WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.690 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.690 --> 00:00:05.690 align:middle line:90% "Borges," or "Borges." 00:00:05.690 --> 00:00:08.270 align:middle line:90% "Borges." 00:00:08.270 --> 00:00:13.610 align:middle line:84% "'The Book of Sand,' now that's back in the old days when I 00:00:13.610 --> 00:00:22.250 align:middle line:84% used to love Borges, Luis Borges, Jorge Luis Borges. 00:00:22.250 --> 00:00:25.310 align:middle line:84% I still do, but I don't read him anymore, 00:00:25.310 --> 00:00:28.100 align:middle line:90% or I haven't for a long time-- 00:00:28.100 --> 00:00:30.500 align:middle line:90% a long time. 00:00:30.500 --> 00:00:34.730 align:middle line:84% Red boy thinks a long time, a long time, 00:00:34.730 --> 00:00:39.950 align:middle line:84% once upon a long time ago when he used to read Borges. 00:00:39.950 --> 00:00:43.460 align:middle line:84% That's a hmm thought, actually, he thought. 00:00:43.460 --> 00:00:48.440 align:middle line:84% Those days and times and moments are rare these days. 00:00:48.440 --> 00:00:53.240 align:middle line:84% I wonder if Borges ever said something like that. 00:00:53.240 --> 00:00:57.800 align:middle line:84% Back in my once upon a time days, he was a genius. 00:00:57.800 --> 00:01:00.140 align:middle line:90% That wasn't like anyone else-- 00:01:00.140 --> 00:01:03.470 align:middle line:84% you know, an ordinary human man but someone 00:01:03.470 --> 00:01:08.240 align:middle line:84% who was made not by God or God-like forces 00:01:08.240 --> 00:01:15.650 align:middle line:84% but by imagination, by imagination as a question. 00:01:15.650 --> 00:01:21.680 align:middle line:84% Red boy had to think of now, though when he had just read 00:01:21.680 --> 00:01:24.230 align:middle line:84% [? Christina ?] [? Say ?] by email. 00:01:24.230 --> 00:01:27.260 align:middle line:90% She had lost her imagination. 00:01:27.260 --> 00:01:32.330 align:middle line:84% A long time once upon a long time ago is now. 00:01:32.330 --> 00:01:36.140 align:middle line:84% And now, no one loses their imagination 00:01:36.140 --> 00:01:41.510 align:middle line:84% within that moment of a long time once upon a long time ago, 00:01:41.510 --> 00:01:45.530 align:middle line:90% not you, not me, not Borges. 00:01:45.530 --> 00:01:48.470 align:middle line:84% If Borges could bring himself about 00:01:48.470 --> 00:01:52.190 align:middle line:84% within the magical sacred moment of his now 00:01:52.190 --> 00:01:59.030 align:middle line:84% and here and right away, then you and imagination can, too. 00:01:59.030 --> 00:02:01.550 align:middle line:90% 'The Book of Sand.' 00:02:01.550 --> 00:02:06.800 align:middle line:84% 'The Book of Sand,' as I recall, that's what the book of Borges 00:02:06.800 --> 00:02:08.150 align:middle line:90% says. 00:02:08.150 --> 00:02:13.325 align:middle line:84% Sometimes red boy just thinks and thinks. 00:02:13.325 --> 00:02:18.770 align:middle line:90% 00:02:18.770 --> 00:02:20.345 align:middle line:90% What word holds you? 00:02:20.345 --> 00:02:23.420 align:middle line:90% 00:02:23.420 --> 00:02:26.630 align:middle line:90% red boy thinks and thinks. 00:02:26.630 --> 00:02:30.260 align:middle line:90% Hmm, what word holds and holds? 00:02:30.260 --> 00:02:34.880 align:middle line:84% Or what words hold against all odds? 00:02:34.880 --> 00:02:35.960 align:middle line:90% None, really. 00:02:35.960 --> 00:02:40.160 align:middle line:84% Sometimes, instead, loss is what happens. 00:02:40.160 --> 00:02:43.550 align:middle line:90% red boy thinks and thinks." 00:02:43.550 --> 00:02:46.820 align:middle line:84% "A story of long ago in the 1970s 00:02:46.820 --> 00:02:51.170 align:middle line:84% in the dark somewhere southeast of Lawton, Oklahoma, 00:02:51.170 --> 00:02:55.700 align:middle line:84% three Comanches and a Pueblo dude all drinking all day, 00:02:55.700 --> 00:03:01.610 align:middle line:84% beginning when ending when who knows, that kind of time, 00:03:01.610 --> 00:03:03.990 align:middle line:90% driving here and there. 00:03:03.990 --> 00:03:08.240 align:middle line:84% Let's go see my cousin, Buddy, one Comanche says. 00:03:08.240 --> 00:03:11.480 align:middle line:84% OK, let's do that, the other Comanche says. 00:03:11.480 --> 00:03:13.980 align:middle line:90% Let's go, go, go. 00:03:13.980 --> 00:03:18.110 align:middle line:84% And the third Comanche grunts, uh, OK, yeah. 00:03:18.110 --> 00:03:21.890 align:middle line:84% And me, popping another one and tossing an empty 00:03:21.890 --> 00:03:25.130 align:middle line:84% into the dark field out there, into nowhere, 00:03:25.130 --> 00:03:29.570 align:middle line:84% southern Oklahoma, thinking Dallas and New Orleans 00:03:29.570 --> 00:03:32.090 align:middle line:90% and Atlanta and El Paso. 00:03:32.090 --> 00:03:35.840 align:middle line:84% I'm on the run, and it doesn't matter where things are at. 00:03:35.840 --> 00:03:39.950 align:middle line:84% It was the year my life was that way, the wrong way, 00:03:39.950 --> 00:03:41.690 align:middle line:90% going to hell way. 00:03:41.690 --> 00:03:42.860 align:middle line:90% OK, I say. 00:03:42.860 --> 00:03:44.510 align:middle line:90% Let's, let's move. 00:03:44.510 --> 00:03:45.650 align:middle line:90% Which way? 00:03:45.650 --> 00:03:50.240 align:middle line:84% And they all give me directions that are amazingly complex 00:03:50.240 --> 00:03:52.410 align:middle line:90% all at the same time. 00:03:52.410 --> 00:03:57.140 align:middle line:84% So red boy says to the third Comanche, you drive. 00:03:57.140 --> 00:04:00.110 align:middle line:84% I don't know if he can drive or has a license. 00:04:00.110 --> 00:04:02.750 align:middle line:90% But red boy doesn't give a shit. 00:04:02.750 --> 00:04:04.940 align:middle line:84% The Comanche gets behind the wheel, 00:04:04.940 --> 00:04:07.490 align:middle line:90% and we go somewhere in the dark. 00:04:07.490 --> 00:04:10.790 align:middle line:84% In the dark somewhere, miles out of Lawton, 00:04:10.790 --> 00:04:13.340 align:middle line:90% south, east, west-- who knows? 00:04:13.340 --> 00:04:16.190 align:middle line:84% We drive around in the dark until there 00:04:16.190 --> 00:04:22.160 align:middle line:84% is a little bit of yard light that we drive toward and stop. 00:04:22.160 --> 00:04:24.440 align:middle line:84% And first Comanche jumps out of the car 00:04:24.440 --> 00:04:29.600 align:middle line:84% and hollers, Warrior Blade, come out of your cave 00:04:29.600 --> 00:04:32.390 align:middle line:90% and do it quick and now! 00:04:32.390 --> 00:04:35.720 align:middle line:84% And the door opens, and a skinny little boy 00:04:35.720 --> 00:04:39.290 align:middle line:84% about eight or so stands in a dim light, 00:04:39.290 --> 00:04:48.510 align:middle line:84% holding the door with his right hand, 00:04:48.510 --> 00:04:52.200 align:middle line:84% says nothing, just stares into the dark, 00:04:52.200 --> 00:04:56.880 align:middle line:84% where we are three Comanches and a Pueblo dude. 00:04:56.880 --> 00:05:00.820 align:middle line:84% Warrior Blade, Warrior Blade, don't be afraid. 00:05:00.820 --> 00:05:05.250 align:middle line:84% It's just me, your big bad dad paying a call, 00:05:05.250 --> 00:05:09.510 align:middle line:84% the first Comanche guy says in a loud holler. 00:05:09.510 --> 00:05:12.540 align:middle line:90% The skinny kid doesn't flinch. 00:05:12.540 --> 00:05:17.760 align:middle line:84% And he says, my daddy ain't home, and you better leave. 00:05:17.760 --> 00:05:21.090 align:middle line:84% And he turned and went back into the house, 00:05:21.090 --> 00:05:24.555 align:middle line:84% carefully closing the door behind him." 00:05:24.555 --> 00:05:29.100 align:middle line:90% 00:05:29.100 --> 00:05:35.550 align:middle line:84% "The Word is Remember" "I remember some details-- 00:05:35.550 --> 00:05:41.550 align:middle line:84% dark night, stars far, so far away above Oklahoma, 00:05:41.550 --> 00:05:45.630 align:middle line:84% so far away, almost like another world. 00:05:45.630 --> 00:05:50.430 align:middle line:84% The three Comanche guys, the oldest one a big man, 00:05:50.430 --> 00:05:55.890 align:middle line:84% Vietnam vet, insane and dangerous, and his brothers. 00:05:55.890 --> 00:05:58.680 align:middle line:84% And the one driving the car, the youngest one, 00:05:58.680 --> 00:06:01.650 align:middle line:90% maybe he was a relative, too. 00:06:01.650 --> 00:06:02.640 align:middle line:90% I don't know. 00:06:02.640 --> 00:06:04.770 align:middle line:90% He was a teenager. 00:06:04.770 --> 00:06:08.280 align:middle line:84% Later that night, he was the one who stole my car, 00:06:08.280 --> 00:06:12.420 align:middle line:84% or wanted to steal my car, and stabbed me. 00:06:12.420 --> 00:06:15.210 align:middle line:84% He didn't want to give me back my car keys. 00:06:15.210 --> 00:06:19.890 align:middle line:84% He wanted my car, just a cheap Chevette four-door. 00:06:19.890 --> 00:06:22.680 align:middle line:84% He said he was going to get his gang so they 00:06:22.680 --> 00:06:24.870 align:middle line:90% could tar and feather me. 00:06:24.870 --> 00:06:28.230 align:middle line:84% Old Comanche trick, I said with a sneer. 00:06:28.230 --> 00:06:31.860 align:middle line:84% And I said, I want my fucking car back 00:06:31.860 --> 00:06:34.560 align:middle line:84% so I can get the hell out of here. 00:06:34.560 --> 00:06:38.880 align:middle line:84% Finally, the big Comanche guy hollered, give him back 00:06:38.880 --> 00:06:43.140 align:middle line:84% his goddamn car, asshole, so he can get the hell back 00:06:43.140 --> 00:06:47.110 align:middle line:90% to his cliff-dwelling home. 00:06:47.110 --> 00:06:51.900 align:middle line:84% The word red boy remembers is "remember," 00:06:51.900 --> 00:06:57.620 align:middle line:84% as in remember to never go back to Comanche country." 00:06:57.620 --> 00:07:01.850 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:07:01.850 --> 00:07:04.503 align:middle line:90% Well, those are little pieces. 00:07:04.503 --> 00:07:05.003 align:middle line:90%