WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.630 align:middle line:90% --punctuated. 00:00:00.630 --> 00:00:02.760 align:middle line:84% So I know that etiquette of this is 00:00:02.760 --> 00:00:04.500 align:middle line:84% you're supposed to read and then look up. 00:00:04.500 --> 00:00:07.337 align:middle line:84% And if I do that, then I'm going to forget the p-- where I am 00:00:07.337 --> 00:00:08.670 align:middle line:90% and then you'd have to watch me. 00:00:08.670 --> 00:00:11.442 align:middle line:84% So I'm really aware that you're here. 00:00:11.442 --> 00:00:12.426 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:12.426 --> 00:00:15.933 align:middle line:84% So we're not going to be-- we're not going to be bonded as I do. 00:00:15.933 --> 00:00:20.010 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:20.010 --> 00:00:21.990 align:middle line:84% "Nevertheless, I fear the lone instance 00:00:21.990 --> 00:00:23.870 align:middle line:84% I can recall having heard aloud derived 00:00:23.870 --> 00:00:26.370 align:middle line:84% from an acquaintance of a close friend who said that he had, 00:00:26.370 --> 00:00:29.700 align:middle line:84% himself, overheard this exemplum aboard a high altitude 00:00:29.700 --> 00:00:32.610 align:middle line:84% commercial flight while on some type of business trip. 00:00:32.610 --> 00:00:35.100 align:middle line:84% The fellow evidently holding a commercial position that 00:00:35.100 --> 00:00:37.380 align:middle line:90% called for frequent air travel. 00:00:37.380 --> 00:00:41.400 align:middle line:84% Nor one hastens to admit, did the variant or exemplum contain 00:00:41.400 --> 00:00:44.190 align:middle line:90% any formal enunciation, as such. 00:00:44.190 --> 00:00:47.310 align:middle line:84% Nor any comme on dit period of trial. 00:00:47.310 --> 00:00:50.460 align:middle line:84% Or supernatural aid, trickster figures, 00:00:50.460 --> 00:00:54.270 align:middle line:84% archetypal resurrection, nor any in certain other recognized 00:00:54.270 --> 00:00:55.470 align:middle line:90% elements of the cycle. 00:00:55.470 --> 00:00:57.330 align:middle line:84% Nevertheless gentlemen, I leave it to you 00:00:57.330 --> 00:00:58.560 align:middle line:90% to judge for yourselves. 00:00:58.560 --> 00:01:02.430 align:middle line:84% As of course you each, in turn, have left it to us as well. 00:01:02.430 --> 00:01:04.650 align:middle line:84% As I understood it, the man in question 00:01:04.650 --> 00:01:07.410 align:middle line:84% was diverted by weather onto the continuation of a United 00:01:07.410 --> 00:01:08.460 align:middle line:90% Airlines flight. 00:01:08.460 --> 00:01:10.320 align:middle line:84% And overheard it's narration as part 00:01:10.320 --> 00:01:12.960 align:middle line:84% of a longer discourse between two passengers seated 00:01:12.960 --> 00:01:15.240 align:middle line:84% in the row just ahead of his own. 00:01:15.240 --> 00:01:18.630 align:middle line:84% It was a continuation of some much longer flight, perhaps 00:01:18.630 --> 00:01:20.340 align:middle line:90% even transatlantic. 00:01:20.340 --> 00:01:22.950 align:middle line:84% And the two passengers had evidently been seated together 00:01:22.950 --> 00:01:24.780 align:middle line:84% on the flight's first leg and we're 00:01:24.780 --> 00:01:27.420 align:middle line:84% already deep in conversation when he boarded. 00:01:27.420 --> 00:01:28.920 align:middle line:84% And the crux here is that the fellow 00:01:28.920 --> 00:01:31.680 align:middle line:84% said he missed the first part of whatever larger conversation 00:01:31.680 --> 00:01:33.030 align:middle line:90% it was part of. 00:01:33.030 --> 00:01:34.620 align:middle line:84% Meaning that there was no inframing 00:01:34.620 --> 00:01:37.590 align:middle line:84% context or antecedent, as such, surrounding 00:01:37.590 --> 00:01:40.320 align:middle line:84% the archetypal narrative as of course there is with all of us 00:01:40.320 --> 00:01:43.170 align:middle line:90% here together this afternoon. 00:01:43.170 --> 00:01:45.750 align:middle line:84% Then it appeared to come, as the fellow described it, 00:01:45.750 --> 00:01:47.670 align:middle line:90% out of nowhere. 00:01:47.670 --> 00:01:49.440 align:middle line:84% Also, that he had evidently been seated 00:01:49.440 --> 00:01:51.090 align:middle line:84% in the particular medial exit row 00:01:51.090 --> 00:01:53.460 align:middle line:84% that is always nearest the wings' jet engine. 00:01:53.460 --> 00:01:55.050 align:middle line:90% The over wing exit. 00:01:55.050 --> 00:01:59.640 align:middle line:84% Often, and I believe on this type of aircraft, row 19 or 20. 00:01:59.640 --> 00:02:01.890 align:middle line:84% It was point being that because of the seat location's 00:02:01.890 --> 00:02:05.130 align:middle line:84% terrific ambient engine noise throughout the flight, 00:02:05.130 --> 00:02:07.650 align:middle line:84% he was able to overhear the narrative fragment only 00:02:07.650 --> 00:02:09.360 align:middle line:84% because one of the predominant passengers 00:02:09.360 --> 00:02:12.540 align:middle line:84% before him seemed to be either hard of hearing or cognitively 00:02:12.540 --> 00:02:13.990 align:middle line:90% hobbled in some way. 00:02:13.990 --> 00:02:14.730 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:02:14.730 --> 00:02:16.650 align:middle line:84% For the somewhat younger passenger, 00:02:16.650 --> 00:02:18.840 align:middle line:84% the one who appeared to be relating and interpreting 00:02:18.840 --> 00:02:21.660 align:middle line:84% the cycles variant or parallel or whatever you may have judged 00:02:21.660 --> 00:02:24.510 align:middle line:84% it to be, seemed to articulate his sentences 00:02:24.510 --> 00:02:27.972 align:middle line:84% very slowly and with unusual clarity and stiffness. 00:02:27.972 --> 00:02:29.430 align:middle line:84% Which he said, come to think of it, 00:02:29.430 --> 00:02:31.800 align:middle line:84% is also the way people who are not particularly bright 00:02:31.800 --> 00:02:33.880 align:middle line:84% or discerning speak to foreigners. 00:02:33.880 --> 00:02:35.430 align:middle line:84% So then perhaps the older passenger 00:02:35.430 --> 00:02:37.080 align:middle line:84% was a non-native speaker of English 00:02:37.080 --> 00:02:40.920 align:middle line:84% and the narrator was, himself, not terribly bright. 00:02:40.920 --> 00:02:43.255 align:middle line:84% The two never turned round or turned their head-- 00:02:43.255 --> 00:02:44.880 align:middle line:84% or their two heads sufficiently for him 00:02:44.880 --> 00:02:46.440 align:middle line:90% to get a real look at them. 00:02:46.440 --> 00:02:49.140 align:middle line:84% All there ever was to look at as the narrative unfolded 00:02:49.140 --> 00:02:51.780 align:middle line:84% were the rear portions of their heads and necks, which 00:02:51.780 --> 00:02:54.450 align:middle line:84% he said appeared average and unremarkable and difficult 00:02:54.450 --> 00:02:56.142 align:middle line:90% to extrapolate anything from. 00:02:56.142 --> 00:02:57.600 align:middle line:84% Which is the back-- which the backs 00:02:57.600 --> 00:03:00.180 align:middle line:84% of strangers heads on airlines nearly always look." 00:03:00.180 --> 00:03:02.030 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:03:02.030 --> 00:03:03.000 align:middle line:90%