WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.170 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.170 --> 00:00:04.800 align:middle line:84% And then I think I will read a later passage. 00:00:04.800 --> 00:00:07.540 align:middle line:84% And I will give you a tiny bit of context for this. 00:00:07.540 --> 00:00:11.550 align:middle line:84% So this particular novel is set in the early 1990s, when 00:00:11.550 --> 00:00:15.690 align:middle line:84% gangsta rap was just starting to be a big thing commercially 00:00:15.690 --> 00:00:20.190 align:middle line:84% and cross over into the white mainstream of listeners 00:00:20.190 --> 00:00:22.270 align:middle line:90% to pop music. 00:00:22.270 --> 00:00:25.890 align:middle line:84% And so this particular passage has 00:00:25.890 --> 00:00:29.055 align:middle line:84% to do with the National Public Radio host, Terry Gross. 00:00:29.055 --> 00:00:32.700 align:middle line:90% 00:00:32.700 --> 00:00:36.480 align:middle line:84% And in it, Susan, the main character whose point of view 00:00:36.480 --> 00:00:39.990 align:middle line:84% I was just reading from, she's being sued by her relatives 00:00:39.990 --> 00:00:42.930 align:middle line:84% for her inheritance, which is this mansion in Pasadena. 00:00:42.930 --> 00:00:47.235 align:middle line:84% And she's headed to court to meet that suit. 00:00:47.235 --> 00:00:49.610 align:middle line:84% "Jim was supposed to meet her outside the court building, 00:00:49.610 --> 00:00:51.870 align:middle line:84% so she was driving there in her own car. 00:00:51.870 --> 00:00:54.770 align:middle line:84% She was nervous, dressed neatly in conservative clothes, 00:00:54.770 --> 00:00:57.440 align:middle line:84% with pearl earrings and flat, unglamorous heels. 00:00:57.440 --> 00:00:59.960 align:middle line:84% And she listened to the radio as she drove. 00:00:59.960 --> 00:01:03.740 align:middle line:84% She had always been irritated by NPR, all her adult life. 00:01:03.740 --> 00:01:08.210 align:middle line:84% And yet, all her adult life she had listened to it faithfully. 00:01:08.210 --> 00:01:09.890 align:middle line:84% One exit's worth of freeway driving 00:01:09.890 --> 00:01:12.080 align:middle line:84% was all it would be, first surface streets, then 00:01:12.080 --> 00:01:14.720 align:middle line:84% a mile on the freeway, then surface streets again. 00:01:14.720 --> 00:01:18.050 align:middle line:84% And yet, as soon as she emerged onto the 110, on NPR, 00:01:18.050 --> 00:01:19.910 align:middle line:84% a well-known interviewer, Terry Gross, 00:01:19.910 --> 00:01:23.990 align:middle line:84% was earnestly complimenting a rap musician on his genius. 00:01:23.990 --> 00:01:25.790 align:middle line:84% She knew she would never make it. 00:01:25.790 --> 00:01:27.060 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:01:27.060 --> 00:01:29.060 align:middle line:84% The traffic was stopped, bumper to bumper as far 00:01:29.060 --> 00:01:31.143 align:middle line:84% as she could see, though in the opposite direction 00:01:31.143 --> 00:01:32.433 align:middle line:90% it was moving freely. 00:01:32.433 --> 00:01:34.100 align:middle line:84% Technically, it was spring, but the smog 00:01:34.100 --> 00:01:37.040 align:middle line:84% was more like summer smog, heat rippling in the dirty air. 00:01:37.040 --> 00:01:40.428 align:middle line:84% And a torpor had descended over the long lines of cars. 00:01:40.428 --> 00:01:42.470 align:middle line:84% Up ahead, people had gotten out of their vehicles 00:01:42.470 --> 00:01:45.080 align:middle line:84% and were walking back and forth, some standing aside 00:01:45.080 --> 00:01:47.450 align:middle line:84% by themselves and smoking cigarettes, others in groups, 00:01:47.450 --> 00:01:49.550 align:middle line:90% talking and gesticulating. 00:01:49.550 --> 00:01:51.347 align:middle line:90% It had to be an accident. 00:01:51.347 --> 00:01:53.180 align:middle line:84% She wished she had a cigarette, but then she 00:01:53.180 --> 00:01:56.138 align:middle line:84% never bought them herself, only bummed them off Jim. 00:01:56.138 --> 00:01:58.430 align:middle line:84% She thought of getting out of her car, like the others, 00:01:58.430 --> 00:02:00.263 align:middle line:84% and asking one of the other smokers for one, 00:02:00.263 --> 00:02:02.150 align:middle line:84% but then that seemed too disgusting. 00:02:02.150 --> 00:02:03.650 align:middle line:84% Anyway, she'd never liked to get out 00:02:03.650 --> 00:02:06.110 align:middle line:84% of her car on the freeway, even when the traffic was bumper 00:02:06.110 --> 00:02:08.930 align:middle line:90% to bumper, and at a dead halt. 00:02:08.930 --> 00:02:10.639 align:middle line:84% The concrete had a gray desolation 00:02:10.639 --> 00:02:12.298 align:middle line:90% and the air was unbreathable. 00:02:12.298 --> 00:02:14.840 align:middle line:84% And she knew a cigarette would seem even viler as soon as she 00:02:14.840 --> 00:02:16.400 align:middle line:90% stepped from the car. 00:02:16.400 --> 00:02:18.590 align:middle line:84% She waited 15 minutes with the windows up, 00:02:18.590 --> 00:02:21.290 align:middle line:84% cooled by the air conditioning, glancing frequently 00:02:21.290 --> 00:02:24.170 align:middle line:84% at the digital clock on her dash, jiggling her foot, 00:02:24.170 --> 00:02:26.390 align:middle line:84% and occasionally swearing as the minutes ticked away, 00:02:26.390 --> 00:02:28.593 align:middle line:84% and the hour of the hearing approached. 00:02:28.593 --> 00:02:30.260 align:middle line:84% When it was six minutes before the hour, 00:02:30.260 --> 00:02:34.910 align:middle line:84% she became irritated with Terry Gross, whose earnest tone, 00:02:34.910 --> 00:02:38.360 align:middle line:84% it seemed to her, had grown more and more sycophantic. 00:02:38.360 --> 00:02:41.450 align:middle line:84% More and more, the intimacy of this trademark Terry Gross 00:02:41.450 --> 00:02:44.720 align:middle line:84% tone, as she spoke to the rap star and flattered him several 00:02:44.720 --> 00:02:47.510 align:middle line:84% additional times with her eager references to his 00:02:47.510 --> 00:02:51.290 align:middle line:84% 'brilliance and creativity,' seemed to suggest that she, 00:02:51.290 --> 00:02:54.920 align:middle line:84% Terry Gross, was a longtime proponent and appreciator 00:02:54.920 --> 00:02:58.640 align:middle line:84% of rap music, and even quite possibly a credentialed expert 00:02:58.640 --> 00:03:01.220 align:middle line:90% on the rap music subject. 00:03:01.220 --> 00:03:03.260 align:middle line:84% The longer Susan listened, becoming increasingly 00:03:03.260 --> 00:03:05.330 align:middle line:84% frustrated and impatient, the more it seemed that 00:03:05.330 --> 00:03:08.600 align:middle line:84% the impression being conveyed was that she, the white, 00:03:08.600 --> 00:03:10.460 align:middle line:90% middle-aged female Terry Gross-- 00:03:10.460 --> 00:03:13.700 align:middle line:84% unlike she, the white, middle-aged female Susan-- 00:03:13.700 --> 00:03:15.950 align:middle line:84% was a proud, savvy, collective owner 00:03:15.950 --> 00:03:20.090 align:middle line:84% of what she lavishly called the rap music phenomenon. 00:03:20.090 --> 00:03:23.390 align:middle line:84% Susan felt resentful of this pandering self-inclusion, 00:03:23.390 --> 00:03:26.120 align:middle line:84% of this proprietary, rap-music-savvy, 00:03:26.120 --> 00:03:29.540 align:middle line:90% rap-music-loving, Terry Gross. 00:03:29.540 --> 00:03:31.040 align:middle line:84% At four minutes till her court date, 00:03:31.040 --> 00:03:32.990 align:middle line:84% she switched off the radio in a fit of pique, 00:03:32.990 --> 00:03:34.753 align:middle line:84% and rolled down the windows all the way. 00:03:34.753 --> 00:03:36.170 align:middle line:84% Let the heat flow in, she thought. 00:03:36.170 --> 00:03:37.280 align:middle line:90% Let it boil. 00:03:37.280 --> 00:03:40.010 align:middle line:84% The fumes from the idling cars almost choked her, 00:03:40.010 --> 00:03:42.980 align:middle line:84% but stubbornly, she refused to roll up her windows again. 00:03:42.980 --> 00:03:45.265 align:middle line:90% Not yet, she thought, not yet. 00:03:45.265 --> 00:03:46.640 align:middle line:84% In her annoyance and frustration, 00:03:46.640 --> 00:03:49.420 align:middle line:84% her incipient rage, she associated 00:03:49.420 --> 00:03:51.170 align:middle line:84% the rolled-up windows and air conditioning 00:03:51.170 --> 00:03:53.690 align:middle line:90% directly with Terry Gross. 00:03:53.690 --> 00:03:56.300 align:middle line:84% If she closed the windows again and switched the AC back on, 00:03:56.300 --> 00:03:59.510 align:middle line:84% it would be necessary to turn the radio back on too. 00:03:59.510 --> 00:04:02.060 align:middle line:84% And it would have to be NPR, because the commercial stations 00:04:02.060 --> 00:04:04.640 align:middle line:84% were all manner of products screaming at you, which 00:04:04.640 --> 00:04:06.920 align:middle line:84% was even more hateful in this situation of car 00:04:06.920 --> 00:04:11.280 align:middle line:84% entrapment than the quiet, earnest, middle-class, 00:04:11.280 --> 00:04:14.540 align:middle line:84% educated, and maddeningly empathetic tone of Terry Gross. 00:04:14.540 --> 00:04:15.470 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:04:15.470 --> 00:04:16.970 align:middle line:84% And so the rolled-up windows meant 00:04:16.970 --> 00:04:20.420 align:middle line:84% letting Terry Gross and her sycophantic rap music interview 00:04:20.420 --> 00:04:22.070 align:middle line:90% win. 00:04:22.070 --> 00:04:24.290 align:middle line:84% Three minutes, two minutes, one, still no movement. 00:04:24.290 --> 00:04:27.140 align:middle line:84% She wished she had a car phone like T, or possibly 00:04:27.140 --> 00:04:28.670 align:middle line:90% the rap guy. 00:04:28.670 --> 00:04:30.440 align:middle line:90% He certainly had a car phone. 00:04:30.440 --> 00:04:32.150 align:middle line:84% Most likely he was using said car phone 00:04:32.150 --> 00:04:34.490 align:middle line:90% to converse with Terry Gross. 00:04:34.490 --> 00:04:36.350 align:middle line:84% Then it was 15 minutes past, then 18, 00:04:36.350 --> 00:04:38.933 align:middle line:84% and the tension drained out of her because she had to give up. 00:04:38.933 --> 00:04:40.107 align:middle line:90% She'd missed it. 00:04:40.107 --> 00:04:42.440 align:middle line:84% There was no reason for her to be sitting there anymore, 00:04:42.440 --> 00:04:45.680 align:middle line:84% no reason save the obvious fact that she was trapped. 00:04:45.680 --> 00:04:47.877 align:middle line:84% A bearded man in a baseball cap walked by her car, 00:04:47.877 --> 00:04:49.460 align:middle line:84% and she rolled the window down briefly 00:04:49.460 --> 00:04:51.305 align:middle line:90% to ask him if he knew anything. 00:04:51.305 --> 00:04:53.180 align:middle line:84% He told her there was a multicar pileup where 00:04:53.180 --> 00:04:54.980 align:middle line:90% the 10 merged with the 5. 00:04:54.980 --> 00:04:57.140 align:middle line:84% Cars had crashed and people were hurt, he said. 00:04:57.140 --> 00:04:59.727 align:middle line:90% 'So count your blessings, lady.' 00:04:59.727 --> 00:05:01.310 align:middle line:84% She watched him in the rearview mirror 00:05:01.310 --> 00:05:03.260 align:middle line:84% as he continued down the line of cars, 00:05:03.260 --> 00:05:05.180 align:middle line:84% slouching, moving so slowly it seemed 00:05:05.180 --> 00:05:07.190 align:middle line:90% he felt no urgency at all. 00:05:07.190 --> 00:05:09.020 align:middle line:84% He walked like a defeated or dazed person. 00:05:09.020 --> 00:05:11.510 align:middle line:90% Yet, he had spoken sharply. 00:05:11.510 --> 00:05:12.780 align:middle line:90% Maybe he'd seen something. 00:05:12.780 --> 00:05:14.390 align:middle line:90% Maybe he was grieving. 00:05:14.390 --> 00:05:15.890 align:middle line:84% When Casey had her accident, there 00:05:15.890 --> 00:05:17.480 align:middle line:84% were courageous bystanders who went in 00:05:17.480 --> 00:05:20.360 align:middle line:84% to help the trapped and wounded victims. 00:05:20.360 --> 00:05:22.610 align:middle line:84% One or two of them talked to Hal and Susan later, 00:05:22.610 --> 00:05:25.590 align:middle line:84% in the hospital, told how the accident 00:05:25.590 --> 00:05:27.590 align:middle line:84% had changed their lives too, though they had not 00:05:27.590 --> 00:05:29.280 align:middle line:90% been physically injured. 00:05:29.280 --> 00:05:31.947 align:middle line:84% Some of them never recovered fully, but wrote to Casey, 00:05:31.947 --> 00:05:33.530 align:middle line:84% and told her how they cried themselves 00:05:33.530 --> 00:05:37.790 align:middle line:84% to sleep at night for months after they came upon the scene. 00:05:37.790 --> 00:05:40.225 align:middle line:84% And they had not been hurt at all. 00:05:40.225 --> 00:05:42.350 align:middle line:84% After the men disappeared from her rearview mirror, 00:05:42.350 --> 00:05:47.277 align:middle line:84% she surrendered to Terry Gross, surrendered completely. 00:05:47.277 --> 00:05:49.860 align:middle line:84% She closed her eyes and listened to the empathetic Terry Gross 00:05:49.860 --> 00:05:52.050 align:middle line:84% tone, and to the rap-loving earnestness 00:05:52.050 --> 00:05:53.940 align:middle line:90% as it flowed over her. 00:05:53.940 --> 00:05:57.120 align:middle line:84% I love rap music too, she thought, 00:05:57.120 --> 00:05:59.010 align:middle line:90% making a generous gesture. 00:05:59.010 --> 00:06:01.770 align:middle line:84% She would reach out to Terry Gross, the rap guy, 00:06:01.770 --> 00:06:05.550 align:middle line:84% and their mutual passion, thus elevating her own mood. 00:06:05.550 --> 00:06:09.450 align:middle line:84% I also find it creative and brilliant, she said in her mind 00:06:09.450 --> 00:06:12.840 align:middle line:90% to Terry Gross, and the rap guy. 00:06:12.840 --> 00:06:14.220 align:middle line:90% It is brilliantly creative. 00:06:14.220 --> 00:06:16.170 align:middle line:90% It is creatively brilliant. 00:06:16.170 --> 00:06:17.580 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:06:17.580 --> 00:06:20.520 align:middle line:84% Not only that, but all of it is brilliant, 00:06:20.520 --> 00:06:22.800 align:middle line:84% not just the white-friendly, woman-friendly versions 00:06:22.800 --> 00:06:26.340 align:middle line:84% favored by college students, but also the gangsta version, 00:06:26.340 --> 00:06:28.710 align:middle line:84% the version with bitches, hos, and gets, 00:06:28.710 --> 00:06:31.000 align:middle line:84% the completely misogynistic, racist, 00:06:31.000 --> 00:06:35.220 align:middle line:84% homophobic, and violent, even nihilistically brutal version. 00:06:35.220 --> 00:06:36.965 align:middle line:90% I love it, love it, love it. 00:06:36.965 --> 00:06:38.120 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:06:38.120 --> 00:06:42.030 align:middle line:84% Mmm-hmm, I love it, and I love all self-expressions, 00:06:42.030 --> 00:06:45.810 align:middle line:84% ironic and otherwise, all of them under the sun. 00:06:45.810 --> 00:06:49.320 align:middle line:84% I love pornography, gangster rap, war video games, 00:06:49.320 --> 00:06:52.110 align:middle line:90% all fantasies of violence. 00:06:52.110 --> 00:06:54.840 align:middle line:84% These fantasies preoccupy the insane men, 00:06:54.840 --> 00:06:59.580 align:middle line:84% and keep them from their actual work of angrily murdering. 00:06:59.580 --> 00:07:01.470 align:middle line:84% Let us not condemn these proliferating, 00:07:01.470 --> 00:07:04.590 align:middle line:84% vibrant simulations, these models of brutality. 00:07:04.590 --> 00:07:08.180 align:middle line:84% No, let us praise them as though they were condoms. 00:07:08.180 --> 00:07:09.630 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:07:09.630 --> 00:07:13.020 align:middle line:84% Maybe that explained Terry Gross and her rap appreciation. 00:07:13.020 --> 00:07:15.420 align:middle line:84% Maybe the gangsta rap was viewed, by Terry Gross, 00:07:15.420 --> 00:07:17.460 align:middle line:84% less as an incitement to gangsta-type 00:07:17.460 --> 00:07:22.950 align:middle line:84% acting out than as an artistic, prophylactic screen against it. 00:07:22.950 --> 00:07:26.340 align:middle line:84% Maybe the rap Terry Gross and the Planned Parenthood Terry 00:07:26.340 --> 00:07:29.043 align:middle line:84% Gross were actually one and the same. 00:07:29.043 --> 00:07:31.308 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:07:31.308 --> 00:07:32.670 align:middle line:90% 00:07:32.670 --> 00:07:36.870 align:middle line:84% I am a nice person, Susan thought steadily. 00:07:36.870 --> 00:07:38.827 align:middle line:84% No one will take my house from me. 00:07:38.827 --> 00:07:41.160 align:middle line:84% She was a murderer, sure, like the angry men who did not 00:07:41.160 --> 00:07:43.350 align:middle line:90% listen to enough rap music. 00:07:43.350 --> 00:07:46.440 align:middle line:84% Perhaps this was her own problem also. 00:07:46.440 --> 00:07:50.460 align:middle line:84% Perhaps she needed a larger dose of rap, but not 00:07:50.460 --> 00:07:51.720 align:middle line:90% of the angry variety. 00:07:51.720 --> 00:07:55.140 align:middle line:84% She was a polite murderer, the white kind, white-skinned, 00:07:55.140 --> 00:07:56.850 align:middle line:90% and white-collar. 00:07:56.850 --> 00:08:00.390 align:middle line:84% Although, come to think of it, she had liked an Ice Cube song 00:08:00.390 --> 00:08:03.420 align:middle line:84% Sal forced them all to listen to after the dinner at Casey's 00:08:03.420 --> 00:08:07.050 align:middle line:84% apartment, the night before Hal flew off. 00:08:07.050 --> 00:08:09.540 align:middle line:84% Hal, her husband, had been sleeping then, passed out, 00:08:09.540 --> 00:08:13.870 align:middle line:84% and Sal played for them an album titled Death Certificate. 00:08:13.870 --> 00:08:16.140 align:middle line:84% In fact, the song had been hilarious. 00:08:16.140 --> 00:08:19.170 align:middle line:84% Her favorite part was a line concerning oral sex, where 00:08:19.170 --> 00:08:23.040 align:middle line:84% the slutty daughter ate nuts voraciously, not unlike, said 00:08:23.040 --> 00:08:24.120 align:middle line:90% Ice Berg-- 00:08:24.120 --> 00:08:24.960 align:middle line:90% Ice-- 00:08:24.960 --> 00:08:27.360 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:08:27.360 --> 00:08:30.870 align:middle line:84% --not unlike, said Ice Cube, hummingbirds. 00:08:30.870 --> 00:08:33.549 align:middle line:84% It could be ascribed to poetic license, she thought. 00:08:33.549 --> 00:08:37.260 align:middle line:84% But let's face it, Ice Cube lacked a solid education 00:08:37.260 --> 00:08:39.464 align:middle line:90% on the subject of bird diets. 00:08:39.464 --> 00:08:40.679 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:08:40.679 --> 00:08:42.450 align:middle line:84% He was funny anyway, whether because 00:08:42.450 --> 00:08:45.480 align:middle line:84% of the curious nut-eating hummingbirds, 00:08:45.480 --> 00:08:49.560 align:middle line:84% undiscovered in the annals of nature, or despite them. 00:08:49.560 --> 00:08:51.630 align:middle line:90% It was hard to say. 00:08:51.630 --> 00:08:55.660 align:middle line:84% The natural history of hummingbirds was not the point. 00:08:55.660 --> 00:08:58.890 align:middle line:84% The point was that they rhymed with cummingbird." 00:08:58.890 --> 00:09:00.570 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:09:00.570 --> 00:09:02.940 align:middle line:84% And I think I'll stop that on that lovely note. 00:09:02.940 --> 00:09:06.290 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:09:06.290 --> 00:09:12.000 align:middle line:90%