WEBVTT

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One section of this book, and
it was actually originally

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the final section
of the book, was

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titled after Jean Tinguely's
kinetic art piece "Study

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for the End of the
World," which exploded

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in Lake Jean, a stone's
throw from the Nevada Testing

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Site which was active
during that time.

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And so a lot in that
section, I think

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about ends in various
ways, but particularly

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sort of surrounding the
idea of and the reality

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of nuclear and atomic testing.

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So this poem I'm
going to read is

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called "Incident Aboard the
Lucky Dragon, March 1st, 1954,"

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and it references an incident
aboard the Lucky Dragon which

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was a Japanese
fishing boat which

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was exposed to radiation in
waters during a nuclear test.

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And the last few
lines include quotes

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from the people that
were aboard at the time

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and witnessed the explosion.

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"To name is to press what is
into the shape of what also

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is, the idea a perfect cylinder
extending only so far and not

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past.

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As a hand reaches only
so far, never past the

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object that it grasps.

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A contact across two
distances forced into being,

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not the difference, but through
the slow accretion of the same.

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Never anything but the
result, the impossibility

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of naming the there
is, the there is.

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For this reason, it is
absolutely imperative

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that language be general,
that the act of nomination

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should consume itself,
indicating nothing.

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That it be only its
own description.

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At first, a flash,
a yellow light.

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That it be a wondering
what happened,

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a jumping up from the
bunk near the door,

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running out onto the deck.

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That it be astonished,
be bridge, sky, and sea,

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as each burst into view,
painting in flaming colors

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of a summer sun."

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