190 --> 00:02:51.680 align:middle line:90% having faith in something. 00:02:51.680 --> 00:02:54.130 align:middle line:90% That doesn't mean barriers. 00:02:54.130 --> 00:02:56.800 align:middle line:84% So what we were trying to do this book-- 00:02:56.800 --> 00:03:00.990 align:middle line:84% and this is not my book in any way, it's a book of interviews. 00:03:00.990 --> 00:03:03.780 align:middle line:84% My friend Katie [INAUDIBLE], who is a novelist, and I, 00:03:03.780 --> 00:03:05.220 align:middle line:84% just had a conversation, where we 00:03:05.220 --> 00:03:08.460 align:middle line:84% thought that not enough writers, those who can speak 00:03:08.460 --> 00:03:11.100 align:middle line:90% about things that matter to us. 00:03:11.100 --> 00:03:14.590 align:middle line:84% And we wanted to bully them into doing that. 00:03:14.590 --> 00:03:20.280 align:middle line:84% And for me, it was-- look, I was born in '77, which means that I 00:03:20.280 --> 00:03:24.480 align:middle line:84% grew up right about the time of fall of USSR. And that was 00:03:24.480 --> 00:03:26.280 align:middle line:84% a time of kitchens, as they called it, 00:03:26.280 --> 00:03:29.550 align:middle line:84% when people were sitting in the kitchen until 4:00 AM, 00:03:29.550 --> 00:03:32.700 align:middle line:84% arguing passionately who is better to die for [INAUDIBLE] 00:03:32.700 --> 00:03:36.690 align:middle line:84% Dostoevsky, and all the big philosophical questions-- 00:03:36.690 --> 00:03:38.940 align:middle line:84% what is important in life and all of that. 00:03:38.940 --> 00:03:41.730 align:middle line:84% And I didn't feel that a lot of that 00:03:41.730 --> 00:03:45.150 align:middle line:84% is happening around me where I live in San Diego, California. 00:03:45.150 --> 00:03:48.490 align:middle line:84% So I wanted more of those conversations. 00:03:48.490 --> 00:03:51.330 align:middle line:84% But at the end, when we put the book together, 00:03:51.330 --> 00:03:53.930 align:middle line:84% we realized that we didn't really belong there. 00:03:53.930 --> 00:03:57.150 align:middle line:84% So we took all the questions out and just kept the answers. 00:03:57.150 --> 00:04:00.570 align:middle line:84% And in a way, I thought it was more interesting [INAUDIBLE] 00:04:00.570 --> 00:04:02.700 align:middle line:84% because it was more like a conversation 00:04:02.700 --> 00:04:05.500 align:middle line:84% that every person had with themselves. 00:04:05.500 --> 00:04:06.000 align:middle line:90%