WEBVTT

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OK, I'm just going to
read two or three poems

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from my new project,
which, because I don't

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seem to have any original ideas,
is another rewriting project.

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But this project is a
rewriting of the "Dream

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Songs" of John Berryman.

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Now, those of you who are
familiar with the "Dream Songs"

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will know that this very kind
of confessional work that

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is ostensibly about
Berryman's personal life

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also contains a number
of racial stereotypes,

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including the use of a sort
of pseudo-blackface dialect.

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And one thing that
you have to confront

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in reading this kind
of originary texts

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of confessionalism is, what
are these racial stereotypes

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doing in this work?

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And I tried to think about
how I would approach this

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as not a white reader, not
an African-American reader,

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but as an Asian-American
reader, and thinking

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about how these stereotypes
might kind of function

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for me as a reader and
also as a rewriter.

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So I can say more about
that, but I'll just

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read a couple of poems from
this project and then finish up.

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These are called
"Chinese Dreams."

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"Chinese Dream One."

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Timid Timothy read Cathay.

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Indiscrutable Timothy moped.

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I tuned his voice, a
thing all pieced together.

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It was the silence that they
violenced-- they could do it--

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that made Tim quiet and dismay.

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But could he have
called out defiance?

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All the world like
a Marco Polo once

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did plumb poor Timothy's mind.

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Then came a translation.

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Thereafter, nothing fell
from his mouth but coin.

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I can see how Timothy,
rind of the world's desire,

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fell behind.

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What he has now to say is a
song plundered by the world,

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clear and free.

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Back in the bamboo, I was mad as
a clattering bowl, and I rang.

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Soft on the hand
grows prosperity,

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and quiet grows every head.

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