WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.350 align:middle line:90%
[AUDIENCE APPLAUSE]

00:00:03.350 --> 00:00:04.422 align:middle line:90%
Thank you.

00:00:04.422 --> 00:00:06.380 align:middle line:84%
I did not realize I was
going to be introduced.

00:00:06.380 --> 00:00:07.790 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:00:07.790 --> 00:00:08.930 align:middle line:90%
I'm just the introducer.

00:00:08.930 --> 00:00:10.047 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:00:10.047 --> 00:00:11.630 align:middle line:84%
And I'm going to be
giving, hopefully,

00:00:11.630 --> 00:00:15.600 align:middle line:84%
four of these over the next
month, month and a half or so.

00:00:15.600 --> 00:00:17.430 align:middle line:84%
So thank you so
much for coming out.

00:00:17.430 --> 00:00:18.440 align:middle line:84%
This is going to
be a great reading.

00:00:18.440 --> 00:00:20.898 align:middle line:84%
And I've been looking forward
to this for about five years.

00:00:20.898 --> 00:00:21.960 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:00:21.960 --> 00:00:24.770 align:middle line:84%
So I think these introductions
are all pitched a little bit

00:00:24.770 --> 00:00:26.960 align:middle line:90%
as short lessons in hybridity.

00:00:26.960 --> 00:00:29.840 align:middle line:90%
This is Volume One, Lia Purpura.

00:00:29.840 --> 00:00:32.630 align:middle line:84%
I'd like to thank, also,
Cybele Knowles, who

00:00:32.630 --> 00:00:36.680 align:middle line:84%
is crucial in putting this
series together this year.

00:00:36.680 --> 00:00:40.550 align:middle line:84%
And since Tyler didn't
mention it and Lia might--

00:00:40.550 --> 00:00:43.130 align:middle line:84%
I mean, she's very much
a writer of attention.

00:00:43.130 --> 00:00:46.200 align:middle line:84%
And she would remind us that
our attention is valuable.

00:00:46.200 --> 00:00:48.630 align:middle line:84%
And so please turn
your cell phones off.

00:00:48.630 --> 00:00:50.690 align:middle line:84%
This is an opportunity
for attention.

00:00:50.690 --> 00:00:53.360 align:middle line:84%
And I hope that
we'll practice that.

00:00:53.360 --> 00:00:56.240 align:middle line:84%
So a hybrid is a
thing that is also

00:00:56.240 --> 00:01:00.290 align:middle line:84%
another thing, a double thing,
or a thing that first appears

00:01:00.290 --> 00:01:03.350 align:middle line:90%
as two, but resolves into one.

00:01:03.350 --> 00:01:06.630 align:middle line:84%
Or, it's a thing that
under intense pressure,

00:01:06.630 --> 00:01:09.470 align:middle line:84%
such as an hour spent
reading alone or a weekend

00:01:09.470 --> 00:01:13.145 align:middle line:84%
without speaking
yields a doubleness.

00:01:13.145 --> 00:01:15.620 align:middle line:84%
Well, perhaps we
are rushing things.

00:01:15.620 --> 00:01:18.950 align:middle line:84%
All of us at our best,
like the beasts we love,

00:01:18.950 --> 00:01:22.670 align:middle line:84%
are multiple things, are
capable of multiple things,

00:01:22.670 --> 00:01:25.430 align:middle line:84%
of becoming more than
just the one we hope.

00:01:25.430 --> 00:01:27.170 align:middle line:90%
Otherwise, how boring.

00:01:27.170 --> 00:01:30.740 align:middle line:90%
We should fear too much unity.

00:01:30.740 --> 00:01:33.350 align:middle line:84%
Only those who live in
fear should be troubled

00:01:33.350 --> 00:01:34.430 align:middle line:90%
by a hybrid's doubleness.

00:01:34.430 --> 00:01:38.600 align:middle line:84%
Yes, a horse with wings, a
gleaming thing part eagle

00:01:38.600 --> 00:01:41.900 align:middle line:84%
and part lion, two truths
lying down with fiction

00:01:41.900 --> 00:01:43.370 align:middle line:90%
and fogging up the windows.

00:01:43.370 --> 00:01:47.060 align:middle line:84%
Some interspecies
dalliances generate a lot

00:01:47.060 --> 00:01:49.060 align:middle line:90%
of heat, and sometimes shame--

00:01:49.060 --> 00:01:49.560 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:01:49.560 --> 00:01:53.360 align:middle line:84%
So says the lonely Minotaur
deep inside the labyrinth

00:01:53.360 --> 00:01:55.160 align:middle line:90%
where he's kept.

00:01:55.160 --> 00:01:56.960 align:middle line:84%
Even if they're fun,
these dalliances,

00:01:56.960 --> 00:01:58.730 align:middle line:90%
they arise from need.

00:01:58.730 --> 00:02:01.580 align:middle line:84%
We wouldn't still be growing
citrus in this country

00:02:01.580 --> 00:02:03.770 align:middle line:84%
if someone hadn't
thought to remix it.

00:02:03.770 --> 00:02:06.290 align:middle line:84%
The roots of the tree
that should, in nature,

00:02:06.290 --> 00:02:09.949 align:middle line:84%
grow the sweet oranges that most
of us enjoy eating or juicing

00:02:09.949 --> 00:02:13.100 align:middle line:84%
are susceptible to a
bark-destroying virus.

00:02:13.100 --> 00:02:16.880 align:middle line:84%
The roots of the sour orange
tree resist the virus.

00:02:16.880 --> 00:02:18.500 align:middle line:84%
So top one with
the other and you

00:02:18.500 --> 00:02:21.080 align:middle line:84%
get a growing, thriving,
brilliant thing--

00:02:21.080 --> 00:02:23.180 align:middle line:84%
a tree with rings
that do not always

00:02:23.180 --> 00:02:25.880 align:middle line:90%
match from stump to branch.

00:02:25.880 --> 00:02:29.360 align:middle line:84%
Or match.com a bison
with a domestic cow

00:02:29.360 --> 00:02:33.200 align:middle line:84%
at a nice night like tonight,
a little Teddy Pendergrass,

00:02:33.200 --> 00:02:34.700 align:middle line:90%
and boom a beefalo.

00:02:34.700 --> 00:02:37.340 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:02:37.340 --> 00:02:39.950 align:middle line:84%
By the time you're
seeing two Lia Purpuras

00:02:39.950 --> 00:02:43.910 align:middle line:84%
there are at least three or four
and probably a whole lot more.

00:02:43.910 --> 00:02:45.200 align:middle line:90%
They're everywhere.

00:02:45.200 --> 00:02:48.950 align:middle line:84%
Teach Lia Purpura in a class
and you recruit another pair.

00:02:48.950 --> 00:02:51.710 align:middle line:84%
You can use her as a
dowsing rod to predict

00:02:51.710 --> 00:02:52.730 align:middle line:90%
your favorite students.

00:02:52.730 --> 00:02:54.890 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:02:54.890 --> 00:02:57.920 align:middle line:84%
One suspects that a Lia
Purpura is simply faster

00:02:57.920 --> 00:02:59.390 align:middle line:90%
than the eye can track.

00:02:59.390 --> 00:03:02.930 align:middle line:84%
And that her capabilities
exceed our descriptive grasp.

00:03:02.930 --> 00:03:06.050 align:middle line:84%
That is, we lack the language
to say what it is she does

00:03:06.050 --> 00:03:09.650 align:middle line:84%
or even specify where she was
when we last caught her out

00:03:09.650 --> 00:03:11.600 align:middle line:90%
of the corner of our eyes.

00:03:11.600 --> 00:03:16.340 align:middle line:84%
My Monster Manual lists Purpura
as a kind of displacer beast,

00:03:16.340 --> 00:03:18.200 align:middle line:84%
which, as you may
know, but not admit,

00:03:18.200 --> 00:03:20.960 align:middle line:84%
is a vaguely Puma-like
creature with a pair

00:03:20.960 --> 00:03:22.115 align:middle line:90%
of dead, black tentacles.

00:03:22.115 --> 00:03:23.600 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:03:23.600 --> 00:03:26.540 align:middle line:84%
From the Monster Manual,
the molecular vibrations

00:03:26.540 --> 00:03:28.640 align:middle line:84%
of the displacer beast
are such that it always

00:03:28.640 --> 00:03:31.190 align:middle line:84%
appears to be three feet
from its actual location.

00:03:31.190 --> 00:03:32.270 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:03:32.270 --> 00:03:35.820 align:middle line:84%
They are very hard to
fight and hate all life,

00:03:35.820 --> 00:03:37.460 align:middle line:90%
but particularly blink dogs.

00:03:37.460 --> 00:03:39.440 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:03:39.440 --> 00:03:42.400 align:middle line:84%
And if you played enough
Dungeons and Dragons maybe

00:03:42.400 --> 00:03:43.940 align:middle line:90%
you know what a blink dog is.

00:03:43.940 --> 00:03:44.450 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:03:44.450 --> 00:03:47.060 align:middle line:84%
If not, you should go a
googling and have a nice time--

00:03:47.060 --> 00:03:47.810 align:middle line:90%
after the reading.

00:03:47.810 --> 00:03:49.220 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:03:49.220 --> 00:03:51.920 align:middle line:84%
Well, this Purpura is
somewhat the opposite.

00:03:51.920 --> 00:03:54.710 align:middle line:90%
Her work exults all life--

00:03:54.710 --> 00:03:59.690 align:middle line:84%
even the blinky parts, the
ones we skip, the undersung,

00:03:59.690 --> 00:04:02.360 align:middle line:84%
as in her "I'm coming back
as a buzzard," an essay--

00:04:02.360 --> 00:04:04.670 align:middle line:84%
the first essay in her
great new collection--

00:04:04.670 --> 00:04:06.950 align:middle line:84%
in which she celebrates--
and this is quoting her.

00:04:06.950 --> 00:04:09.980 align:middle line:84%
"Plump entrails crusting
with sage and dirt

00:04:09.980 --> 00:04:11.630 align:middle line:90%
tightening in sun.

00:04:11.630 --> 00:04:15.410 align:middle line:84%
Piercing that is an undersung
moment, filled with a tender

00:04:15.410 --> 00:04:16.519 align:middle line:90%
resistance--

00:04:16.519 --> 00:04:19.370 align:middle line:84%
a sweetness, slick
curves, and tangles

00:04:19.370 --> 00:04:23.925 align:middle line:84%
to dip into, tear, stretch,
snap, and swallow."

00:04:23.925 --> 00:04:25.175 align:middle line:90%
Well, that's quite a sentence.

00:04:25.175 --> 00:04:25.970 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:04:25.970 --> 00:04:30.560 align:middle line:84%
So much so that it's not a
sentence, but a time stop tool.

00:04:30.560 --> 00:04:33.140 align:middle line:84%
As a critic noted
of her work, Purpura

00:04:33.140 --> 00:04:37.030 align:middle line:84%
puts readers into a state
of aesthetic arrest.

00:04:37.030 --> 00:04:39.550 align:middle line:84%
Yes, everything
is an opportunity

00:04:39.550 --> 00:04:44.380 align:middle line:84%
for attention, an afternoon for
a dalliance, for a convergence.

00:04:44.380 --> 00:04:48.790 align:middle line:84%
Here she is from the last
essay, "In rough likeness."

00:04:48.790 --> 00:04:50.770 align:middle line:84%
"I believe our
best work on Earth

00:04:50.770 --> 00:04:52.750 align:middle line:90%
is in service of likeness.

00:04:52.750 --> 00:04:56.530 align:middle line:84%
I don't know what to call it--
moments of interpenetration?

00:04:56.530 --> 00:05:00.340 align:middle line:84%
To feel the exchange
across borders.

00:05:00.340 --> 00:05:02.080 align:middle line:90%
Bravo to these moments.

00:05:02.080 --> 00:05:04.210 align:middle line:90%
Bravo to that exchange."

00:05:04.210 --> 00:05:07.400 align:middle line:84%
Ladies and gentlemen,
hybrids and others,

00:05:07.400 --> 00:05:09.250 align:middle line:90%
please welcome Lia Purpura.

00:05:09.250 --> 00:05:12.600 align:middle line:90%
[AUDIENCE APPLAUSE]

00:05:12.600 --> 00:05:15.000 align:middle line:90%