WEBVTT

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Soon, in a moment, you
will hear Rae Armantrout.

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Rae grew up in California,
attended San Diego State,

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and UC Berkeley, and then became
a student in creative writing

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at San Francisco State.

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In the Bay Area she became
close with other poets

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that she's still associated
with and friends with.

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Ron Silliman, Lyn
Hejinian, Barrett Watten,

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and other people
associated with this group,

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sometimes called Language poets.

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But I think that can
be troubled a bit.

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Poets involved in pushing--

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oh, no, I need that on.

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You need that on?

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Yeah.

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Oh, I'm sorry.

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OK.

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This is what I said.

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Other poets associated with
pushing or seeding poetry

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in a new direction.

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These were writers with
politically-- these

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were writers who are
politically conscious, busy

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fracturing the assumed
language into parts

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making text take risks.

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Armantrout moved back
to San Diego in 1978

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and began teaching
writing at UC San

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Diego where she has directed the
New Writing series since 1989.

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Rae Armantrout is the author
of eight books of poetry,

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including her newest, Up To
Speed, available outside.

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And her selected poems
just recently published

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entitled Veil.

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In the year 2000 a collection
of essays about Rae Armantrout's

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work was published
entitled, A Wild Salience,

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which among the writers--
the writings of many

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include an essay on her greatest
work by Tucson's own Charles

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Alexander.

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And I just want to say this is
a one line from one of the poems

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that I like a lot, and in a
way shows a certain allegiance

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that Rae's work bears
to, say, Emily Dickinson.

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So this may conjure an
Emily Dickinson line.

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And this is a line that's
somewhat typical of the way Rae

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Armantrout sees things.

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The line is just--

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"My life has stood--

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had stood a little
speech, a clipped coupon."

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OK.

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It's funny.

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[LAUGHTER]

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And that's the thing
is Rae's work is,

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I think it's hilarious.

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And so-- and all the-- in the
many, many reviews of her work

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that I've read
everyone tries to have

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this kind of extremely
effusive description

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of the way her poems work.

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So I have one to.

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Rae's work-- this is what
I wrote in marker and pen.

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[LAUGHTER]

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"Rae's work deals with
the fabric of language

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that enfolds and creates us.

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She takes the net through it,
capturing instances of speech,

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commercial speech, corporate
speech, science speech --

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scientific speech,
and intimate speech,

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and takes them like
delicate moths,

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and pins them into her poems.

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Except that the moths are not
delicate, they are still alive,

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and they have little fangs."

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[LAUGHTER]

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And then I went on to say, "Rae
finds innocuous enough seeming

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glitches in the language that
to her signal something serious

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might be going on similar to
the way déjá vu in the movie The

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Matrix means that the master
computer system is making some

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sort of shift or direction."

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It's like when they
see the cat twice walk

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through the room [INAUDIBLE].

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But also [INAUDIBLE] I
found a brief description

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that perhaps Rae
[INAUDIBLE] of a class

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she is teaching at Naropa.

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It says, "Our heads are
full of voices of family,

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and friends, newscasters,
and celebrities.

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Does the poet try to silence
such inner voices in order

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to find her own?

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Or can she use them to
make a polyphonic text.

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The poems you read,
write in this course will

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deal with voice and voices."

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So I'd say in the reading
you're about to hear you will be

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dealing with voice and voices.

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But as a little illustration
for those of you

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to whom her poetry
might be unfamiliar,

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I thought I would have a little
illustration of something that

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seems--

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that it could have come right
out of one of her poems.

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Which is a scene from the
1985 movie, "Explorers,"

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starring the young Ethan
Hawke and River Phoenix,

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who go in to build a
spacecraft in their backyard.

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And they go into space and then
they make their own spaceship

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where there are these
creatures who they're

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trying to communicate
with and they

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get more and more frustrated
because these creatures only

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speak in signal--

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in communicative
signals that they've

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received from the Earth, from
TV, radio, and other signals.

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And so this is--

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like they get frustrated.

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[VIDEO PLAYBACK]

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- What is your name?

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That's-- that's your name.

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[END PLAYBACK]

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So wait.

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So he's trying to figure out
what this person's name is.

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[VIDEO PLAYBACK]

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- Quack.

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- I don't know, Quack.

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- Whack.

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- What's your name?

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That's-- that's your name

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[LAUGHTER]

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- I'm Ben.

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Me Ben.

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- Me Tarzan.

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[TARZAN YELL]

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[LAUGHTER]

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- [MONKEY SCREECHING] What will
I have to do, eat a banana?

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[LAUGHTER]

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- No [INAUDIBLE].

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- Come on jump in.

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- They know all about us.

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[LAUGHTER]

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- [INAUDIBLE].

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- You see.

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- Wow.

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[BEEPING]

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[END PLAYBACK]

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And so forth.

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OK.

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So anyway without
any further talking,

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Rae will come share
her poetry with us

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and talk a little bit
about where it comes from.

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[APPLAUSE]

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