WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.920 align:middle line:90%
Oh, I see one.

00:00:01.920 --> 00:00:02.850 align:middle line:90%
There's a few hands.

00:00:02.850 --> 00:00:06.190 align:middle line:90%


00:00:06.190 --> 00:00:06.820 align:middle line:90%
Hi.

00:00:06.820 --> 00:00:14.740 align:middle line:84%
Alison and Susan, you've
both spoken very deep concern

00:00:14.740 --> 00:00:21.010 align:middle line:84%
with your imagery in your
poetry, which is admirable.

00:00:21.010 --> 00:00:31.450 align:middle line:84%
But I think that it isn't
just out there that we

00:00:31.450 --> 00:00:33.400 align:middle line:90%
need to be concerned for.

00:00:33.400 --> 00:00:36.940 align:middle line:84%
I was very disturbed
today to hear

00:00:36.940 --> 00:00:42.880 align:middle line:84%
that, I believe it's the Board
of Regents of this University,

00:00:42.880 --> 00:00:48.010 align:middle line:84%
has decided that
this concern that

00:00:48.010 --> 00:00:59.290 align:middle line:84%
has been raised about investment
in corporations that basically

00:00:59.290 --> 00:01:05.980 align:middle line:84%
are dooming the
planet have come down

00:01:05.980 --> 00:01:10.320 align:middle line:84%
on doing something
about these investments

00:01:10.320 --> 00:01:14.610 align:middle line:90%
because they make money.

00:01:14.610 --> 00:01:17.010 align:middle line:84%
And what do you do
with that money?

00:01:17.010 --> 00:01:24.420 align:middle line:84%
You give thousands of dollars
in bonuses to overpaid people.

00:01:24.420 --> 00:01:29.920 align:middle line:84%
And you are all paying for this
with your tuition or whatever.

00:01:29.920 --> 00:01:37.620 align:middle line:84%
And I think if you got out there
and did some activist protest,

00:01:37.620 --> 00:01:38.440 align:middle line:90%
you--

00:01:38.440 --> 00:01:41.160 align:middle line:84%
which I think you mentioned
in another context.

00:01:41.160 --> 00:01:45.450 align:middle line:90%


00:01:45.450 --> 00:01:50.180 align:middle line:84%
I wouldn't probably be
making this little speech

00:01:50.180 --> 00:01:55.550 align:middle line:84%
if your concerns had not
been for ecology and concern

00:01:55.550 --> 00:01:58.390 align:middle line:84%
for the planet as
well as local things.

00:01:58.390 --> 00:02:01.320 align:middle line:90%
Thank you.

00:02:01.320 --> 00:02:02.100 align:middle line:90%
Thank you, David.

00:02:02.100 --> 00:02:04.199 align:middle line:90%
I'd love to have a response.

00:02:04.199 --> 00:02:07.580 align:middle line:90%


00:02:07.580 --> 00:02:09.160 align:middle line:90%
You want to go?

00:02:09.160 --> 00:02:14.010 align:middle line:84%
I mean, I think what's
important about the context

00:02:14.010 --> 00:02:15.930 align:middle line:84%
that you bring, and
something that I

00:02:15.930 --> 00:02:18.030 align:middle line:84%
try to think about in
terms of my own work

00:02:18.030 --> 00:02:21.390 align:middle line:84%
and in terms of
teaching, is that there

00:02:21.390 --> 00:02:23.490 align:middle line:84%
is something different
between the activism we

00:02:23.490 --> 00:02:27.210 align:middle line:84%
do on the page and activism
that can happen off the page.

00:02:27.210 --> 00:02:31.920 align:middle line:84%
And one doesn't make
up for the other.

00:02:31.920 --> 00:02:37.140 align:middle line:84%
I think it is important to not
just write and think and talk

00:02:37.140 --> 00:02:38.700 align:middle line:84%
amongst ourselves
about this stuff,

00:02:38.700 --> 00:02:42.780 align:middle line:84%
but to figure out other
ways to intervene, sometimes

00:02:42.780 --> 00:02:47.160 align:middle line:84%
with our bodies, right, in
terms of the issues that

00:02:47.160 --> 00:02:49.820 align:middle line:90%
are difficult.

00:02:49.820 --> 00:02:55.340 align:middle line:84%
Well, just to mention one
hopeful sign of some leadership

00:02:55.340 --> 00:02:57.320 align:middle line:84%
coming from a place
where it may actually

00:02:57.320 --> 00:03:00.170 align:middle line:84%
be influential in this regard
is that during the week

00:03:00.170 --> 00:03:03.140 align:middle line:84%
of great climate events
in New York with the UN

00:03:03.140 --> 00:03:05.450 align:middle line:84%
conference and the
demonstrations,

00:03:05.450 --> 00:03:09.650 align:middle line:84%
the Rockefeller fund decided
to divest from fossil fuel

00:03:09.650 --> 00:03:11.810 align:middle line:84%
industries and to invest
in alternative energy.

00:03:11.810 --> 00:03:17.060 align:middle line:84%
Now, when you have funds
and moneyed aspects

00:03:17.060 --> 00:03:20.210 align:middle line:84%
of the culture taking that
degree of leadership, that,

00:03:20.210 --> 00:03:23.780 align:middle line:84%
I think makes a very big
statement in the marketplace

00:03:23.780 --> 00:03:27.540 align:middle line:84%
and within the
culture of the market.

00:03:27.540 --> 00:03:31.730 align:middle line:84%
And so I found that to be
a very encouraging thing,

00:03:31.730 --> 00:03:34.170 align:middle line:84%
and it may influence
other change

00:03:34.170 --> 00:03:39.020 align:middle line:84%
in terms of what's happening
at our institution.

00:03:39.020 --> 00:03:41.900 align:middle line:84%
I've been on an island off
the Eastern coast of Canada

00:03:41.900 --> 00:03:45.140 align:middle line:84%
and I am pathetically uninformed
about the most recent aspects

00:03:45.140 --> 00:03:47.810 align:middle line:84%
of that conversation, I
apologize to you for that.

00:03:47.810 --> 00:03:52.430 align:middle line:90%


00:03:52.430 --> 00:03:55.400 align:middle line:90%
This is a question for Alison.

00:03:55.400 --> 00:03:58.400 align:middle line:84%
Your book Zoologist must have
taken a great deal of research.

00:03:58.400 --> 00:04:01.960 align:middle line:84%
What is your research
process like?

00:04:01.960 --> 00:04:04.350 align:middle line:84%
Yes, it took me
10 years to write.

00:04:04.350 --> 00:04:06.330 align:middle line:84%
I also wrote two poetry
books in that 10 years.

00:04:06.330 --> 00:04:08.640 align:middle line:90%
But it's varied, you know.

00:04:08.640 --> 00:04:12.090 align:middle line:84%
I do a variety of
forms of research,

00:04:12.090 --> 00:04:18.540 align:middle line:84%
both traditional archival
library internet research,

00:04:18.540 --> 00:04:22.110 align:middle line:84%
and I do a lot of
site visits and go out

00:04:22.110 --> 00:04:25.290 align:middle line:84%
into the field with
scientists, because you're

00:04:25.290 --> 00:04:29.200 align:middle line:84%
trying to find a scene
to enliven an essay.

00:04:29.200 --> 00:04:31.200 align:middle line:84%
It's just really helpful
to be out in the field,

00:04:31.200 --> 00:04:34.620 align:middle line:84%
and particularly with
scientific concepts or research

00:04:34.620 --> 00:04:37.860 align:middle line:84%
that might be really hard
for me to get my head around.

00:04:37.860 --> 00:04:39.540 align:middle line:84%
I could read a bunch
of research papers

00:04:39.540 --> 00:04:42.040 align:middle line:90%
and just be totally confused.

00:04:42.040 --> 00:04:45.607 align:middle line:84%
But if I say to the head
of the spotted owl team

00:04:45.607 --> 00:04:47.190 align:middle line:84%
up in the Andrews
Experimental Forest,

00:04:47.190 --> 00:04:49.935 align:middle line:84%
could I go out with when you do
your rounds to look at the owl

00:04:49.935 --> 00:04:53.160 align:middle line:84%
nests tomorrow morning,
I have that experience

00:04:53.160 --> 00:04:56.295 align:middle line:84%
and can render it into a
scene, I can get it in a way

00:04:56.295 --> 00:04:58.420 align:middle line:84%
that it's a narrative that
I can share with others.

00:04:58.420 --> 00:05:00.962 align:middle line:84%
If somebody wants to research,
the research papers are there,

00:05:00.962 --> 00:05:04.000 align:middle line:84%
but I'm looking
for more the story

00:05:04.000 --> 00:05:07.530 align:middle line:84%
that has a kind of
human interest element

00:05:07.530 --> 00:05:14.100 align:middle line:84%
and where the emotions of the
experience and the reflection

00:05:14.100 --> 00:05:16.950 align:middle line:84%
of the experience are as
important as the science.

00:05:16.950 --> 00:05:22.300 align:middle line:84%
So, I do lots of different
types of research.

00:05:22.300 --> 00:05:25.260 align:middle line:84%
But I do-- I think as
all of us who do essays,

00:05:25.260 --> 00:05:29.077 align:middle line:84%
I do believe that we're
always testing our research

00:05:29.077 --> 00:05:30.660 align:middle line:84%
against our own
experience and wanting

00:05:30.660 --> 00:05:32.820 align:middle line:84%
to put our feet on
the ground in a place

00:05:32.820 --> 00:05:36.610 align:middle line:84%
or with a person who knows
the subject better than we do.

00:05:36.610 --> 00:05:40.500 align:middle line:84%
And we want to kind of feel,
how does my experience butt up

00:05:40.500 --> 00:05:41.067 align:middle line:90%
against that?

00:05:41.067 --> 00:05:42.150 align:middle line:90%
Does it sound right to me?

00:05:42.150 --> 00:05:45.690 align:middle line:84%
Or no matter how good this
guy's research might be,

00:05:45.690 --> 00:05:47.550 align:middle line:84%
does it really strike
me wrong, you know,

00:05:47.550 --> 00:05:51.270 align:middle line:84%
I have an argument I want
to register in the essay.

00:05:51.270 --> 00:05:53.820 align:middle line:84%
That's our great
subjectivity as essayists,

00:05:53.820 --> 00:05:55.950 align:middle line:90%
we're just cranky and skeptical.

00:05:55.950 --> 00:06:00.070 align:middle line:90%


00:06:00.070 --> 00:06:00.570 align:middle line:90%
Hi.

00:06:00.570 --> 00:06:02.040 align:middle line:90%
I have a question for Susan.

00:06:02.040 --> 00:06:04.230 align:middle line:90%
Thanks for your reading.

00:06:04.230 --> 00:06:07.620 align:middle line:84%
I noticed in your work
an inherent comfort

00:06:07.620 --> 00:06:12.420 align:middle line:84%
between the body as sight
embodiment in your own personal

00:06:12.420 --> 00:06:14.130 align:middle line:84%
and also just the
world, and then

00:06:14.130 --> 00:06:16.350 align:middle line:84%
you're dealing a
lot with ideas that

00:06:16.350 --> 00:06:23.280 align:middle line:84%
are better in a way, real
abstract, economy, capitalism,

00:06:23.280 --> 00:06:25.440 align:middle line:84%
where the sight of
the body is in that,

00:06:25.440 --> 00:06:28.230 align:middle line:84%
and often I think there's
a duality that people

00:06:28.230 --> 00:06:29.250 align:middle line:90%
perceive around that.

00:06:29.250 --> 00:06:32.610 align:middle line:84%
It's like the stock
market or money

00:06:32.610 --> 00:06:35.460 align:middle line:84%
or just to be very trite,
but generally speaking.

00:06:35.460 --> 00:06:37.560 align:middle line:84%
But I notice in
your work a comfort

00:06:37.560 --> 00:06:41.820 align:middle line:84%
and a harmony in some sense,
that even results in disharmony

00:06:41.820 --> 00:06:43.050 align:middle line:90%
by intention.

00:06:43.050 --> 00:06:45.900 align:middle line:84%
I'm wondering how that feels
for you when you're writing it,

00:06:45.900 --> 00:06:47.640 align:middle line:90%
how it feels in the process.

00:06:47.640 --> 00:06:49.920 align:middle line:84%
I'm assuming the
reflection in your poetry

00:06:49.920 --> 00:06:52.170 align:middle line:84%
is a true reflection
of the feeling.

00:06:52.170 --> 00:06:54.660 align:middle line:84%
Or maybe I'm wrong, but I'm
just curious if you could speak

00:06:54.660 --> 00:06:55.618 align:middle line:90%
on that, because it's--

00:06:55.618 --> 00:06:59.910 align:middle line:84%
I find it's very beautiful,
but also truth telling.

00:06:59.910 --> 00:07:00.840 align:middle line:90%
Thanks.

00:07:00.840 --> 00:07:05.220 align:middle line:84%
Thank you for your thoughtful
response to the work.

00:07:05.220 --> 00:07:08.790 align:middle line:84%
I mean, I feel like both
of those, both the letter

00:07:08.790 --> 00:07:10.860 align:middle line:84%
project and the
stock market project

00:07:10.860 --> 00:07:15.420 align:middle line:84%
got created out of a
sense of lived experience

00:07:15.420 --> 00:07:19.290 align:middle line:84%
being different than another
narration that was being told.

00:07:19.290 --> 00:07:21.330 align:middle line:84%
I think that's what
Tyler was referencing

00:07:21.330 --> 00:07:25.470 align:middle line:84%
in the introduction, you know,
that there was this way when

00:07:25.470 --> 00:07:28.560 align:middle line:90%
the financial crisis of 2008--

00:07:28.560 --> 00:07:32.670 align:middle line:84%
The continuing crisis, perhaps,
is the way to talk about it,

00:07:32.670 --> 00:07:34.020 align:middle line:90%
was discussed.

00:07:34.020 --> 00:07:37.230 align:middle line:84%
It was being told
the stock market was

00:07:37.230 --> 00:07:39.400 align:middle line:84%
one of the biggest indicators
of what was going on.

00:07:39.400 --> 00:07:42.390 align:middle line:84%
And I mean, even though I'm
a poet, I get money, right?

00:07:42.390 --> 00:07:45.090 align:middle line:84%
It's not like, why are they
talking about the stock market?

00:07:45.090 --> 00:07:47.070 align:middle line:90%
We should talk about the trees.

00:07:47.070 --> 00:07:50.760 align:middle line:84%
But it was like there are
these other things that

00:07:50.760 --> 00:07:52.590 align:middle line:84%
weren't being
registered, and there's

00:07:52.590 --> 00:07:56.850 align:middle line:84%
a naturalness with which
that number gets thrown out

00:07:56.850 --> 00:08:02.490 align:middle line:84%
as talking about the health
of our economy and our nation.

00:08:02.490 --> 00:08:09.540 align:middle line:84%
The nation of Bhutan, they don't
do a gross domestic product.

00:08:09.540 --> 00:08:11.220 align:middle line:90%
It's a gross happiness product.

00:08:11.220 --> 00:08:14.020 align:middle line:84%
They literally measure the
happiness of their inherent.

00:08:14.020 --> 00:08:19.740 align:middle line:84%
So part of it was sort
of using that frame

00:08:19.740 --> 00:08:23.520 align:middle line:84%
and in some ways then writing
poems that maybe for me

00:08:23.520 --> 00:08:26.610 align:middle line:84%
were even more
traditionally lyric

00:08:26.610 --> 00:08:30.150 align:middle line:84%
and first person than
some of my other work.

00:08:30.150 --> 00:08:34.980 align:middle line:84%
That frame made me
more comfortable.

00:08:34.980 --> 00:08:36.299 align:middle line:90%
I also had a kid.

00:08:36.299 --> 00:08:40.169 align:middle line:84%
I was in the process of getting
pregnant and having a baby.

00:08:40.169 --> 00:08:42.720 align:middle line:84%
Some of you guys
saw CAConrad here,

00:08:42.720 --> 00:08:46.680 align:middle line:84%
who's a poet who really
believes in doing things

00:08:46.680 --> 00:08:49.230 align:middle line:84%
to get us into different
frames of mind to making art,

00:08:49.230 --> 00:08:50.580 align:middle line:90%
like he has these great things.

00:08:50.580 --> 00:08:53.610 align:middle line:84%
Like you put your foot in a
bucket and stand in a doorway.

00:08:53.610 --> 00:08:56.880 align:middle line:84%
He calls them somatic exercises,
and my biggest somatic exercise

00:08:56.880 --> 00:08:58.350 align:middle line:90%
was having a kid.

00:08:58.350 --> 00:09:03.690 align:middle line:84%
It just completely also
changed how I registered.

00:09:03.690 --> 00:09:06.690 align:middle line:84%
My own subjectivity had
this secondary repercussion.

00:09:06.690 --> 00:09:10.260 align:middle line:84%
I think I felt more comfortable
inhabiting a first person lyric

00:09:10.260 --> 00:09:11.265 align:middle line:90%
than maybe I had before.

00:09:11.265 --> 00:09:15.420 align:middle line:90%


00:09:15.420 --> 00:09:17.340 align:middle line:84%
I have a question, but
I just want to say,

00:09:17.340 --> 00:09:22.620 align:middle line:84%
Susan, if you get money,
I need to talk to you.

00:09:22.620 --> 00:09:26.160 align:middle line:90%
I mean, I basically get money.

00:09:26.160 --> 00:09:28.470 align:middle line:84%
This is sort of my own
concern, but you started

00:09:28.470 --> 00:09:31.260 align:middle line:90%
with a poem called "Meditation"

00:09:31.260 --> 00:09:35.100 align:middle line:84%
So there's a bit of that
exploration in the book,

00:09:35.100 --> 00:09:40.170 align:middle line:84%
and I think it's probably
one of the important strands

00:09:40.170 --> 00:09:43.080 align:middle line:84%
in thinking about what
animals have meant to us

00:09:43.080 --> 00:09:45.030 align:middle line:84%
and have meant to
the human imagination

00:09:45.030 --> 00:09:46.950 align:middle line:84%
from the very, very,
very beginning of art,

00:09:46.950 --> 00:09:51.210 align:middle line:84%
because all of the earliest
art is all animal imagery.

00:09:51.210 --> 00:09:52.830 align:middle line:84%
The carvings, the
cave paintings,

00:09:52.830 --> 00:09:56.490 align:middle line:84%
so there's some speculation
and Clayton Eshleman

00:09:56.490 --> 00:09:58.350 align:middle line:84%
has written about
this in Juniper Fuse

00:09:58.350 --> 00:10:03.090 align:middle line:84%
that art came about at that
time when the human mind began

00:10:03.090 --> 00:10:06.180 align:middle line:84%
to perceive itself as separating
from the animal world.

00:10:06.180 --> 00:10:08.550 align:middle line:84%
And it needed to
project something

00:10:08.550 --> 00:10:12.690 align:middle line:84%
back out because it
understood what this loss was,

00:10:12.690 --> 00:10:15.930 align:middle line:84%
that it was so profound that
without some reciprocating

00:10:15.930 --> 00:10:18.690 align:middle line:84%
act of the inner
life reconnecting

00:10:18.690 --> 00:10:21.240 align:middle line:84%
with the outer world,
we just couldn't go on.

00:10:21.240 --> 00:10:22.500 align:middle line:90%
Or our ancestors couldn't go.

00:10:22.500 --> 00:10:25.890 align:middle line:84%
So anyway I am glad
that you raised it

00:10:25.890 --> 00:10:31.230 align:middle line:84%
and obviously, I mean, the
other way I do research on that

00:10:31.230 --> 00:10:33.750 align:middle line:84%
is a seeing a Jungian
analyst and reading

00:10:33.750 --> 00:10:37.770 align:middle line:84%
a lot of Carl Jung
and James Hillman

00:10:37.770 --> 00:10:41.700 align:middle line:84%
and trying to understand
the ways that the science

00:10:41.700 --> 00:10:46.320 align:middle line:84%
of the mind have tried to
give us a language for talking

00:10:46.320 --> 00:10:47.415 align:middle line:90%
about the inner world.

00:10:47.415 --> 00:10:50.310 align:middle line:90%


00:10:50.310 --> 00:10:54.420 align:middle line:84%
Yeah, when I was writing
some of the stock market

00:10:54.420 --> 00:11:00.300 align:middle line:84%
poems, I was reading Buddhist
text and also writers

00:11:00.300 --> 00:11:05.070 align:middle line:84%
on Buddhism, and also
some consciousness texts.

00:11:05.070 --> 00:11:10.500 align:middle line:84%
And I keep thinking about
this Oppen quote from a poem.

00:11:10.500 --> 00:11:13.440 align:middle line:84%
I'm going to paraphrase,
so don't mark me off,

00:11:13.440 --> 00:11:15.060 align:middle line:84%
don't detract from
my recitation.

00:11:15.060 --> 00:11:19.230 align:middle line:84%
But he says a man stands on
a beach, goes to a beach,

00:11:19.230 --> 00:11:20.250 align:middle line:90%
sits next to a rock.

00:11:20.250 --> 00:11:24.420 align:middle line:84%
And then he says, two,
we find ourselves in two.

00:11:24.420 --> 00:11:25.590 align:middle line:90%
And it's interesting, right?

00:11:25.590 --> 00:11:27.060 align:middle line:84%
Because we normally
think like we

00:11:27.060 --> 00:11:29.970 align:middle line:84%
find ourselves
with someone else.

00:11:29.970 --> 00:11:33.450 align:middle line:84%
But in the Oppen poem, when
there's no one else there,

00:11:33.450 --> 00:11:35.400 align:middle line:90%
you sit by a rock, too.

00:11:35.400 --> 00:11:39.990 align:middle line:84%
And I think that
for me sometimes,

00:11:39.990 --> 00:11:43.170 align:middle line:84%
putting me up, or
trying to situate myself

00:11:43.170 --> 00:11:48.210 align:middle line:84%
within a system is also, it's
about figuring out that system.

00:11:48.210 --> 00:11:50.250 align:middle line:84%
It's about resistance
to the system.

00:11:50.250 --> 00:11:53.310 align:middle line:84%
But you also learn, I think,
any time we put ourselves up

00:11:53.310 --> 00:11:56.790 align:middle line:84%
in the context or frame what
we do, with something else,

00:11:56.790 --> 00:12:00.600 align:middle line:90%
we learn about ourselves.

00:12:00.600 --> 00:12:03.060 align:middle line:84%
I don't know if that helps
in answering your question,

00:12:03.060 --> 00:12:07.800 align:middle line:84%
but I think that's part
of my interest in not

00:12:07.800 --> 00:12:12.630 align:middle line:84%
simply regurgitating
my life on the page,

00:12:12.630 --> 00:12:17.550 align:middle line:84%
but figuring out how if I can
situate myself on a larger map,

00:12:17.550 --> 00:12:21.180 align:middle line:84%
is that helpful to
other folks as well?

00:12:21.180 --> 00:12:23.555 align:middle line:84%
And we have to figure
out those cartographies.

00:12:23.555 --> 00:12:26.170 align:middle line:90%


00:12:26.170 --> 00:12:26.830 align:middle line:90%
Great.

00:12:26.830 --> 00:12:29.540 align:middle line:90%
Thank you both, so much.

00:12:29.540 --> 00:12:31.390 align:middle line:90%
[APPLAUSE]

00:12:31.390 --> 00:12:32.000 align:middle line:90%