WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.800 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:00:01.800 --> 00:00:05.280 align:middle line:84% Thank you, Kim, for that beautiful introduction 00:00:05.280 --> 00:00:09.540 align:middle line:84% and linking cakes which is very satisfying. 00:00:09.540 --> 00:00:13.620 align:middle line:84% And Diana and the Poetry Center for hosting this. 00:00:13.620 --> 00:00:15.990 align:middle line:84% And Kate Bernheimer for inviting me here 00:00:15.990 --> 00:00:18.300 align:middle line:84% who we've corresponded for years but never actually 00:00:18.300 --> 00:00:19.920 align:middle line:90% met, so what a pleasure. 00:00:19.920 --> 00:00:22.660 align:middle line:84% And to all of you for being here. 00:00:22.660 --> 00:00:24.300 align:middle line:90% What a neat space. 00:00:24.300 --> 00:00:27.075 align:middle line:84% Sort of interestingly like long shape. 00:00:27.075 --> 00:00:28.090 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:28.090 --> 00:00:29.870 align:middle line:90% I like it. 00:00:29.870 --> 00:00:34.470 align:middle line:84% It's like a-- it's sort of a triangle but sort of not. 00:00:34.470 --> 00:00:35.800 align:middle line:90% It doesn't have a point. 00:00:35.800 --> 00:00:36.300 align:middle line:90% All right. 00:00:36.300 --> 00:00:37.830 align:middle line:90% So this comes second. 00:00:37.830 --> 00:00:39.690 align:middle line:90% I have all my little-- 00:00:39.690 --> 00:00:41.460 align:middle line:84% I don't have pockets or I have like one 00:00:41.460 --> 00:00:43.770 align:middle line:84% little pocket so I was carrying things around anyway. 00:00:43.770 --> 00:00:45.610 align:middle line:84% So I'm going to read two stories. 00:00:45.610 --> 00:00:48.090 align:middle line:84% One is very short and pretty new and the other one 00:00:48.090 --> 00:00:52.410 align:middle line:84% is older and in The Color Master. 00:00:52.410 --> 00:00:56.310 align:middle line:84% So as a little intro to this newer one. 00:00:56.310 --> 00:00:59.820 align:middle line:84% Thinking of fairy tales, it's a Rumpelstiltskin tale. 00:00:59.820 --> 00:01:05.730 align:middle line:84% But I've been very preoccupied a little bit fictionally 00:01:05.730 --> 00:01:08.490 align:middle line:84% with this idea of what we-- what if I 00:01:08.490 --> 00:01:11.760 align:middle line:84% took sort of scientifically literally some of the changes 00:01:11.760 --> 00:01:14.040 align:middle line:84% and transformations that happen in fairy tales. 00:01:14.040 --> 00:01:18.420 align:middle line:84% Obviously, they can't happen in real life but somehow it felt-- 00:01:18.420 --> 00:01:21.390 align:middle line:84% it has felt interesting to try to think about, in this case 00:01:21.390 --> 00:01:24.090 align:middle line:84% like how would you turn straw into gold. 00:01:24.090 --> 00:01:25.380 align:middle line:90% How would that happen? 00:01:25.380 --> 00:01:26.790 align:middle line:90% How could that be? 00:01:26.790 --> 00:01:28.170 align:middle line:90% Because it's a big change. 00:01:28.170 --> 00:01:31.320 align:middle line:84% Like somehow my mind has just arrived finally 00:01:31.320 --> 00:01:33.975 align:middle line:84% many years later to being like it really is a big change. 00:01:33.975 --> 00:01:36.960 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:01:36.960 --> 00:01:38.170 align:middle line:90% Like how would that happen? 00:01:38.170 --> 00:01:42.540 align:middle line:84% So I think that's the impetus in some ways for this story, which 00:01:42.540 --> 00:01:44.970 align:middle line:90% is called No Name. 00:01:44.970 --> 00:01:47.070 align:middle line:84% And also I'm happy to do question and answer 00:01:47.070 --> 00:01:49.470 align:middle line:90% after the reading. 00:01:49.470 --> 00:01:52.230 align:middle line:84% Once I was named, says Rumpelstiltskin 00:01:52.230 --> 00:01:54.810 align:middle line:84% sitting at the small table folding himself 00:01:54.810 --> 00:01:56.730 align:middle line:90% an origami swan. 00:01:56.730 --> 00:02:00.540 align:middle line:84% All the gold I had spun reverted to straw. 00:02:00.540 --> 00:02:02.460 align:middle line:84% There were storerooms of it from when 00:02:02.460 --> 00:02:04.920 align:middle line:84% I helped the Miller's daughter who became queen 00:02:04.920 --> 00:02:08.310 align:middle line:90% and who was then exiled. 00:02:08.310 --> 00:02:11.340 align:middle line:84% They did not know, he says forming a delicate point 00:02:11.340 --> 00:02:14.940 align:middle line:84% for the beak, that it was precisely due to my anonymity 00:02:14.940 --> 00:02:17.910 align:middle line:84% that the trembling space was created chemically. 00:02:17.910 --> 00:02:21.510 align:middle line:84% Where something ordinary like straw, a compound of cellulose 00:02:21.510 --> 00:02:23.790 align:middle line:84% that includes many elements such as carbon, hydrogen, 00:02:23.790 --> 00:02:31.866 align:middle line:84% and minerals, could transform into pure gold, isotope Au-197. 00:02:31.866 --> 00:02:33.840 align:middle line:84% There are rare opportunities like that 00:02:33.840 --> 00:02:35.340 align:middle line:84% when something physical in the world 00:02:35.340 --> 00:02:38.730 align:middle line:84% can truly change if implemented by someone also 00:02:38.730 --> 00:02:40.910 align:middle line:90% in a mutable state. 00:02:40.910 --> 00:02:43.122 align:middle line:84% I'm actually going to pause here. 00:02:43.122 --> 00:02:44.580 align:middle line:84% I don't know if I should figure out 00:02:44.580 --> 00:02:47.010 align:middle line:84% how to include this but to say those of you that aren't 00:02:47.010 --> 00:02:48.750 align:middle line:84% freshly remembering Rumpelstiltskin 00:02:48.750 --> 00:02:52.650 align:middle line:84% it's not until he's named that he's discovered. 00:02:52.650 --> 00:02:54.720 align:middle line:84% And anyway he can't have the child. 00:02:54.720 --> 00:02:55.900 align:middle line:90% He asked for the child. 00:02:55.900 --> 00:02:56.400 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:02:56.400 --> 00:03:00.155 align:middle line:84% So I'm figuring out how much of that 00:03:00.155 --> 00:03:01.530 align:middle line:84% do I need to reveal in the story. 00:03:01.530 --> 00:03:03.360 align:middle line:84% He leans back into his rocking chair gazing 00:03:03.360 --> 00:03:05.250 align:middle line:90% through the canopy of trees. 00:03:05.250 --> 00:03:08.040 align:middle line:84% What I wanted most, he says, eyes focused far away 00:03:08.040 --> 00:03:09.660 align:middle line:90% was of course the baby. 00:03:09.660 --> 00:03:13.380 align:middle line:84% I am so fond of the transitory creature known as baby. 00:03:13.380 --> 00:03:15.960 align:middle line:90% I am also partial to the child. 00:03:15.960 --> 00:03:18.090 align:middle line:84% But I wanted to do it a little differently you see, 00:03:18.090 --> 00:03:20.580 align:middle line:84% to raise a person away from that world. 00:03:20.580 --> 00:03:23.340 align:middle line:84% It was a boy you know though any kind would have been fine. 00:03:23.340 --> 00:03:25.740 align:middle line:84% We were going to move away from kinds. 00:03:25.740 --> 00:03:27.210 align:middle line:84% If they had just given me the baby 00:03:27.210 --> 00:03:28.590 align:middle line:84% then they could have kept their gold 00:03:28.590 --> 00:03:30.757 align:middle line:84% and then had more children later and me and the baby 00:03:30.757 --> 00:03:33.720 align:middle line:84% would have gone off and traveled around in the in-between. 00:03:33.720 --> 00:03:36.120 align:middle line:84% But they wanted their baby, their known baby, 00:03:36.120 --> 00:03:38.220 align:middle line:84% a baby to grow up in the world of the kingdom. 00:03:38.220 --> 00:03:39.210 align:middle line:90% He shrugs, fine. 00:03:39.210 --> 00:03:43.350 align:middle line:84% He said fine but then no gold from me. 00:03:43.350 --> 00:03:47.640 align:middle line:84% He spent some time in silence, completing the swan's wings. 00:03:47.640 --> 00:03:49.590 align:middle line:84% The evening is cooled and the trees around us 00:03:49.590 --> 00:03:51.660 align:middle line:84% are gathering their shadows back to their trunks, 00:03:51.660 --> 00:03:54.270 align:middle line:84% leaves swirling from quickening breezes. 00:03:54.270 --> 00:03:56.670 align:middle line:84% I need to be home soon to make dinner. 00:03:56.670 --> 00:03:59.340 align:middle line:84% The walk back to the car is long. 00:03:59.340 --> 00:04:03.210 align:middle line:84% I was not allowed to bring a photographer Rumpelstiltskin 00:04:03.210 --> 00:04:05.280 align:middle line:84% sighs and fills in the rest of the story 00:04:05.280 --> 00:04:08.100 align:middle line:84% how the king, outraged, threw out the queen and child who 00:04:08.100 --> 00:04:12.030 align:middle line:84% ran to the forest and became forest people or so he'd heard. 00:04:12.030 --> 00:04:14.160 align:middle line:84% That straw, the formerly gold straw 00:04:14.160 --> 00:04:17.640 align:middle line:84% was he believes fed to the horses. 00:04:17.640 --> 00:04:19.950 align:middle line:90% For a moment he rests his hands. 00:04:19.950 --> 00:04:22.380 align:middle line:84% He uses a wooden leg and hip now formed 00:04:22.380 --> 00:04:25.230 align:middle line:84% after he split himself in two which he attaches with leather 00:04:25.230 --> 00:04:27.360 align:middle line:90% straps to his waist. 00:04:27.360 --> 00:04:30.180 align:middle line:84% When I asked why he did such a thing, splitting himself 00:04:30.180 --> 00:04:32.520 align:middle line:90% in two, he laughs, harsh. 00:04:32.520 --> 00:04:34.920 align:middle line:90% It was not, he says, planned. 00:04:34.920 --> 00:04:36.090 align:middle line:90% Are we done? 00:04:36.090 --> 00:04:38.220 align:middle line:90% Just one more question, please. 00:04:38.220 --> 00:04:41.940 align:middle line:84% How did you learn such a skill in the first place? 00:04:41.940 --> 00:04:44.760 align:middle line:84% He spreads the swans wings pale blue, 00:04:44.760 --> 00:04:46.890 align:middle line:84% blows into the tiny hole on its underside 00:04:46.890 --> 00:04:50.400 align:middle line:84% so its belly fills and places it into my hand. 00:04:50.400 --> 00:04:53.970 align:middle line:90% For me, I ask, please. 00:04:53.970 --> 00:04:56.490 align:middle line:84% Then he tucks the crutch into his armpit 00:04:56.490 --> 00:04:58.740 align:middle line:84% and stands the wooden leg reaching to the ground 00:04:58.740 --> 00:05:02.100 align:middle line:84% but not exactly in line with the other, putting him at a tilt. 00:05:02.100 --> 00:05:03.840 align:middle line:90% It is unclear where he lives. 00:05:03.840 --> 00:05:08.010 align:middle line:84% We will be walking in opposite directions. 00:05:08.010 --> 00:05:09.780 align:middle line:84% I had a teacher once, he says, who 00:05:09.780 --> 00:05:13.260 align:middle line:84% taught me of chemistry and its volatility, a goblin. 00:05:13.260 --> 00:05:16.620 align:middle line:84% My goodness, it was a wonderful class. 00:05:16.620 --> 00:05:19.245 align:middle line:84% And then he stumps off until he's enveloped by darkness. 00:05:19.245 --> 00:05:22.000 align:middle line:90% 00:05:22.000 --> 00:05:24.190 align:middle line:84% I take my swan with me through the trees 00:05:24.190 --> 00:05:26.380 align:middle line:84% which are shadowier by the minute, the ground 00:05:26.380 --> 00:05:28.630 align:middle line:84% bumpy and broody until I glimpse the hulking 00:05:28.630 --> 00:05:31.180 align:middle line:84% shape of the Jeep at the edge of the dirt and its corners 00:05:31.180 --> 00:05:31.960 align:middle line:90% console me. 00:05:31.960 --> 00:05:34.150 align:middle line:90% Its big in rugged wheels. 00:05:34.150 --> 00:05:36.250 align:middle line:84% The swan rests on the passenger seat 00:05:36.250 --> 00:05:39.160 align:middle line:84% through the traffic to home but my bag crushes it slightly. 00:05:39.160 --> 00:05:42.360 align:middle line:84% And although the children are charmed by it, after a while 00:05:42.360 --> 00:05:44.860 align:middle line:84% its wings rip and they're drawn to something else, some kind 00:05:44.860 --> 00:05:48.280 align:middle line:90% of wind up popcorn with feet. 00:05:48.280 --> 00:05:50.470 align:middle line:84% I tell them who I met and they find it very funny. 00:05:50.470 --> 00:05:52.595 align:middle line:84% And they want to hear about it again and hear again 00:05:52.595 --> 00:05:54.700 align:middle line:84% the story in the old book and hear details 00:05:54.700 --> 00:05:56.227 align:middle line:90% about the leather straps. 00:05:56.227 --> 00:05:58.810 align:middle line:84% But when I ask them if they want to come with me to the forest 00:05:58.810 --> 00:06:01.143 align:middle line:84% to see if we can find him again and speak with him maybe 00:06:01.143 --> 00:06:04.210 align:middle line:84% learn from him they say no and run out of the room. 00:06:04.210 --> 00:06:06.610 align:middle line:84% There's something distasteful even in the question. 00:06:06.610 --> 00:06:08.110 align:middle line:84% And for the rest of the evening they 00:06:08.110 --> 00:06:09.610 align:middle line:84% ignore me and play with each other 00:06:09.610 --> 00:06:11.500 align:middle line:84% and brush their teeth without prompting 00:06:11.500 --> 00:06:15.260 align:middle line:90% as if they are model citizens. 00:06:15.260 --> 00:06:17.060 align:middle line:84% To complete the article or in an effort 00:06:17.060 --> 00:06:19.580 align:middle line:84% to lean toward what might appear to be completion, 00:06:19.580 --> 00:06:21.500 align:middle line:84% I visit the royal stables the next day 00:06:21.500 --> 00:06:23.690 align:middle line:84% to inquire about the state of the horses. 00:06:23.690 --> 00:06:26.960 align:middle line:84% The horses that ate the enchanted hay. 00:06:26.960 --> 00:06:29.600 align:middle line:84% When I arrive there is red tape around the barn and one 00:06:29.600 --> 00:06:32.750 align:middle line:84% stable hand tells me in a low-- in low agitated tones 00:06:32.750 --> 00:06:35.060 align:middle line:90% that the horses left weeks ago. 00:06:35.060 --> 00:06:37.460 align:middle line:84% Just galloped off and cleared the fences, 00:06:37.460 --> 00:06:41.570 align:middle line:84% shaking their manes, kicking the dirt unrecognizable really 00:06:41.570 --> 00:06:43.880 align:middle line:84% and it was a terrible loss and the new arrivals should 00:06:43.880 --> 00:06:46.130 align:middle line:90% actually be coming today. 00:06:46.130 --> 00:06:48.950 align:middle line:84% He's holding a bundle of carrots, watching the road, 00:06:48.950 --> 00:06:51.050 align:middle line:90% eyes hopeful. 00:06:51.050 --> 00:06:52.050 align:middle line:90% We wait together. 00:06:52.050 --> 00:06:54.260 align:middle line:84% And after some time the long truck drives up 00:06:54.260 --> 00:06:56.000 align:middle line:84% and parks and the red tape is cleared. 00:06:56.000 --> 00:06:58.400 align:middle line:84% And with help, the new rows of horses exit. 00:06:58.400 --> 00:07:01.460 align:middle line:84% Chestnut, roan, midnight black, blinders on, 00:07:01.460 --> 00:07:03.620 align:middle line:84% stepping with their long and elegant legs 00:07:03.620 --> 00:07:06.530 align:middle line:84% into new stalls where stable hands await with fresh water 00:07:06.530 --> 00:07:08.150 align:middle line:90% and hay. 00:07:08.150 --> 00:07:09.920 align:middle line:90% It is a lovely pretty sight. 00:07:09.920 --> 00:07:12.740 align:middle line:84% But something about its smallness, its tameness, 00:07:12.740 --> 00:07:13.700 align:middle line:90% is bad. 00:07:13.700 --> 00:07:18.020 align:middle line:84% And it seems the man lodged it in me to now, the unrest. 00:07:18.020 --> 00:07:21.200 align:middle line:84% The man person I mean, the being. 00:07:21.200 --> 00:07:23.750 align:middle line:84% I have to do my best to unname him. 00:07:23.750 --> 00:07:27.590 align:middle line:84% I so want him to get his powers back, to return to the flux. 00:07:27.590 --> 00:07:30.260 align:middle line:84% But his name is unforgettable and I can't lose it, 00:07:30.260 --> 00:07:31.350 align:middle line:90% can't get away from it. 00:07:31.350 --> 00:07:34.970 align:middle line:84% And I imagine myself an old woman demented in a home, 00:07:34.970 --> 00:07:38.180 align:middle line:84% forgetting almost everything not knowing my previous days, 00:07:38.180 --> 00:07:40.430 align:middle line:84% hardly recognizing my own children 00:07:40.430 --> 00:07:42.050 align:middle line:90% but holding on to his name. 00:07:42.050 --> 00:07:45.950 align:middle line:84% Rumpelstiltskin, I will tell the nurse, desperate to purge it 00:07:45.950 --> 00:07:47.090 align:middle line:90% from my head. 00:07:47.090 --> 00:07:49.700 align:middle line:84% And she will misunderstand, will pull the book out 00:07:49.700 --> 00:07:53.000 align:middle line:84% from the side table and flip to the well-worn page 00:07:53.000 --> 00:07:56.870 align:middle line:90% to read me the story again. 00:07:56.870 --> 00:07:58.720 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:07:58.720 --> 00:08:01.181 align:middle line:90%