WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.640 align:middle line:84% I want to thank those who've helped 00:00:02.640 --> 00:00:04.560 align:middle line:90% us to put this series together. 00:00:04.560 --> 00:00:07.110 align:middle line:84% As always, it takes a lot of help, 00:00:07.110 --> 00:00:10.380 align:middle line:84% and we're particularly grateful to the funders, which 00:00:10.380 --> 00:00:12.540 align:middle line:84% include the National Endowment for the Arts, 00:00:12.540 --> 00:00:16.050 align:middle line:84% the Arizona Humanities Council, the University of Arizona 00:00:16.050 --> 00:00:19.980 align:middle line:84% Foundation, and the Arizona Commission for the Arts. 00:00:19.980 --> 00:00:23.655 align:middle line:84% In addition, I want to thank the Arizona Flower Market. 00:00:23.655 --> 00:00:26.250 align:middle line:90% 00:00:26.250 --> 00:00:29.190 align:middle line:84% They are underwriting flowers for the remainder 00:00:29.190 --> 00:00:31.620 align:middle line:90% of the reading series. 00:00:31.620 --> 00:00:33.240 align:middle line:84% And I'd also like to let you know 00:00:33.240 --> 00:00:36.690 align:middle line:84% that our next event will be March 7, the poet Billy 00:00:36.690 --> 00:00:39.090 align:middle line:90% Collins. 00:00:39.090 --> 00:00:42.180 align:middle line:84% Also, the U of A bookstore has Anne Carson's books 00:00:42.180 --> 00:00:45.630 align:middle line:84% for sale tonight, and they'll be available at the reception 00:00:45.630 --> 00:00:47.475 align:middle line:84% outside of the Hall after the reading. 00:00:47.475 --> 00:00:50.250 align:middle line:90% 00:00:50.250 --> 00:00:54.060 align:middle line:84% Anne Carson is the author of numerous works, many of them 00:00:54.060 --> 00:00:57.360 align:middle line:84% intermingled collections of poems and essays. 00:00:57.360 --> 00:01:03.660 align:middle line:84% Among them, Plain Water; Glass, Irony, and God; Autobiography 00:01:03.660 --> 00:01:07.380 align:middle line:84% in Red, a novel in verse retelling 00:01:07.380 --> 00:01:11.790 align:middle line:84% the fate of the monster Geryon from Greek mythology; 00:01:11.790 --> 00:01:15.120 align:middle line:84% Eros the Bittersweet, a scholarly work 00:01:15.120 --> 00:01:18.150 align:middle line:84% about the history of romantic love; 00:01:18.150 --> 00:01:22.800 align:middle line:84% Economy of the Unlost, in which she finds resonances 00:01:22.800 --> 00:01:27.990 align:middle line:84% between the ancient Greek poet Simonides and the Holocaust 00:01:27.990 --> 00:01:33.510 align:middle line:84% survivor Paul Celan; and Men in the Off Hours, a collection 00:01:33.510 --> 00:01:38.310 align:middle line:84% of lyric essays and poems in which Thucydides and Virginia 00:01:38.310 --> 00:01:42.600 align:middle line:84% Woolf discuss the logistics of warfare. 00:01:42.600 --> 00:01:45.000 align:middle line:84% Her work has won many distinctions, including 00:01:45.000 --> 00:01:48.750 align:middle line:84% a Lannan Literary Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, 00:01:48.750 --> 00:01:50.310 align:middle line:90% and a MacArthur Award. 00:01:50.310 --> 00:01:54.510 align:middle line:84% Her latest book is The Beauty of the Husband, a Fictional 00:01:54.510 --> 00:01:59.040 align:middle line:90% Essay in 29 Tangos. 00:01:59.040 --> 00:02:01.770 align:middle line:84% A scholar trained in classics, Carson 00:02:01.770 --> 00:02:04.890 align:middle line:84% has taught at McGill University, the University of Michigan, 00:02:04.890 --> 00:02:08.220 align:middle line:84% and the University of Berkeley, will be going in the fall 00:02:08.220 --> 00:02:12.240 align:middle line:84% to the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, 00:02:12.240 --> 00:02:15.990 align:middle line:84% where she will again be creating and producing 00:02:15.990 --> 00:02:17.590 align:middle line:90% an opera with her students. 00:02:17.590 --> 00:02:19.290 align:middle line:84% She has become somewhat legendary 00:02:19.290 --> 00:02:23.130 align:middle line:84% as a teacher for the 1999 work she 00:02:23.130 --> 00:02:24.720 align:middle line:84% did at the University of Michigan, 00:02:24.720 --> 00:02:28.140 align:middle line:84% creating an opera, The Mirror of Simple Souls, 00:02:28.140 --> 00:02:30.480 align:middle line:84% that was a seven room installation 00:02:30.480 --> 00:02:35.580 align:middle line:84% piece that can still be viewed online, I believe. 00:02:35.580 --> 00:02:38.310 align:middle line:84% It is a popular and erroneous assumption 00:02:38.310 --> 00:02:41.820 align:middle line:84% that the scholarly mind and the imaginative mind 00:02:41.820 --> 00:02:48.570 align:middle line:84% are at best, incompatible, at worst, hostile rivals. 00:02:48.570 --> 00:02:51.690 align:middle line:84% Anne Carson's highly original body of work 00:02:51.690 --> 00:02:56.730 align:middle line:84% belies this stereotype with a quick-minded embrace 00:02:56.730 --> 00:02:59.220 align:middle line:90% of contradictions. 00:02:59.220 --> 00:03:02.640 align:middle line:84% Guy Davenport's intro to Glass, Irony, and God 00:03:02.640 --> 00:03:06.690 align:middle line:84% reads, "The original poet sees with new eyes." 00:03:06.690 --> 00:03:09.000 align:middle line:90% Carson's eyes are original. 00:03:09.000 --> 00:03:11.100 align:middle line:84% We're not yet used to them, and she 00:03:11.100 --> 00:03:15.030 align:middle line:84% may seem unpoetic, or joltingly new, 00:03:15.030 --> 00:03:18.860 align:middle line:84% like Whitman or Emily Dickinson in their day. 00:03:18.860 --> 00:03:23.010 align:middle line:84% Her forms are utterly contemporary, that is, 00:03:23.010 --> 00:03:27.180 align:middle line:84% in constant reinvention, though they draw inspiration 00:03:27.180 --> 00:03:31.320 align:middle line:84% from the lineation and meter of the ancients. 00:03:31.320 --> 00:03:34.410 align:middle line:84% The materials inspiring her range 00:03:34.410 --> 00:03:37.230 align:middle line:84% from Emily Bronte and Gertrude Stein, 00:03:37.230 --> 00:03:41.310 align:middle line:84% to medieval Japanese pilgrimage accounts and the poetry 00:03:41.310 --> 00:03:45.870 align:middle line:84% of ancient Greeks, from her intensely conversational 00:03:45.870 --> 00:03:49.890 align:middle line:84% relationship with God to transcriptions 00:03:49.890 --> 00:03:54.910 align:middle line:84% of her rich, erotic, and intellectual experience. 00:03:54.910 --> 00:03:57.830 align:middle line:90% Please welcome Anne Carson. 00:03:57.830 --> 00:04:05.000 align:middle line:90%