WEBVTT

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Good evening.

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That's loud.

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Before I begin, I would like to
mention as a preface that prior

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to this reading there was a
rather heated discussion about

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the pronunciation of the
word spelled P-L-A-N-T-A-I-N.

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And we almost came
to blows about it.

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So it was decided, excuse
me, that for the purpose

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of tonight's reading, it
will be pronounced plantain

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for anyone who has
questions, speak up now.

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[LAUGHTER]

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It's fine.

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OK?

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Tonight we're
honored to be joined

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by two extraordinary writers,
Pete Rock and David Foster

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Wallace.

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Well, Rock and Wallace read
out of different traditions.

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They share a common
unsentimentality

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in their exploration
of human weakness.

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They are masterful
in their ability

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to play with point
of view to serve

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reader expectation of
traditional linear narrative.

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They do so seamlessly,
opening up their text,

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and asking the
reader to question

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the boundaries of narrative.

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Pete Rock, who will
read first, was

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born in Salt Lake City, Utah.

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He attended Deep Springs College
and Yale University where

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he received his BA in English.

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He was the 1996 recipient
of a Henfield Award,

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completed a Wallace Stegner
Fellowship at Stanford in 1997

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and received a National
Endowment for the Arts

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Fellowship in 2000.

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He currently lives in Portland,
Oregon, where he teaches

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fiction at Reed College.

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Rock has been
described as having

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a polished talent
one might expect

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of a grizzled 70-year-old
writing veteran.

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He's the author of
three novels, This

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is the Place, Carnival
Wolves, and The Ambidextrist.

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The characters in
Rock's fictional worlds

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are often people on the
margins of society, drifters,

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jaded blackjack dealers,
pedophiles, drug addicts,

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and misguided teenagers.

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The landscape of this world
echoes their isolation

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whether it is rural Alaska or
an urban Philadelphia riverbank.

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The heart of Rock's work
lies in the moral struggles

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the characters face
and the grave mistakes

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they make in order to
find human connection.

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Once again, it's an honor to
have both writers here with us

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tonight.

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And please help me welcome
Pete Rock to the podium.

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