WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.027 align:middle line:90% 00:00:03.027 --> 00:00:04.610 align:middle line:84% I'm glad you could come tonight, and I 00:00:04.610 --> 00:00:07.400 align:middle line:84% hope you can stay after the reading 00:00:07.400 --> 00:00:08.690 align:middle line:90% to meet Mr. Matthiessen. 00:00:08.690 --> 00:00:12.830 align:middle line:84% Have some refreshments in the hall, just outside. 00:00:12.830 --> 00:00:15.590 align:middle line:84% Our next reading will be one week from tonight, 00:00:15.590 --> 00:00:18.740 align:middle line:90% visiting poet Denise Levertov. 00:00:18.740 --> 00:00:21.800 align:middle line:84% And two weeks from tonight, our final visiting poet 00:00:21.800 --> 00:00:24.137 align:middle line:90% for the year, Henry Carlyle. 00:00:24.137 --> 00:00:25.970 align:middle line:84% Both of those readings will be in this room. 00:00:25.970 --> 00:00:31.310 align:middle line:90% 00:00:31.310 --> 00:00:33.950 align:middle line:84% I promised Mr. Matthiessen I would not give his entire life 00:00:33.950 --> 00:00:37.610 align:middle line:84% history, and I'm not going to read 00:00:37.610 --> 00:00:40.220 align:middle line:90% the names of all of his books. 00:00:40.220 --> 00:00:45.020 align:middle line:84% He has published five novels, among them Far Tortuga 00:00:45.020 --> 00:00:48.050 align:middle line:84% and At Play in the Fields of the Lord, 00:00:48.050 --> 00:00:52.130 align:middle line:90% and 11 books of nonfiction. 00:00:52.130 --> 00:00:57.200 align:middle line:84% The most recent one, In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, 00:00:57.200 --> 00:01:00.410 align:middle line:90% was not admired by everyone. 00:01:00.410 --> 00:01:04.625 align:middle line:84% He has $49 million in lawsuits pending. 00:01:04.625 --> 00:01:07.205 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:01:07.205 --> 00:01:09.470 align:middle line:90% 00:01:09.470 --> 00:01:14.120 align:middle line:84% The Snow Leopard, which in 1979 won the National Book Award, 00:01:14.120 --> 00:01:17.490 align:middle line:84% and his most recent book will appear next month. 00:01:17.490 --> 00:01:18.860 align:middle line:90% It's called Indian Country. 00:01:18.860 --> 00:01:22.310 align:middle line:84% It's being published by Viking Press. 00:01:22.310 --> 00:01:26.750 align:middle line:84% Dee Brown, the author of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, 00:01:26.750 --> 00:01:30.140 align:middle line:84% in a review in this month's Natural History magazine 00:01:30.140 --> 00:01:36.350 align:middle line:84% says, "if Indian Country reaches the audience that it merits, 00:01:36.350 --> 00:01:39.530 align:middle line:84% it could have an impact comparable to that 00:01:39.530 --> 00:01:43.220 align:middle line:84% of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring 20 years ago." 00:01:43.220 --> 00:01:45.470 align:middle line:84% It's my great pleasure to introduce Peter Matthiessen. 00:01:45.470 --> 00:01:47.712 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:01:47.712 --> 00:02:17.350 align:middle line:90% 00:02:17.350 --> 00:02:18.880 align:middle line:84% Kind of embarrassing to go around 00:02:18.880 --> 00:02:20.660 align:middle line:84% with a big bag full of your own books, 00:02:20.660 --> 00:02:25.240 align:middle line:90% but can't be helped tonight. 00:02:25.240 --> 00:02:27.040 align:middle line:84% First, I wanted to thank Lois for a very 00:02:27.040 --> 00:02:30.565 align:middle line:84% generous introduction, and thank you all for being here tonight. 00:02:30.565 --> 00:02:34.972 align:middle line:90% 00:02:34.972 --> 00:02:35.680 align:middle line:90% It's kind of hot. 00:02:35.680 --> 00:02:36.847 align:middle line:90% Have you all seen my jacket? 00:02:36.847 --> 00:02:39.898 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:02:39.898 --> 00:02:49.570 align:middle line:90% 00:02:49.570 --> 00:02:53.860 align:middle line:84% Various people wanted to hear from various books, 00:02:53.860 --> 00:02:55.365 align:middle line:90% and I decided on three. 00:02:55.365 --> 00:02:57.490 align:middle line:84% I'm going to read first from a book called The Snow 00:02:57.490 --> 00:03:01.450 align:middle line:84% Leopard, and then from the new book Indian Country, 00:03:01.450 --> 00:03:02.290 align:middle line:90% both rather briefly. 00:03:02.290 --> 00:03:05.620 align:middle line:84% And then I'm going to try an experiment which may not work, 00:03:05.620 --> 00:03:10.053 align:middle line:84% and I reserve the option of abandoning that in mid-flight, 00:03:10.053 --> 00:03:11.470 align:middle line:84% and retreating to something safer. 00:03:11.470 --> 00:03:15.550 align:middle line:84% It's an hallucination scene, and I'll talked a little bit more 00:03:15.550 --> 00:03:16.840 align:middle line:90% about that before I start. 00:03:16.840 --> 00:03:24.270 align:middle line:90% 00:03:24.270 --> 00:03:28.530 align:middle line:84% Very briefly, The Snow Leopard is about a trip 00:03:28.530 --> 00:03:30.420 align:middle line:84% to a place called the Crystal Monastery, 00:03:30.420 --> 00:03:34.890 align:middle line:84% and on the Tibetan Plateau and a very remote place where 00:03:34.890 --> 00:03:36.450 align:middle line:90% the animals were protected. 00:03:36.450 --> 00:03:38.430 align:middle line:84% Where this biologist George Schaller 00:03:38.430 --> 00:03:41.100 align:middle line:84% and I had hopes of seeing animals 00:03:41.100 --> 00:03:44.790 align:middle line:84% behaving and interacting in a totally natural way. 00:03:44.790 --> 00:03:46.830 align:middle line:84% Is this mic clear in the back of the room. 00:03:46.830 --> 00:03:47.850 align:middle line:90% Can you all hear? 00:03:47.850 --> 00:03:51.750 align:middle line:84% OK And because the lama, the Tibetan Buddhist lama 00:03:51.750 --> 00:03:54.270 align:middle line:84% of this region, of the Crystal Monastery 00:03:54.270 --> 00:03:56.230 align:middle line:84% had forbidden all killing in the area. 00:03:56.230 --> 00:03:59.340 align:middle line:84% So these animals were apparently-- by report, 00:03:59.340 --> 00:04:01.680 align:middle line:84% were behaving in a totally natural way. 00:04:01.680 --> 00:04:03.270 align:middle line:84% And we had to-- unfortunately, we 00:04:03.270 --> 00:04:05.760 align:middle line:84% had to walk 250 miles to get there. 00:04:05.760 --> 00:04:09.180 align:middle line:84% It was across the Himalayan, way up onto the border of Tibet, 00:04:09.180 --> 00:04:12.180 align:middle line:84% but it was a wonderful and beautiful walk. 00:04:12.180 --> 00:04:15.630 align:middle line:84% I had a few problems of narrow mountain ledges and things, 00:04:15.630 --> 00:04:18.839 align:middle line:90% but it was great. 00:04:18.839 --> 00:04:21.225 align:middle line:84% And this is just a passage from the very beginning, when 00:04:21.225 --> 00:04:23.100 align:middle line:84% we're setting off from a town called Pokhara, 00:04:23.100 --> 00:04:25.230 align:middle line:90% in west-central Nepal. 00:04:25.230 --> 00:04:28.980 align:middle line:90% 00:04:28.980 --> 00:04:30.990 align:middle line:90% "We are glad to go. 00:04:30.990 --> 00:04:34.320 align:middle line:84% These edges of Pokhara might be tropical outskirts 00:04:34.320 --> 00:04:38.070 align:middle line:84% anywhere-- vacant children, listless adults, bent dogs 00:04:38.070 --> 00:04:40.680 align:middle line:84% and thin chickens in a litter of sagging shacks 00:04:40.680 --> 00:04:45.450 align:middle line:84% and rubble, mud, weeds, stagnant ditches, bad sweet smells, 00:04:45.450 --> 00:04:49.080 align:middle line:84% vivid bright broken plastic bits, and dirty fruit peelings 00:04:49.080 --> 00:04:51.480 align:middle line:90% awaiting the carrion pig. 00:04:51.480 --> 00:04:54.090 align:middle line:84% For want of better fare, both pigs and dogs 00:04:54.090 --> 00:04:56.370 align:middle line:84% consume the human excrement that lies everywhere 00:04:56.370 --> 00:04:58.260 align:middle line:90% along the paths. 00:04:58.260 --> 00:05:01.650 align:middle line:84% In fair weather, all this flux is tolerable, but now 00:05:01.650 --> 00:05:04.440 align:middle line:84% at the dreg end of the rainy season, the mire of life 00:05:04.440 --> 00:05:06.960 align:middle line:84% seems leached into the sallow skins 00:05:06.960 --> 00:05:10.800 align:middle line:84% of these thin beings, who squat and soak themselves and wring 00:05:10.800 --> 00:05:15.210 align:middle line:84% their clothes each morning in the rain puddles. 00:05:15.210 --> 00:05:18.300 align:middle line:84% Brown eyes observe us as we pass. 00:05:18.300 --> 00:05:19.920 align:middle line:84% Confronted with the pain of Asia, 00:05:19.920 --> 00:05:23.220 align:middle line:84% one cannot look and cannot turn away. 00:05:23.220 --> 00:05:26.130 align:middle line:84% In India, human misery seems so pervasive 00:05:26.130 --> 00:05:29.100 align:middle line:84% that one takes in only stray details-- 00:05:29.100 --> 00:05:32.130 align:middle line:84% a warped leg or a dead eye, a sick pariah dog 00:05:32.130 --> 00:05:34.680 align:middle line:84% eating withered grass, an ancient woman 00:05:34.680 --> 00:05:39.090 align:middle line:84% lifting her sari to move her shrunken bowels by the road. 00:05:39.090 --> 00:05:41.040 align:middle line:84% Yet in Varanasi there is hope of life 00:05:41.040 --> 00:05:42.750 align:middle line:84% that has been abandoned in such cities 00:05:42.750 --> 00:05:45.480 align:middle line:84% as Calcutta, which seems resigned to the dead 00:05:45.480 --> 00:05:47.550 align:middle line:90% and dying in its gutters. 00:05:47.550 --> 00:05:51.330 align:middle line:84% Shiva dances in the spicy foods, in the exhilarated bells 00:05:51.330 --> 00:05:53.730 align:middle line:84% of the swarming bicycles, the angry bus horns, 00:05:53.730 --> 00:05:56.625 align:middle line:84% the chatter of the temple monkeys, the vermilion tikka 00:05:56.625 --> 00:05:58.870 align:middle line:84% dot on the women's foreheads, even 00:05:58.870 --> 00:06:02.610 align:middle line:84% in the scent of charred human flesh that pervades the ghats. 00:06:02.610 --> 00:06:07.020 align:middle line:84% The people smile-- that is the greatest miracle of all. 00:06:07.020 --> 00:06:09.570 align:middle line:84% In the heat and stench of shriek of Varanasi, 00:06:09.570 --> 00:06:12.870 align:middle line:84% where in fiery sunrise swallows fly like departing spirits 00:06:12.870 --> 00:06:15.720 align:middle line:84% over the vast silent river, one delights 00:06:15.720 --> 00:06:19.350 align:middle line:84% in the smile of a blind girl being led, of a Hindu gentleman 00:06:19.350 --> 00:06:22.830 align:middle line:84% in white turban gazing benignly at the bus driver who reviles 00:06:22.830 --> 00:06:25.170 align:middle line:84% him, of a flute-playing beggar boy, 00:06:25.170 --> 00:06:29.790 align:middle line:84% of a slow old woman pouring holy water from Ganga, the River, 00:06:29.790 --> 00:06:33.300 align:middle line:84% onto a stone elephant in daubed red. 00:06:33.300 --> 00:06:36.180 align:middle line:84% Near the burning ghats, and the industry of death, 00:06:36.180 --> 00:06:41.640 align:middle line:84% a river palace has been painted with huge candy-striped tigers. 00:06:41.640 --> 00:06:43.530 align:middle line:84% No doubt Varanasi is the destination 00:06:43.530 --> 00:06:46.350 align:middle line:84% of this ancient Hindu at the outskirts of Pokhara, 00:06:46.350 --> 00:06:48.420 align:middle line:84% propped up on a basket born on poles 00:06:48.420 --> 00:06:50.835 align:middle line:84% across the shoulders of forest servants-- off, 00:06:50.835 --> 00:06:53.460 align:middle line:84% it appears, on his last pilgrimage to the Mother 00:06:53.460 --> 00:06:56.220 align:middle line:84% Ganges, to the dark temples that surround 00:06:56.220 --> 00:06:59.100 align:middle line:84% the ghats, to those hostels where the pilgrim waits 00:06:59.100 --> 00:07:01.860 align:middle line:84% his turn to join the company of white-shrouded cadavers 00:07:01.860 --> 00:07:04.770 align:middle line:84% by the river edge, waits again to be laid 00:07:04.770 --> 00:07:07.330 align:middle line:90% upon the stacks of fired wood. 00:07:07.330 --> 00:07:09.300 align:middle line:84% The attendants will push this yellow foot, 00:07:09.300 --> 00:07:13.590 align:middle line:84% that shriveled elbow, back into the fire, and rake his remains 00:07:13.590 --> 00:07:16.770 align:middle line:84% off the burning platform into the swift river. 00:07:16.770 --> 00:07:20.130 align:middle line:84% And still enough scraps will remain to sustain life 00:07:20.130 --> 00:07:24.060 align:middle line:84% in the long-headed cadaverous dogs that haunt the ashes, 00:07:24.060 --> 00:07:25.890 align:middle line:90% while sacred kine-- 00:07:25.890 --> 00:07:28.290 align:middle line:90% huge white silent things-- 00:07:28.290 --> 00:07:31.920 align:middle line:84% devour the straw thongs that had bound this worn-out body 00:07:31.920 --> 00:07:34.560 align:middle line:90% to its stretcher. 00:07:34.560 --> 00:07:37.800 align:middle line:84% The old man has been ravened from within. 00:07:37.800 --> 00:07:40.080 align:middle line:84% That blind and greedy stare of his, 00:07:40.080 --> 00:07:43.230 align:middle line:84% that caved-in look, and the mouth working, 00:07:43.230 --> 00:07:47.730 align:middle line:84% reveal who now inhabits him, who now stares out. 00:07:47.730 --> 00:07:51.420 align:middle line:84% I nod to Death in passing, where the sound of my own feet 00:07:51.420 --> 00:07:53.310 align:middle line:90% upon my path. 00:07:53.310 --> 00:07:56.805 align:middle line:84% The ancient is lost in a shadow world, and gives no sign." 00:07:56.805 --> 00:08:00.720 align:middle line:90% 00:08:00.720 --> 00:08:02.820 align:middle line:84% We walked along for several weeks, 00:08:02.820 --> 00:08:05.880 align:middle line:84% westward and then were starting northward over the Himalaya, 00:08:05.880 --> 00:08:09.240 align:middle line:84% and we came to a middle ages town called Tarakot. 00:08:09.240 --> 00:08:13.230 align:middle line:84% Tarakot in the kingdom of Tichu-Rong, wonderful old 00:08:13.230 --> 00:08:15.720 align:middle line:90% kingdom there called Tichu-Rong. 00:08:15.720 --> 00:08:20.000 align:middle line:84% We arrived there in the middle of the afternoon. 00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:22.670 align:middle line:84% "Tarakot is in twilight shadow by midafternoon, 00:08:22.670 --> 00:08:25.640 align:middle line:84% while the mountainside across the Bheri, facing south, 00:08:25.640 --> 00:08:27.650 align:middle line:90% lies in full sunshine. 00:08:27.650 --> 00:08:29.840 align:middle line:84% In a strong dusk, the women gather up 00:08:29.840 --> 00:08:33.230 align:middle line:84% the grain in homespun sacks to store inside. 00:08:33.230 --> 00:08:35.210 align:middle line:84% Now the snow peaks take on color, 00:08:35.210 --> 00:08:37.850 align:middle line:84% and whistling boys bring kine and sheep and goats 00:08:37.850 --> 00:08:39.590 align:middle line:90% from the high pasture. 00:08:39.590 --> 00:08:41.900 align:middle line:84% A rooster and a barking dog, the sting 00:08:41.900 --> 00:08:44.240 align:middle line:84% of sticks on the hard flanks of the cattle, 00:08:44.240 --> 00:08:46.010 align:middle line:84% the cry of the village termagant, 00:08:46.010 --> 00:08:49.040 align:middle line:84% unceasing, is the voice of autumn twilight 00:08:49.040 --> 00:08:53.630 align:middle line:84% in every peasant village across time. 00:08:53.630 --> 00:08:55.580 align:middle line:84% For a while on the roof I watched 00:08:55.580 --> 00:08:57.320 align:middle line:90% the coming of the night. 00:08:57.320 --> 00:09:00.230 align:middle line:84% A bat chitters and stars loom, and somewhere 00:09:00.230 --> 00:09:04.220 align:middle line:84% on the far side of this earth, the sun is burning. 00:09:04.220 --> 00:09:07.550 align:middle line:84% Soon Mars appears over the dark split in the northern mountains 00:09:07.550 --> 00:09:10.790 align:middle line:84% where the Tarap River comes down from the Land of Dolpo, 00:09:10.790 --> 00:09:12.980 align:middle line:84% and in the snug warmth of my sleeping bag, 00:09:12.980 --> 00:09:15.770 align:middle line:84% I float under the round bowl of the heavens. 00:09:15.770 --> 00:09:18.920 align:middle line:84% Above is the glistening galaxy of childhood, now hidden 00:09:18.920 --> 00:09:20.870 align:middle line:84% in the Western world by air pollution 00:09:20.870 --> 00:09:23.360 align:middle line:84% and the glare of artificial light. 00:09:23.360 --> 00:09:26.810 align:middle line:84% For my children's children, the power, peace, and healing 00:09:26.810 --> 00:09:29.600 align:middle line:84% of the night will be obliterated. 00:09:29.600 --> 00:09:31.250 align:middle line:84% Every little while I wake and watch 00:09:31.250 --> 00:09:32.990 align:middle line:90% the spiral of the heavens. 00:09:32.990 --> 00:09:35.600 align:middle line:90% Orion rises, and the Pleiades. 00:09:35.600 --> 00:09:37.880 align:middle line:84% Shooting stars arc in the shimmering void 00:09:37.880 --> 00:09:40.610 align:middle line:84% of the black universe and toward four 00:09:40.610 --> 00:09:43.520 align:middle line:84% the sky is parted by a satellite, mercifully silent, 00:09:43.520 --> 00:09:47.330 align:middle line:84% like a probe from another world, a distant century. 00:09:47.330 --> 00:09:49.610 align:middle line:90% A horse screams. 00:09:49.610 --> 00:09:52.400 align:middle line:84% The moon is up over Tibet, and in the southern mountains, 00:09:52.400 --> 00:09:56.150 align:middle line:84% over Jang, the planet Mars is disappearing. 00:09:56.150 --> 00:09:58.310 align:middle line:84% How much dignity the moon has lost, 00:09:58.310 --> 00:10:01.940 align:middle line:84% now that man has left his disrespectful litter, his cute 00:10:01.940 --> 00:10:03.770 align:middle line:90% golf balls! 00:10:03.770 --> 00:10:07.880 align:middle line:84% But the moon retains its mystery for the dogs of Tichu-Rong, 00:10:07.880 --> 00:10:10.310 align:middle line:84% which howl in awe at its first appearance, 00:10:10.310 --> 00:10:13.130 align:middle line:84% and set one another off the whole night through. 00:10:13.130 --> 00:10:16.190 align:middle line:84% While its fellows rest, the dog next door harangues 00:10:16.190 --> 00:10:18.710 align:middle line:90% the cosmos for an hour. 00:10:18.710 --> 00:10:20.780 align:middle line:84% The mastiffs sleep much of the day 00:10:20.780 --> 00:10:24.410 align:middle line:84% and are let loose at night to deal with wolves and robbers. 00:10:24.410 --> 00:10:28.010 align:middle line:84% In the absence of such, they will make do with strangers. 00:10:28.010 --> 00:10:29.810 align:middle line:84% Not caring to venture out into the streets 00:10:29.810 --> 00:10:33.470 align:middle line:84% when such brutes are abroad, I follow the custom of the town, 00:10:33.470 --> 00:10:37.130 align:middle line:84% standing on the roof edge and urinating into the mud street, 00:10:37.130 --> 00:10:38.120 align:middle line:90% in daybreak light." 00:10:38.120 --> 00:10:47.178 align:middle line:90% 00:10:47.178 --> 00:10:48.720 align:middle line:84% We've arrived at the Crystal Mountain 00:10:48.720 --> 00:10:53.280 align:middle line:84% safely, after a number of weeks, and are studying the blue sheep 00:10:53.280 --> 00:10:55.560 align:middle line:84% there, and have found a lot of sign 00:10:55.560 --> 00:10:58.260 align:middle line:90% of snow leopard in the area. 00:10:58.260 --> 00:11:01.020 align:middle line:84% And I've also seen, at very close range, these absolutely 00:11:01.020 --> 00:11:05.440 align:middle line:84% superb wolves which, like the sheep, are very tame, 00:11:05.440 --> 00:11:07.440 align:middle line:84% and just look over their shoulder and walk away, 00:11:07.440 --> 00:11:10.470 align:middle line:84% they don't run when you come up to them. 00:11:10.470 --> 00:11:12.015 align:middle line:84% The place really was as advertised, 00:11:12.015 --> 00:11:16.188 align:middle line:84% it is extraordinary how tame everything was there. 00:11:16.188 --> 00:11:17.730 align:middle line:84% And I'm going out this particular day 00:11:17.730 --> 00:11:22.566 align:middle line:84% to meditate and also to watch for the snow leopard. 00:11:22.566 --> 00:11:25.500 align:middle line:84% "After two hours of hard climbing,"-- our camp 00:11:25.500 --> 00:11:28.260 align:middle line:84% was at 14,000 feet, where we were staying. 00:11:28.260 --> 00:11:30.900 align:middle line:84% And then we would climb up on these higher mountains around 00:11:30.900 --> 00:11:32.678 align:middle line:90% for observation. 00:11:32.678 --> 00:11:34.095 align:middle line:84% "After two hours of hard climbing, 00:11:34.095 --> 00:11:37.050 align:middle line:84% I am higher than Black Pond, and the whole canyon 00:11:37.050 --> 00:11:39.810 align:middle line:84% of the Black River, ascending toward the Kang pass, 00:11:39.810 --> 00:11:41.940 align:middle line:90% lies exposed to view. 00:11:41.940 --> 00:11:44.070 align:middle line:84% Beyond the Kang soars a resplendent wall 00:11:44.070 --> 00:11:46.970 align:middle line:84% of white that dominates the sky to the southwest. 00:11:46.970 --> 00:11:50.010 align:middle line:84% It is the great ice wall of Kanjiroba, 00:11:50.010 --> 00:11:52.080 align:middle line:84% a rampart of crystalline escarpments 00:11:52.080 --> 00:11:56.700 align:middle line:84% and white-winged cornices, well over 20,000 feet in height. 00:11:56.700 --> 00:11:59.040 align:middle line:84% Here there is only a light air from the east, 00:11:59.040 --> 00:12:00.870 align:middle line:84% but the high wind on Kanjiroba is 00:12:00.870 --> 00:12:04.440 align:middle line:84% blowing clouds of a fine snow from points and pinnacles that 00:12:04.440 --> 00:12:08.490 align:middle line:84% turn into transparency against the blue. 00:12:08.490 --> 00:12:11.040 align:middle line:84% These days are luminous, as in those far October 00:12:11.040 --> 00:12:13.050 align:middle line:90% days in Tichu-Rong. 00:12:13.050 --> 00:12:14.880 align:middle line:90% There is no wisp of cloud-- 00:12:14.880 --> 00:12:17.430 align:middle line:90% clear, clear, clear, clear. 00:12:17.430 --> 00:12:19.620 align:middle line:84% Although the shade is very cold throughout the day, 00:12:19.620 --> 00:12:22.560 align:middle line:84% and wind persists, the sun is hot-- 00:12:22.560 --> 00:12:26.250 align:middle line:84% imagine a striped and shiny lizard above 15,000 feet, 00:12:26.250 --> 00:12:28.470 align:middle line:90% in deep November! 00:12:28.470 --> 00:12:31.350 align:middle line:84% For the first time in my life, I apprehend the pure heat 00:12:31.350 --> 00:12:35.190 align:middle line:84% of our star, piercing the frigid atmospheres of so many million 00:12:35.190 --> 00:12:38.160 align:middle line:90% miles of outer space. 00:12:38.160 --> 00:12:42.210 align:middle line:84% Rock, and snow peaks all around, the sky, and great 00:12:42.210 --> 00:12:44.520 align:middle line:90% birds and black rivers-- 00:12:44.520 --> 00:12:48.480 align:middle line:84% what words are there to seize such ringing splendor? 00:12:48.480 --> 00:12:51.630 align:middle line:84% But again something arises in this ringing that is not 00:12:51.630 --> 00:12:54.870 align:middle line:84% quite bearable, a poised terror, as 00:12:54.870 --> 00:12:57.990 align:middle line:84% in the diamond ice that cracks the stone. 00:12:57.990 --> 00:13:01.930 align:middle line:84% The brain veers, the sun glints like a weapon. 00:13:01.930 --> 00:13:04.140 align:middle line:84% Then Black Canyon writhes and twists, 00:13:04.140 --> 00:13:06.960 align:middle line:84% and the Crystal Mountain looms as a castle of dread, 00:13:06.960 --> 00:13:09.780 align:middle line:84% and all the universe reverberates with horror. 00:13:09.780 --> 00:13:12.840 align:middle line:84% My head is the sorcerer's skull cup full of blood, 00:13:12.840 --> 00:13:15.540 align:middle line:84% and were I to turn, my eyes would see straight 00:13:15.540 --> 00:13:18.930 align:middle line:84% to the heart of chaos, the mutilation, bloody gore, 00:13:18.930 --> 00:13:25.200 align:middle line:84% and pain that is seen darkly in the bright eye of this lizard. 00:13:25.200 --> 00:13:27.855 align:middle line:84% Then lunacy is gone, leaving an echo. 00:13:27.855 --> 00:13:31.050 align:middle line:84% The lizard is still there, one with its rock, 00:13:31.050 --> 00:13:33.930 align:middle line:84% flanks pulsing in the star heat that brings 00:13:33.930 --> 00:13:36.780 align:middle line:90% warmth to our common skin. 00:13:36.780 --> 00:13:39.495 align:middle line:84% Eternity is not remote, it is here beside us. 00:13:39.495 --> 00:13:54.960 align:middle line:90% 00:13:54.960 --> 00:13:58.200 align:middle line:84% I grow into these mountains like a moss. 00:13:58.200 --> 00:13:59.850 align:middle line:90% I am bewitched. 00:13:59.850 --> 00:14:02.910 align:middle line:84% The blinding snow peaks and the clarion air, 00:14:02.910 --> 00:14:06.480 align:middle line:84% the sound of earth and heaven in the silence, the requiem birds, 00:14:06.480 --> 00:14:08.910 align:middle line:84% the mythic beasts, the flags, great horns, 00:14:08.910 --> 00:14:12.060 align:middle line:84% and old carved stones, the rough hewn Tartars 00:14:12.060 --> 00:14:14.250 align:middle line:84% in their braids and homespun boots, 00:14:14.250 --> 00:14:16.440 align:middle line:84% the silver ice in the black river, 00:14:16.440 --> 00:14:19.140 align:middle line:90% the Kang, the Crystal Mountain. 00:14:19.140 --> 00:14:22.110 align:middle line:84% Also I love the common miracles-- 00:14:22.110 --> 00:14:24.240 align:middle line:84% the murmur of my friends at evening, 00:14:24.240 --> 00:14:28.140 align:middle line:84% the clay fires of smudgy juniper, the coarse dull food, 00:14:28.140 --> 00:14:30.930 align:middle line:84% the hardship and simplicity, the contentment 00:14:30.930 --> 00:14:33.210 align:middle line:90% of doing one thing at a time-- 00:14:33.210 --> 00:14:37.500 align:middle line:84% when I take my blue tin cup into my hand, that is all I do. 00:14:37.500 --> 00:14:41.130 align:middle line:84% We have had no news of modern times since late September, 00:14:41.130 --> 00:14:42.840 align:middle line:84% and will have none until December, 00:14:42.840 --> 00:14:45.210 align:middle line:84% and gradually my mind has cleared itself, 00:14:45.210 --> 00:14:49.110 align:middle line:84% and wind and sun pour through my head, as through a bell. 00:14:49.110 --> 00:14:51.840 align:middle line:84% Though we talk little here, I am never lonely. 00:14:51.840 --> 00:14:55.320 align:middle line:90% I am returned into myself. 00:14:55.320 --> 00:14:57.300 align:middle line:84% Having got here at last, I do not 00:14:57.300 --> 00:14:59.790 align:middle line:84% wish to leave the Crystal Mountain. 00:14:59.790 --> 00:15:03.510 align:middle line:84% I am in pain about it, truly, so much so that I have to smile, 00:15:03.510 --> 00:15:06.000 align:middle line:90% or I might weep. 00:15:06.000 --> 00:15:07.150 align:middle line:90% In another life-- 00:15:07.150 --> 00:15:09.960 align:middle line:84% This isn't what I know, but how I feel-- 00:15:09.960 --> 00:15:12.330 align:middle line:90% these mountains were my home. 00:15:12.330 --> 00:15:14.430 align:middle line:84% There is a rising of forgotten knowledge, 00:15:14.430 --> 00:15:17.820 align:middle line:84% like a spring from hidden aquifers under the earth. 00:15:17.820 --> 00:15:21.480 align:middle line:84% To glimpse one's own true nature as a kind of homegoing, 00:15:21.480 --> 00:15:25.050 align:middle line:84% to a place East of the Sun, West of the Moon-- 00:15:25.050 --> 00:15:27.270 align:middle line:84% the homegoing that needs no home, 00:15:27.270 --> 00:15:30.360 align:middle line:84% like that waterfall on the upper Suli Gad 00:15:30.360 --> 00:15:32.760 align:middle line:84% that turns to mist before touching the earth 00:15:32.760 --> 00:15:34.545 align:middle line:84% and rises once again into the sky. 00:15:34.545 --> 00:15:40.380 align:middle line:90% 00:15:40.380 --> 00:15:42.590 align:middle line:84% Now we've been there for most of the month, 00:15:42.590 --> 00:15:44.510 align:middle line:84% and I'm getting ready to leave there. 00:15:44.510 --> 00:15:47.270 align:middle line:84% I left without shelter, I went out with two Sherpas on my own, 00:15:47.270 --> 00:15:49.460 align:middle line:90% and went by a different route. 00:15:49.460 --> 00:15:52.280 align:middle line:84% And I did a kind of a queer thing 00:15:52.280 --> 00:15:55.280 align:middle line:90% which offended my partner that-- 00:15:55.280 --> 00:15:58.160 align:middle line:84% we had sent a few Sherpas away, about halfway through the trip, 00:15:58.160 --> 00:16:01.620 align:middle line:84% because we were running out of food, and we had to conserve. 00:16:01.620 --> 00:16:04.812 align:middle line:84% So we sent them back to the nearest settlement 00:16:04.812 --> 00:16:06.770 align:middle line:84% where there was some hope of getting some mail, 00:16:06.770 --> 00:16:10.460 align:middle line:84% and indeed they brought some mail back, to our astonishment. 00:16:10.460 --> 00:16:12.728 align:middle line:84% And I had an instinct not to open my mail, 00:16:12.728 --> 00:16:15.020 align:middle line:84% even though I was feeling very guilty about having left 00:16:15.020 --> 00:16:17.930 align:middle line:84% my kids at home, and my wife had just died, 00:16:17.930 --> 00:16:19.940 align:middle line:84% and I was a little bit uneasy about it. 00:16:19.940 --> 00:16:22.850 align:middle line:84% At the same time, I knew I couldn't leave there 00:16:22.850 --> 00:16:23.780 align:middle line:90% until a certain time. 00:16:23.780 --> 00:16:27.550 align:middle line:84% I didn't want to intrude upon that experience with bad news 00:16:27.550 --> 00:16:30.050 align:middle line:84% from home which would worry me, since I couldn't do anything 00:16:30.050 --> 00:16:30.758 align:middle line:90% about it, anyway. 00:16:30.758 --> 00:16:33.050 align:middle line:84% So I simply put my letters away, and Schaller 00:16:33.050 --> 00:16:34.970 align:middle line:90% was quite surprised by that. 00:16:34.970 --> 00:16:39.222 align:middle line:90% He still talks about it 00:16:39.222 --> 00:16:43.268 align:middle line:84% "And so I, too, prepare to go, though I try hard to remain. 00:16:43.268 --> 00:16:45.560 align:middle line:84% The part of me that is bothered by the unopened letters 00:16:45.560 --> 00:16:47.780 align:middle line:84% in my rucksack, that longs to see my children, 00:16:47.780 --> 00:16:51.290 align:middle line:84% to drink wine, make love, be clean and comfortable again-- 00:16:51.290 --> 00:16:54.680 align:middle line:84% that part is already facing south, over the mountains. 00:16:54.680 --> 00:16:57.230 align:middle line:84% This makes me sad, and so I stare about me, 00:16:57.230 --> 00:16:59.960 align:middle line:84% trying to etch into this journal the sense of Shey that 00:16:59.960 --> 00:17:03.829 align:middle line:84% is so precious, aware that all such effort is in vain. 00:17:03.829 --> 00:17:06.079 align:middle line:84% The beauty of this place must be cheerfully abandoned, 00:17:06.079 --> 00:17:09.440 align:middle line:84% like the wild rocks and the bright water of its streams. 00:17:09.440 --> 00:17:13.040 align:middle line:84% Frustration of the paltriness of words drives me to write, 00:17:13.040 --> 00:17:15.380 align:middle line:84% but there is more of Shey in a single sheep hair, 00:17:15.380 --> 00:17:17.660 align:middle line:84% in one withered sprig of everlasting, 00:17:17.660 --> 00:17:19.670 align:middle line:90% than all these notes. 00:17:19.670 --> 00:17:22.790 align:middle line:84% To strive for permanence in what I think I have perceived 00:17:22.790 --> 00:17:26.359 align:middle line:90% is to miss the point. 00:17:26.359 --> 00:17:28.490 align:middle line:84% Near my lookout, I find a place to meditate, 00:17:28.490 --> 00:17:32.120 align:middle line:84% out of the wind, a hollow on the ridge where snow has melted. 00:17:32.120 --> 00:17:34.550 align:middle line:84% My brain soon clears in the cold mountain air, 00:17:34.550 --> 00:17:35.960 align:middle line:90% and I feel better. 00:17:35.960 --> 00:17:38.120 align:middle line:90% Wind, blowing grasses, sun-- 00:17:38.120 --> 00:17:40.610 align:middle line:84% the dying grass, the notes of southbound birds 00:17:40.610 --> 00:17:44.300 align:middle line:84% in the mountain sky are no more fleeting than the rock itself, 00:17:44.300 --> 00:17:46.640 align:middle line:90% no more so and no less-- 00:17:46.640 --> 00:17:48.140 align:middle line:90% all is the same. 00:17:48.140 --> 00:17:51.530 align:middle line:84% The mountain withdraws into its stillness, my body dissolves 00:17:51.530 --> 00:17:54.050 align:middle line:84% into the sunlight, tears fall that 00:17:54.050 --> 00:17:55.410 align:middle line:90% have nothing to do with "I." 00:17:55.410 --> 00:18:00.180 align:middle line:84% What it is that brings them on, I do not know. 00:18:00.180 --> 00:18:02.640 align:middle line:84% In other days, I understood mountains differently, 00:18:02.640 --> 00:18:05.120 align:middle line:84% seeing in them something that abides. 00:18:05.120 --> 00:18:07.070 align:middle line:84% Even when approached respectfully 00:18:07.070 --> 00:18:09.140 align:middle line:84% they appalled me with their permanence, 00:18:09.140 --> 00:18:11.510 align:middle line:84% with that awful and irrefutable rock-ness 00:18:11.510 --> 00:18:15.410 align:middle line:84% that seemed to intensify my sense of my own transience. 00:18:15.410 --> 00:18:18.380 align:middle line:84% Perhaps this dread of transience explains our greed 00:18:18.380 --> 00:18:20.480 align:middle line:84% for the few gobbets of raw experience 00:18:20.480 --> 00:18:23.660 align:middle line:84% in modern life, why violence is libidinous, 00:18:23.660 --> 00:18:27.590 align:middle line:84% why lust devours us, why soldiers choose not 00:18:27.590 --> 00:18:29.990 align:middle line:90% to forget their days of horror. 00:18:29.990 --> 00:18:32.510 align:middle line:84% We cling to such extreme moments, in which we 00:18:32.510 --> 00:18:35.180 align:middle line:90% seem to die, yet are reborn. 00:18:35.180 --> 00:18:37.670 align:middle line:84% In sexual abandon as in danger we 00:18:37.670 --> 00:18:41.060 align:middle line:84% are impelled, however briefly, into that vital present 00:18:41.060 --> 00:18:44.600 align:middle line:84% in which we do not stand apart from life, we are life, 00:18:44.600 --> 00:18:46.640 align:middle line:90% our being fills us. 00:18:46.640 --> 00:18:48.770 align:middle line:84% In ecstasy with another being, loneliness 00:18:48.770 --> 00:18:51.320 align:middle line:90% falls away into eternity. 00:18:51.320 --> 00:18:53.540 align:middle line:84% But in other days, such union was 00:18:53.540 --> 00:18:56.840 align:middle line:90% attainable through simple awe. 00:18:56.840 --> 00:18:59.150 align:middle line:84% My foot slips on a narrow ledge-- 00:18:59.150 --> 00:19:01.940 align:middle line:84% in that split second, as needles of fear pierce 00:19:01.940 --> 00:19:06.060 align:middle line:84% heart and temples, eternity intersects with present time. 00:19:06.060 --> 00:19:09.320 align:middle line:84% Thought and action are not different, and stone, air, ice, 00:19:09.320 --> 00:19:11.900 align:middle line:90% sun, fear and self are one. 00:19:11.900 --> 00:19:14.390 align:middle line:84% What is exhilarating is to extend this acute awareness 00:19:14.390 --> 00:19:17.810 align:middle line:84% into ordinary moments, in the moment-by-moment experiencing 00:19:17.810 --> 00:19:20.060 align:middle line:84% of the lammergeier and the wolf, which, 00:19:20.060 --> 00:19:22.100 align:middle line:84% finding themselves at the center of things, 00:19:22.100 --> 00:19:25.400 align:middle line:84% have no need for any secret of true being. 00:19:25.400 --> 00:19:27.350 align:middle line:84% In this very breath that we take now 00:19:27.350 --> 00:19:30.410 align:middle line:84% lies the secret that all great teachers try to tell us, 00:19:30.410 --> 00:19:34.040 align:middle line:84% what one lama refers to as "the precision and openness 00:19:34.040 --> 00:19:37.130 align:middle line:84% and intelligence of the present." 00:19:37.130 --> 00:19:40.190 align:middle line:84% The purpose of meditation practice is not enlightenment, 00:19:40.190 --> 00:19:43.580 align:middle line:84% it is to pay attention even at unextraordinary times, 00:19:43.580 --> 00:19:46.580 align:middle line:84% to be of the present, nothing-but-the-present, 00:19:46.580 --> 00:19:50.210 align:middle line:84% to bear this mindfulness of now into each event of ordinary 00:19:50.210 --> 00:19:51.650 align:middle line:90% life. 00:19:51.650 --> 00:19:54.380 align:middle line:84% When I watch blue sheep, I must watch blue sheep, 00:19:54.380 --> 00:19:57.410 align:middle line:84% not be thinking about sex, danger, or the present, 00:19:57.410 --> 00:19:59.595 align:middle line:84% for this present-- even while I think of it-- 00:19:59.595 --> 00:20:00.095 align:middle line:90% is gone." 00:20:00.095 --> 00:20:03.557 align:middle line:90% 00:20:03.557 --> 00:20:05.390 align:middle line:84% That's probably enough for The Snow Leopard. 00:20:05.390 --> 00:20:09.170 align:middle line:84% I'm sorry I seem to have chosen rather serious passages there, 00:20:09.170 --> 00:20:13.370 align:middle line:84% and actually we had a lot of fun on the trip too. 00:20:13.370 --> 00:20:16.533 align:middle line:84% The selection kind of winnowed down in a way, I wouldn't-- 00:20:16.533 --> 00:20:17.450 align:middle line:90% have to remember that. 00:20:17.450 --> 00:20:21.330 align:middle line:90% 00:20:21.330 --> 00:20:23.880 align:middle line:84% This is the galley proofs of Indian Country, which 00:20:23.880 --> 00:20:27.030 align:middle line:90% is coming out in about a month. 00:20:27.030 --> 00:20:30.667 align:middle line:84% And it's been called a sequel to my Indian book that 00:20:30.667 --> 00:20:33.000 align:middle line:84% came out last year, called In the Spirit of Crazy Horse. 00:20:33.000 --> 00:20:34.740 align:middle line:84% It's not really a sequel, it was really 00:20:34.740 --> 00:20:37.320 align:middle line:84% mostly written before In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, 00:20:37.320 --> 00:20:39.810 align:middle line:90% beginning about 1975. 00:20:39.810 --> 00:20:41.850 align:middle line:84% And parts of it have appeared in a number 00:20:41.850 --> 00:20:47.280 align:middle line:84% of magazines and Sunday newspapers around the country. 00:20:47.280 --> 00:20:48.330 align:middle line:90% I'll read first from a-- 00:20:48.330 --> 00:20:51.930 align:middle line:90% 00:20:51.930 --> 00:20:54.660 align:middle line:84% this is one of the few success stories of about 12 chapters 00:20:54.660 --> 00:20:55.680 align:middle line:90% in this book. 00:20:55.680 --> 00:20:56.820 align:middle line:90% Most of them ended badly. 00:20:56.820 --> 00:20:58.740 align:middle line:84% In almost all cases, the Indian land 00:20:58.740 --> 00:21:00.780 align:middle line:84% was encroached upon and finally taken 00:21:00.780 --> 00:21:04.080 align:middle line:84% and/or spoiled by corporate interests, 00:21:04.080 --> 00:21:06.090 align:middle line:84% or the federal bureaucracy working 00:21:06.090 --> 00:21:08.860 align:middle line:84% with corporate interests, but in this particular case, 00:21:08.860 --> 00:21:11.140 align:middle line:84% we seem to have won at least a temporary victory. 00:21:11.140 --> 00:21:14.460 align:middle line:84% It's a thing called a go road, in northern California. 00:21:14.460 --> 00:21:18.600 align:middle line:84% Some of you may know about it, and it goes from Orleans 00:21:18.600 --> 00:21:21.990 align:middle line:84% on Klamath, river to Gasquet, a little bit further north. 00:21:21.990 --> 00:21:26.970 align:middle line:84% It's a great big superhighway that parallels the coast road, 00:21:26.970 --> 00:21:28.740 align:middle line:90% over these high dry ridges. 00:21:28.740 --> 00:21:30.300 align:middle line:90% It's hidden at both ends. 00:21:30.300 --> 00:21:33.180 align:middle line:84% The Forest Service went in about four or five miles at one end, 00:21:33.180 --> 00:21:34.890 align:middle line:84% and seven miles on the other end, 00:21:34.890 --> 00:21:37.110 align:middle line:84% before starting the highway, apparently 00:21:37.110 --> 00:21:38.670 align:middle line:84% to disguise it from the public, who 00:21:38.670 --> 00:21:41.110 align:middle line:90% are going to be paying for it. 00:21:41.110 --> 00:21:43.230 align:middle line:84% There's no reason for this road at all. 00:21:43.230 --> 00:21:45.390 align:middle line:84% It's not a tourist area, it goes right 00:21:45.390 --> 00:21:48.240 align:middle line:84% across the sacred area of three different Indian groups-- 00:21:48.240 --> 00:21:50.003 align:middle line:90% plows right through there. 00:21:50.003 --> 00:21:51.420 align:middle line:84% At least it's trying to, and we're 00:21:51.420 --> 00:21:53.878 align:middle line:84% trying to stop it-- this one unfinished section about seven 00:21:53.878 --> 00:21:56.880 align:middle line:84% and 1/2 miles that, so far, has been held up in court. 00:21:56.880 --> 00:22:00.960 align:middle line:84% And it now looks like it's going to be held up semi-permanently. 00:22:00.960 --> 00:22:03.780 align:middle line:84% The only reason for this road, as one Indian says, 00:22:03.780 --> 00:22:06.960 align:middle line:84% it's a glorified logging road to save yet 00:22:06.960 --> 00:22:08.670 align:middle line:84% more money for the big corporations 00:22:08.670 --> 00:22:09.960 align:middle line:90% that don't need that money. 00:22:09.960 --> 00:22:13.590 align:middle line:84% But, anyway, so, before this happened 00:22:13.590 --> 00:22:16.050 align:middle line:84% before we knew this victory had happened, 00:22:16.050 --> 00:22:19.027 align:middle line:84% I wanted to see the sacred area and approach it 00:22:19.027 --> 00:22:21.360 align:middle line:84% the way it had been approached by traditional people who 00:22:21.360 --> 00:22:24.690 align:middle line:84% are in medicine training, who climb up this wonderful Blue 00:22:24.690 --> 00:22:26.430 align:middle line:84% Creek drainage, and then up these ridges 00:22:26.430 --> 00:22:28.485 align:middle line:84% to what's called Doctor Rock, where they 00:22:28.485 --> 00:22:29.610 align:middle line:90% went for medicine training. 00:22:29.610 --> 00:22:32.910 align:middle line:84% And they had a kind of a four day vision quest, 00:22:32.910 --> 00:22:35.937 align:middle line:84% fasting arrangement there, rather like a Great Plains 00:22:35.937 --> 00:22:38.520 align:middle line:84% vision quest, but not quite-- it was a little bit more complex 00:22:38.520 --> 00:22:39.540 align:middle line:90% than that. 00:22:39.540 --> 00:22:42.120 align:middle line:84% And I had two Indian friends, a young Yurok guy, 00:22:42.120 --> 00:22:46.400 align:middle line:84% and his stepfather who was a Cherokee, John Trull. 00:22:46.400 --> 00:22:49.270 align:middle line:84% And we just camped on the Blue Creek drainage 00:22:49.270 --> 00:22:52.830 align:middle line:84% and then climbed up to this place, 00:22:52.830 --> 00:22:55.170 align:middle line:84% and this is just a passage from that chapter. 00:22:55.170 --> 00:23:05.870 align:middle line:90% 00:23:05.870 --> 00:23:08.090 align:middle line:84% We'd gone up there in a very mysterious way, 00:23:08.090 --> 00:23:10.070 align:middle line:84% because we hadn't made proper preparations. 00:23:10.070 --> 00:23:12.410 align:middle line:84% We couldn't get near the rock, even 00:23:12.410 --> 00:23:14.160 align:middle line:84% though it was right there in plain sight, 00:23:14.160 --> 00:23:15.433 align:middle line:90% we couldn't approach it. 00:23:15.433 --> 00:23:16.850 align:middle line:84% There's always a gully in the way, 00:23:16.850 --> 00:23:18.783 align:middle line:84% and suddenly we were past it, and I'd had-- 00:23:18.783 --> 00:23:20.450 align:middle line:84% I'd been told this would happen up there 00:23:20.450 --> 00:23:21.650 align:middle line:84% and, in fact, I'd been up there the year 00:23:21.650 --> 00:23:23.363 align:middle line:84% before with other Indian friends, 00:23:23.363 --> 00:23:24.530 align:middle line:90% and same thing had happened. 00:23:24.530 --> 00:23:26.670 align:middle line:84% The space was holding us off like a magnet. 00:23:26.670 --> 00:23:29.253 align:middle line:84% It was very mysterious, and kind of great, 00:23:29.253 --> 00:23:30.170 align:middle line:90% but we were exhausted. 00:23:30.170 --> 00:23:32.180 align:middle line:84% We climbed up all day long and we couldn't beat the system 00:23:32.180 --> 00:23:33.308 align:middle line:90% up there, we were just-- 00:23:33.308 --> 00:23:34.850 align:middle line:84% So we went back to where our camp was 00:23:34.850 --> 00:23:39.350 align:middle line:84% in this very pretty meadow, and a lot of bears, and stuff. 00:23:39.350 --> 00:23:42.170 align:middle line:84% It's an extraordinary area, this is the Siskiyou Mountains. 00:23:42.170 --> 00:23:43.730 align:middle line:84% A great many rare plants there, it 00:23:43.730 --> 00:23:45.770 align:middle line:84% seems to be botanically connected 00:23:45.770 --> 00:23:47.747 align:middle line:90% to Asia in some strange way. 00:23:47.747 --> 00:23:50.330 align:middle line:84% There are many plant groups that are actually Asian in origin, 00:23:50.330 --> 00:23:54.200 align:middle line:84% and many strange conifers that occur nowhere else, and also 00:23:54.200 --> 00:23:55.700 align:middle line:90% quite a few rare creatures. 00:23:55.700 --> 00:23:57.200 align:middle line:84% Creatures which are rare everywhere, 00:23:57.200 --> 00:24:00.830 align:middle line:84% like the spotted owl, and the wolverine, and cougar, 00:24:00.830 --> 00:24:03.656 align:middle line:90% and things like that 00:24:03.656 --> 00:24:05.990 align:middle line:84% "Long before dark in the endless summer evening, 00:24:05.990 --> 00:24:09.500 align:middle line:84% we were fast asleep, and we slept hard until first light. 00:24:09.500 --> 00:24:11.090 align:middle line:84% Even then, after ten hours' rest, 00:24:11.090 --> 00:24:13.550 align:middle line:84% it was difficult to bring John back to life. 00:24:13.550 --> 00:24:16.293 align:middle line:84% 'Come on grandfather,' Dick said in his gentle voice. 00:24:16.293 --> 00:24:18.710 align:middle line:84% It was important to leave before the sun was high in order 00:24:18.710 --> 00:24:21.080 align:middle line:84% to bushwhack down through that hard scrub 00:24:21.080 --> 00:24:23.300 align:middle line:90% to the cool forest on the ridge. 00:24:23.300 --> 00:24:25.280 align:middle line:84% We set off at daybreak, without breakfast, 00:24:25.280 --> 00:24:28.280 align:middle line:84% and once underway, we made good time, rounding the mountain 00:24:28.280 --> 00:24:30.620 align:middle line:84% and traversing the steep barren slopes that led down 00:24:30.620 --> 00:24:32.315 align:middle line:84% into the thick undergrowth, pausing 00:24:32.315 --> 00:24:36.230 align:middle line:84% just once to gaze at the lovely sunrise worlds below. 00:24:36.230 --> 00:24:38.930 align:middle line:84% During the night, the ocean fogs had rolled into the Klamath 00:24:38.930 --> 00:24:41.090 align:middle line:84% gorge, pushing thick white tentacles 00:24:41.090 --> 00:24:45.050 align:middle line:84% into the canyons of Blue Creek, leaving the ridges all around 00:24:45.050 --> 00:24:47.780 align:middle line:84% like green islands in a sea of clouds. 00:24:47.780 --> 00:24:50.120 align:middle line:84% This silent world lay far below the rock 00:24:50.120 --> 00:24:53.390 align:middle line:84% where we sat perched like three unshaven angels. 00:24:53.390 --> 00:24:54.980 align:middle line:84% And seeing the White River flowing in 00:24:54.980 --> 00:24:56.930 align:middle line:84% from the white ocean, I understood 00:24:56.930 --> 00:25:00.110 align:middle line:84% much better the Yurok concept of the world as a kind of disk 00:25:00.110 --> 00:25:03.410 align:middle line:84% bisected by the Klamath, rising and falling minutely 00:25:03.410 --> 00:25:06.110 align:middle line:90% on the surrounding sea. 00:25:06.110 --> 00:25:09.510 align:middle line:84% John Trull frowned and cleared his throat. 00:25:09.510 --> 00:25:12.470 align:middle line:84% 'You're very close to heaven here,' he muttered. 00:25:12.470 --> 00:25:15.500 align:middle line:84% He glared at us, as if daring us to laugh. 00:25:15.500 --> 00:25:17.960 align:middle line:84% Then he spoke about a time, up in the mountains, 00:25:17.960 --> 00:25:19.850 align:middle line:84% when he had found himself quite suddenly 00:25:19.850 --> 00:25:22.340 align:middle line:84% in a beautiful, strange place where he had never 00:25:22.340 --> 00:25:25.530 align:middle line:84% been before and yet which seem somehow familiar, 00:25:25.530 --> 00:25:28.460 align:middle line:84% as if remembered from another life. 00:25:28.460 --> 00:25:31.460 align:middle line:84% He had walked along as if entranced, weeping and laughing 00:25:31.460 --> 00:25:34.790 align:middle line:84% simultaneously, as if on the point of remembering something 00:25:34.790 --> 00:25:36.920 align:middle line:84% that would bring him instantly and for ever 00:25:36.920 --> 00:25:41.240 align:middle line:84% a profound understanding of the world, of life and death. 00:25:41.240 --> 00:25:44.360 align:middle line:84% Bewildered and uncomfortable, he stopped speaking, 00:25:44.360 --> 00:25:48.320 align:middle line:84% and for a little while we sat in silence on the mountain side. 00:25:48.320 --> 00:25:50.630 align:middle line:84% And it occurred to me that what John had described 00:25:50.630 --> 00:25:53.510 align:middle line:84% was the world which the aspirant Indians of other days who 00:25:53.510 --> 00:25:55.520 align:middle line:84% had come up these Steps into the High Country 00:25:55.520 --> 00:25:57.140 align:middle line:90% had wished to enter. 00:25:57.140 --> 00:25:59.570 align:middle line:84% In the words of an old Indian lady down at Requa, 00:25:59.570 --> 00:26:02.450 align:middle line:84% where the Klamath rolls out between huge sandbars, rocks, 00:26:02.450 --> 00:26:05.480 align:middle line:84% and cliffs into the sea, 'You come upon a place 00:26:05.480 --> 00:26:09.650 align:middle line:84% you've never seen before, and it has awesome beauty, everything 00:26:09.650 --> 00:26:14.360 align:middle line:84% about you, above you, below you, around you is so pure. 00:26:14.360 --> 00:26:16.850 align:middle line:84% That is the beauty we call merwerksergerh, 00:26:16.850 --> 00:26:21.820 align:middle line:84% and the pure person is also merwerksergerh.' 00:26:21.820 --> 00:26:24.530 align:middle line:84% John Trull was embarrassed by the suggestion 00:26:24.530 --> 00:26:27.170 align:middle line:84% that what he had had was a mystical experience. 00:26:27.170 --> 00:26:28.880 align:middle line:84% Such experience, he had always thought, 00:26:28.880 --> 00:26:31.490 align:middle line:84% was strong evidence of a weak mind. 00:26:31.490 --> 00:26:33.500 align:middle line:84% Sighing, he stood up and set his pack, 00:26:33.500 --> 00:26:36.890 align:middle line:84% wondering aloud if his old shoes would get him home. 00:26:36.890 --> 00:26:39.260 align:middle line:84% We moved rapidly downhill into Blue Creek, 00:26:39.260 --> 00:26:41.510 align:middle line:84% swinging easily along through the old forest 00:26:41.510 --> 00:26:44.510 align:middle line:84% and arriving at the rivers edge well before noon. 00:26:44.510 --> 00:26:46.160 align:middle line:84% At camp we made a scavenger's meal 00:26:46.160 --> 00:26:47.810 align:middle line:90% of what had been left behind-- 00:26:47.810 --> 00:26:51.200 align:middle line:84% bran flakes, raw potato, chunks of jarred venison-- 00:26:51.200 --> 00:26:53.330 align:middle line:84% and kept on going, pausing to swim 00:26:53.330 --> 00:26:54.950 align:middle line:84% in a deep hole at the first bend, 00:26:54.950 --> 00:26:58.100 align:middle line:84% fording, refording, and fording again, pausing 00:26:58.100 --> 00:27:01.430 align:middle line:84% to gather a mouthful of wild strawberries, going on. 00:27:01.430 --> 00:27:08.410 align:middle line:90% 00:27:08.410 --> 00:27:13.810 align:middle line:84% This next passage is about a man named Chief Buster McCurdy, who 00:27:13.810 --> 00:27:17.980 align:middle line:84% in the 60s was a very, very well known Indian leader, a very 00:27:17.980 --> 00:27:21.580 align:middle line:84% brave man who's now, like many of these leaders at that time, 00:27:21.580 --> 00:27:25.990 align:middle line:84% has been kind of isolated and cut off and is out of touch 00:27:25.990 --> 00:27:26.493 align:middle line:90% with-- 00:27:26.493 --> 00:27:27.910 align:middle line:84% even with his own people, who have 00:27:27.910 --> 00:27:30.130 align:middle line:84% been kind of co-opted by the tribal 00:27:30.130 --> 00:27:32.380 align:middle line:84% councils, and Bureau of Indian Affairs. 00:27:32.380 --> 00:27:35.922 align:middle line:84% And he lives alone on a beautiful farm, 00:27:35.922 --> 00:27:37.630 align:middle line:84% actually, that he's built for his sister. 00:27:37.630 --> 00:27:40.540 align:middle line:90% He no longer has a wife. 00:27:40.540 --> 00:27:43.030 align:middle line:84% This guy I was traveling with had 00:27:43.030 --> 00:27:44.950 align:middle line:84% worked with Buster and many other people. 00:27:44.950 --> 00:27:48.520 align:middle line:84% We made a kind of a trip, all around the back country, 00:27:48.520 --> 00:27:50.080 align:middle line:84% and the back roads the Great Basin, 00:27:50.080 --> 00:27:52.570 align:middle line:84% and northern California, and down into New Mexico, 00:27:52.570 --> 00:27:54.250 align:middle line:90% and Arizona too. 00:27:54.250 --> 00:27:56.440 align:middle line:84% And he was looking up these people 00:27:56.440 --> 00:27:58.960 align:middle line:84% to see how many were left and who was still, as they say, 00:27:58.960 --> 00:28:00.710 align:middle line:84% standing on the land, in other words, 00:28:00.710 --> 00:28:03.385 align:middle line:84% holding to traditional way of life. 00:28:03.385 --> 00:28:06.650 align:middle line:90% 00:28:06.650 --> 00:28:09.500 align:middle line:84% "At the Utah border, a road head South along the west edge 00:28:09.500 --> 00:28:12.780 align:middle line:84% of the Great Salt Desert, a waste of white alkali flats 00:28:12.780 --> 00:28:14.750 align:middle line:84% and old dead lakes, stretching away 00:28:14.750 --> 00:28:18.140 align:middle line:84% between far small archipelagos of dry mountains. 00:28:18.140 --> 00:28:20.150 align:middle line:84% At each turnoff, the road diminishes, 00:28:20.150 --> 00:28:23.128 align:middle line:84% tending east into the remote Ibapah Valley 00:28:23.128 --> 00:28:25.670 align:middle line:84% where good water comes down from the steep ridges of the Deep 00:28:25.670 --> 00:28:29.685 align:middle line:84% Creek Range into an ancient territory of the Gosi Ute. 00:28:29.685 --> 00:28:32.060 align:middle line:84% Near the south end of the valley, where the land is green 00:28:32.060 --> 00:28:34.550 align:middle line:84% and there is forest on the steep valley walls, 00:28:34.550 --> 00:28:37.700 align:middle line:84% a dirt lane turns off past a well-made garden, 00:28:37.700 --> 00:28:40.220 align:middle line:84% meandering uphill to a large farmhouse set 00:28:40.220 --> 00:28:43.970 align:middle line:84% about with weathered sheds built out of logs. 00:28:43.970 --> 00:28:46.610 align:middle line:84% Craig said he had enemies on this reservation. 00:28:46.610 --> 00:28:48.500 align:middle line:84% Not sure of the reception we might get, 00:28:48.500 --> 00:28:51.680 align:middle line:84% he told me to park the truck for a quick getaway. 00:28:51.680 --> 00:28:54.140 align:middle line:84% While I listened to the bells of the home-coming sheep 00:28:54.140 --> 00:28:56.600 align:middle line:84% and the howls of a retarded Indian boy 00:28:56.600 --> 00:28:59.060 align:middle line:84% who was wandering here and there behind the farmhouse, 00:28:59.060 --> 00:29:01.910 align:middle line:84% Craig got out and talked for a long time in the cool spring 00:29:01.910 --> 00:29:05.150 align:middle line:84% twilight with a stocky, guarded man in khaki shirt 00:29:05.150 --> 00:29:08.150 align:middle line:84% and coveralls who came out to meet him. 00:29:08.150 --> 00:29:11.510 align:middle line:84% Eventually they came over to the truck, and because it was cold, 00:29:11.510 --> 00:29:13.880 align:middle line:84% we sat in the front seat like churchgoers, 00:29:13.880 --> 00:29:18.470 align:middle line:84% gazing northward up the valley toward high Pilot Peak. 00:29:18.470 --> 00:29:22.880 align:middle line:84% 'This is Chief Buster McCurdy,' Craig said, after a while. 00:29:22.880 --> 00:29:25.220 align:middle line:84% 'Chief,' Buster McCurdy exclaimed, 00:29:25.220 --> 00:29:27.525 align:middle line:84% still a little bewildered by our visit. 00:29:27.525 --> 00:29:29.150 align:middle line:84% Like most of the people we had gone to, 00:29:29.150 --> 00:29:32.540 align:middle line:84% he had not seen Craig since 1969. 00:29:32.540 --> 00:29:34.340 align:middle line:84% As if not sure what we might want, 00:29:34.340 --> 00:29:36.800 align:middle line:84% he sat motionless and quiet for a while, 00:29:36.800 --> 00:29:40.220 align:middle line:84% thick heavy hands square on his knees, a surprised expression 00:29:40.220 --> 00:29:42.260 align:middle line:90% on his face. 00:29:42.260 --> 00:29:44.510 align:middle line:84% Ute is the real name of his people-- 00:29:44.510 --> 00:29:48.230 align:middle line:84% their own name, that is, for the Indians, the People-- 00:29:48.230 --> 00:29:51.050 align:middle line:84% and Ute-ah or Utah, he explained, 00:29:51.050 --> 00:29:54.830 align:middle line:84% 'just means Them Indians Over There.' 00:29:54.830 --> 00:29:56.330 align:middle line:90% Gosi Ute, or Goshute-- 00:29:56.330 --> 00:29:58.727 align:middle line:84% 'that's Dusty Ute,' he said, 'because we'd be goin' along 00:29:58.727 --> 00:30:01.310 align:middle line:84% all covered with desert dust on the way to the meeting grounds 00:30:01.310 --> 00:30:04.370 align:middle line:84% over in Provo Valley, where we wintered sometimes with Paiute 00:30:04.370 --> 00:30:06.020 align:middle line:90% and Shoshone.' 00:30:06.020 --> 00:30:07.910 align:middle line:84% These days the few hundred Gosi Ute 00:30:07.910 --> 00:30:09.920 align:middle line:84% were divided between this band and another 00:30:09.920 --> 00:30:13.833 align:middle line:84% across the mountains in Skull Valley. 00:30:13.833 --> 00:30:16.250 align:middle line:84% 'Ute and Paiute understand each other pretty good,' Buster 00:30:16.250 --> 00:30:18.950 align:middle line:84% said, 'but we don't understand much Shoshone language, 00:30:18.950 --> 00:30:21.110 align:middle line:90% just a few words to get by. 00:30:21.110 --> 00:30:25.340 align:middle line:84% The books say we're all the same bunch, but we ain't.' 00:30:25.340 --> 00:30:27.350 align:middle line:84% Buster McCurdy was raised here in Ibapah, 00:30:27.350 --> 00:30:29.720 align:middle line:84% but he married a Ute woman from the High Uintahs 00:30:29.720 --> 00:30:32.330 align:middle line:84% and lived over in the east part of the state for many years 00:30:32.330 --> 00:30:35.210 align:middle line:84% as a hardworking, and very successful mechanic. 00:30:35.210 --> 00:30:36.980 align:middle line:84% In the late fifties and early sixties 00:30:36.980 --> 00:30:39.290 align:middle line:84% his auto-repair work had supported the journeys 00:30:39.290 --> 00:30:42.650 align:middle line:84% on Indian business made by his wife Etta 00:30:42.650 --> 00:30:45.380 align:middle line:84% McCurdy and other traditional spokesmen. 00:30:45.380 --> 00:30:48.500 align:middle line:84% Buster himself won respect is a courageous and outspoken 00:30:48.500 --> 00:30:51.920 align:middle line:84% leader, and was jailed more than once for his beliefs. 00:30:51.920 --> 00:30:53.750 align:middle line:84% 'Among real Indians," Craig told me, 00:30:53.750 --> 00:30:55.985 align:middle line:84% 'Buster McCurdy was a hero from coast to coast.' 00:30:55.985 --> 00:31:01.820 align:middle line:90% 00:31:01.820 --> 00:31:03.950 align:middle line:84% Most of the traditionals here in the Ibapah Valley 00:31:03.950 --> 00:31:06.020 align:middle line:84% have died out, and Buster McCurdy 00:31:06.020 --> 00:31:09.470 align:middle line:84% has been threatened more than once by armed B.I.A. Indians. 00:31:09.470 --> 00:31:12.830 align:middle line:84% 'There's nobody on our side, we got nobody to turn to.' 00:31:12.830 --> 00:31:15.500 align:middle line:84% A girl he had mentioned as his potential successor as a leader 00:31:15.500 --> 00:31:17.120 align:middle line:84% here had 'died from too much liquor.' 00:31:17.120 --> 00:31:19.620 align:middle line:90% 00:31:19.620 --> 00:31:21.620 align:middle line:84% --they discussed the Northern Utes up in Uintah, 00:31:21.620 --> 00:31:24.260 align:middle line:84% one fourth of whom died from alcohol-related diseases 00:31:24.260 --> 00:31:27.110 align:middle line:84% or accidents in the year after liquor sales to Indians 00:31:27.110 --> 00:31:32.220 align:middle line:84% were legalized in 1952, as part of the termination program. 00:31:32.220 --> 00:31:35.870 align:middle line:84% 'And those Gosi Utes over in Skull Valley,' he said, 00:31:35.870 --> 00:31:37.460 align:middle line:90% 'those poor people are shot. 00:31:37.460 --> 00:31:38.900 align:middle line:84% That Tribal Council guy they have 00:31:38.900 --> 00:31:40.653 align:middle line:84% has driven them right down the drain. 00:31:40.653 --> 00:31:42.320 align:middle line:84% They're going to have their piñon trees, 00:31:42.320 --> 00:31:44.690 align:middle line:84% their deer-hunting grounds, all taken away from them 00:31:44.690 --> 00:31:47.018 align:middle line:84% because all they can see is dollar signs. 00:31:47.018 --> 00:31:48.560 align:middle line:84% Liquor is the main trouble here, too, 00:31:48.560 --> 00:31:50.690 align:middle line:84% and it's going to be a dead place pretty soon. 00:31:50.690 --> 00:31:53.360 align:middle line:84% I told 'em that, but they won't listen.' 00:31:53.360 --> 00:31:54.380 align:middle line:90% He sighed. 00:31:54.380 --> 00:31:56.030 align:middle line:90% 'I kind of give up now. 00:31:56.030 --> 00:32:00.302 align:middle line:84% Just flare up once in a while, is all.' 00:32:00.302 --> 00:32:02.510 align:middle line:84% The night before, Buster had led us to a hill pasture 00:32:02.510 --> 00:32:05.600 align:middle line:84% beyond his sister's house where one of the two streams coveted 00:32:05.600 --> 00:32:08.900 align:middle line:84% by the white ranchers comes down the steep mountainside 00:32:08.900 --> 00:32:10.640 align:middle line:84% from the high evergreen in a ribbon 00:32:10.640 --> 00:32:13.130 align:middle line:90% of poplar, willow and red birch. 00:32:13.130 --> 00:32:15.980 align:middle line:84% At daybreak he came to sit on his heels at our campfire, 00:32:15.980 --> 00:32:18.950 align:middle line:84% and we spent a long, slow, peaceful morning in the sun 00:32:18.950 --> 00:32:22.740 align:middle line:84% while Craig cooked us up some of his mush. 00:32:22.740 --> 00:32:25.970 align:middle line:84% 'I never thought I would see Craig again,' he told me when 00:32:25.970 --> 00:32:27.860 align:middle line:84% Craig had gone up to the stream to wash. 00:32:27.860 --> 00:32:31.130 align:middle line:84% 'We had some fun, all right, in those days.' 00:32:31.130 --> 00:32:33.110 align:middle line:84% Recently, McCurdy had a dream that 00:32:33.110 --> 00:32:35.640 align:middle line:84% 'didn't feel like any dream, it was a vision. 00:32:35.640 --> 00:32:38.480 align:middle line:84% I saw Salt Lake City, all of them nice buildings, 00:32:38.480 --> 00:32:40.817 align:middle line:84% smoke was coming out, and some were ruined, 00:32:40.817 --> 00:32:41.900 align:middle line:90% and there were no people-- 00:32:41.900 --> 00:32:43.730 align:middle line:90% there was nobody around. 00:32:43.730 --> 00:32:46.160 align:middle line:84% The man with me said it must have been an earthquake, 00:32:46.160 --> 00:32:47.240 align:middle line:90% but I didn't think so. 00:32:47.240 --> 00:32:50.018 align:middle line:90% It was something else.' 00:32:50.018 --> 00:32:51.560 align:middle line:84% Before leaving, we filled our bottles 00:32:51.560 --> 00:32:53.720 align:middle line:84% with good mountain water and complimented Buster 00:32:53.720 --> 00:32:55.730 align:middle line:90% on how well the farm looked. 00:32:55.730 --> 00:32:58.670 align:middle line:84% We offered him a lift back down the hillside to the farm, 00:32:58.670 --> 00:33:00.360 align:middle line:90% and he shook his head. 00:33:00.360 --> 00:33:03.470 align:middle line:90% 'Might as well walk,' he said. 00:33:03.470 --> 00:33:06.650 align:middle line:84% 'I'll see you again,' Craig said, taking his hand. 00:33:06.650 --> 00:33:09.200 align:middle line:84% Buster McCurdy held Craig's hand for a long time, 00:33:09.200 --> 00:33:10.840 align:middle line:90% looking him over. 00:33:10.840 --> 00:33:14.066 align:middle line:84% 'I don't know when,' he said at last. 00:33:14.066 --> 00:33:16.610 align:middle line:84% And looking back at the still figure on the mountainside 00:33:16.610 --> 00:33:19.560 align:middle line:84% as the truck rolled down the slope in the spring ruts, 00:33:19.560 --> 00:33:21.860 align:middle line:84% I remembered a moment the afternoon before, 00:33:21.860 --> 00:33:24.440 align:middle line:84% when Craig had asked him how many people here at Ibapah 00:33:24.440 --> 00:33:26.630 align:middle line:90% were still standing on the land. 00:33:26.630 --> 00:33:28.790 align:middle line:84% Chief Buster McCurdy, saying nothing, 00:33:28.790 --> 00:33:30.455 align:middle line:84% had raised up a solitary finger." 00:33:30.455 --> 00:33:35.230 align:middle line:90% 00:33:35.230 --> 00:33:37.260 align:middle line:84% OK, I better-- If I'm going to do it, 00:33:37.260 --> 00:33:39.510 align:middle line:84% At Play in the Fields of the Lord, I better get to it. 00:33:39.510 --> 00:33:41.850 align:middle line:90% 00:33:41.850 --> 00:33:45.160 align:middle line:84% At Play in the Fields of the Lord is a novel, 00:33:45.160 --> 00:33:49.930 align:middle line:84% and its hero is a mixed blood Cheyenne Indian 00:33:49.930 --> 00:33:52.990 align:middle line:90% guy called Lewis Moon. 00:33:52.990 --> 00:33:58.495 align:middle line:84% He's a rather-- well, I don't know how to describe him, 00:33:58.495 --> 00:34:02.920 align:middle line:84% an interesting figure, I guess, I hope. 00:34:02.920 --> 00:34:05.440 align:middle line:84% And he has kind of run away from his past, 00:34:05.440 --> 00:34:06.940 align:middle line:84% he's run away from the reservation, 00:34:06.940 --> 00:34:08.710 align:middle line:84% he's won a scholarship to college, 00:34:08.710 --> 00:34:12.400 align:middle line:84% and he blows it through drinking, getting in fights. 00:34:12.400 --> 00:34:15.150 align:middle line:84% He's-- the alumni don't want an Indian in this college, 00:34:15.150 --> 00:34:18.400 align:middle line:84% so they come to him, and they try to bribe him to get drunk, 00:34:18.400 --> 00:34:21.880 align:middle line:84% and create a scene on the campus, and so forth. 00:34:21.880 --> 00:34:25.860 align:middle line:84% And he agrees to do it, out of, really, 00:34:25.860 --> 00:34:27.235 align:middle line:84% sort of cynicism and drunkenness, 00:34:27.235 --> 00:34:31.179 align:middle line:84% and then beats these two guys up and steals their car. 00:34:31.179 --> 00:34:34.580 align:middle line:84% And then he heads east because, you got to leave the state. 00:34:34.580 --> 00:34:36.250 align:middle line:84% And so he's now-- in this book, he's 00:34:36.250 --> 00:34:38.380 align:middle line:90% begun a long life of wandering. 00:34:38.380 --> 00:34:42.460 align:middle line:84% I didn't want to get you much into Moon's background. 00:34:42.460 --> 00:34:44.620 align:middle line:84% First, because I can't claim I'm qualified 00:34:44.620 --> 00:34:46.179 align:middle line:90% to speak about it that much. 00:34:46.179 --> 00:34:49.277 align:middle line:84% And second, because the novel takes place in South America, 00:34:49.277 --> 00:34:51.610 align:middle line:84% where he has now ended up after many years of wandering, 00:34:51.610 --> 00:34:54.538 align:middle line:84% as a kind of a soldier of fortune. 00:34:54.538 --> 00:34:56.080 align:middle line:84% But he's still hung up on this thing, 00:34:56.080 --> 00:34:57.640 align:middle line:84% he's still hung up on Indian way, 00:34:57.640 --> 00:35:01.450 align:middle line:84% on trying to perceive the true Indian traditional resistance. 00:35:01.450 --> 00:35:04.525 align:middle line:84% And in the course of this, he takes-- 00:35:04.525 --> 00:35:08.540 align:middle line:84% of this book, he takes a drug called ayahuasca. 00:35:08.540 --> 00:35:11.950 align:middle line:84% Banisteriopsis caapi, it's a very, very strong 00:35:11.950 --> 00:35:14.680 align:middle line:84% pheynl-alkaloid, related to LSD and mescaline, 00:35:14.680 --> 00:35:16.330 align:middle line:90% but a good deal stronger. 00:35:16.330 --> 00:35:21.040 align:middle line:84% I've taken it, it's very powerful, morbid experience. 00:35:21.040 --> 00:35:23.950 align:middle line:84% And this chapter I'm about to read-- 00:35:23.950 --> 00:35:26.200 align:middle line:84% I'm not reading at all, but excerpts 00:35:26.200 --> 00:35:29.350 align:middle line:90% from his hallucination. 00:35:29.350 --> 00:35:31.030 align:middle line:90% It was my device as a writer. 00:35:31.030 --> 00:35:33.708 align:middle line:84% I needed a way to evoke Moon's past, 00:35:33.708 --> 00:35:36.250 align:middle line:84% without going into a kind of a long detailed history of where 00:35:36.250 --> 00:35:37.810 align:middle line:90% he came from and who he was. 00:35:37.810 --> 00:35:41.980 align:middle line:84% And so it comes up, in this trip, that I describe here, 00:35:41.980 --> 00:35:42.835 align:middle line:90% is-- 00:35:42.835 --> 00:35:45.868 align:middle line:84% there are memories of his college experience 00:35:45.868 --> 00:35:47.410 align:middle line:84% of the sheriff, the local sheriff who 00:35:47.410 --> 00:35:48.827 align:middle line:84% was trying to bait him into making 00:35:48.827 --> 00:35:52.900 align:middle line:84% a mistake, of the episode where he steals the car, and memories 00:35:52.900 --> 00:35:56.860 align:middle line:84% of his mother, Big Irma, and his father, and so forth, 00:35:56.860 --> 00:35:58.540 align:middle line:84% then coming back into the present again. 00:35:58.540 --> 00:36:01.800 align:middle line:90% 00:36:01.800 --> 00:36:04.100 align:middle line:84% So you kind of have to bear with me, 00:36:04.100 --> 00:36:07.100 align:middle line:84% there are dreams and references, and just try 00:36:07.100 --> 00:36:08.780 align:middle line:84% to pay attention closely if you can, 00:36:08.780 --> 00:36:12.950 align:middle line:84% and I will make this clear as I can. 00:36:12.950 --> 00:36:17.600 align:middle line:84% He's lying on a bed in a real ratty South American river 00:36:17.600 --> 00:36:22.160 align:middle line:84% hotel, and he's taken he's just taken this-- 00:36:22.160 --> 00:36:26.150 align:middle line:84% he's just about to start, here he goes. 00:36:26.150 --> 00:36:29.270 align:middle line:84% "A dog turned in its circle and lay down in the shade 00:36:29.270 --> 00:36:30.870 align:middle line:84% and the vulture swung up and down 00:36:30.870 --> 00:36:34.880 align:middle line:84% in a short arc above the jungle, as if suspended from a string. 00:36:34.880 --> 00:36:36.530 align:middle line:84% In the heat of the siesta, the street 00:36:36.530 --> 00:36:40.022 align:middle line:90% below was hollow as a bone. 00:36:40.022 --> 00:36:41.480 align:middle line:84% He took the cork out of the bottle, 00:36:41.480 --> 00:36:43.460 align:middle line:84% and holding his breath to kill the bitterness, 00:36:43.460 --> 00:36:46.910 align:middle line:84% drank off half the brown fluid in a series of short gulps, 00:36:46.910 --> 00:36:48.860 align:middle line:84% gargling harshly when he was finished 00:36:48.860 --> 00:36:51.290 align:middle line:84% and spitting the residue into the street. 00:36:51.290 --> 00:36:53.540 align:middle line:90% The aftertaste made him gag. 00:36:53.540 --> 00:36:55.550 align:middle line:84% He sat down on the window sill and in a little 00:36:55.550 --> 00:36:58.610 align:middle line:84% while the nausea receded, leaving only a thick woody 00:36:58.610 --> 00:37:00.920 align:middle line:90% taste and a slight vagueness. 00:37:00.920 --> 00:37:03.260 align:middle line:90% A half hour passed. 00:37:03.260 --> 00:37:05.900 align:middle line:84% Maybe the Indian had watered the infusion. 00:37:05.900 --> 00:37:08.600 align:middle line:84% A voice in the saloon below sounded remote to him, 00:37:08.600 --> 00:37:10.190 align:middle line:90% and he nodded-- 00:37:10.190 --> 00:37:11.690 align:middle line:90% he was on his way. 00:37:11.690 --> 00:37:14.030 align:middle line:84% A little more ayahuasca, Mr. Moon? 00:37:14.030 --> 00:37:16.520 align:middle line:84% He took up the bottle and drank off another quarter of it, 00:37:16.520 --> 00:37:18.950 align:middle line:90% then set it down very slowly. 00:37:18.950 --> 00:37:21.140 align:middle line:84% You made a bad mistake, he thought. 00:37:21.140 --> 00:37:23.247 align:middle line:84% Already he knew he did not need it. 00:37:23.247 --> 00:37:24.830 align:middle line:84% The effects were coming very suddenly, 00:37:24.830 --> 00:37:27.240 align:middle line:84% and he stood up and stalked the room. 00:37:27.240 --> 00:37:28.940 align:middle line:84% In overdose, he had read somewhere, 00:37:28.940 --> 00:37:32.060 align:middle line:84% the extract of Banisteriopsis caapi is quite poisonous 00:37:32.060 --> 00:37:37.640 align:middle line:84% and may bring on convulsions, shock and even death. 00:37:37.640 --> 00:37:40.610 align:middle line:84% How silent it was-- the whole world was in siesta. 00:37:40.610 --> 00:37:42.050 align:middle line:84% He glanced quickly out the window, 00:37:42.050 --> 00:37:44.180 align:middle line:90% to take time by surprise. 00:37:44.180 --> 00:37:46.640 align:middle line:84% The dog slept soundly, and the vulture still 00:37:46.640 --> 00:37:50.600 align:middle line:84% swung up and down its bit of sky, dark as a pendulum. 00:37:50.600 --> 00:37:53.240 align:middle line:84% From the far end of the street, a solitary figure 00:37:53.240 --> 00:37:56.540 align:middle line:84% was moving toward, him down the center of the street-- 00:37:56.540 --> 00:37:59.000 align:middle line:90% the last man on earth. 00:37:59.000 --> 00:38:01.460 align:middle line:84% There you are, he thought, I've been waiting for you 00:38:01.460 --> 00:38:03.560 align:middle line:90% all my life. 00:38:03.560 --> 00:38:05.930 align:middle line:84% Now he was seized with vertigo and apprehension, 00:38:05.930 --> 00:38:08.640 align:middle line:84% his heart began to pound and his breath was short. 00:38:08.640 --> 00:38:11.035 align:middle line:84% He went to his bed and lay down on his back 00:38:11.035 --> 00:38:12.410 align:middle line:84% There was a closure of the throat 00:38:12.410 --> 00:38:15.020 align:middle line:84% and a tension in his chest, a metal bar from chin 00:38:15.020 --> 00:38:18.230 align:middle line:84% to navel to which the skin of his chest was sewn. 00:38:18.230 --> 00:38:20.030 align:middle line:84% Breathing became still more difficult, 00:38:20.030 --> 00:38:21.740 align:middle line:84% and a slight pain in the back of his head 00:38:21.740 --> 00:38:23.720 align:middle line:84% became a general, diffused headache. 00:38:23.720 --> 00:38:26.180 align:middle line:84% He turned cold and his teeth chattered. 00:38:26.180 --> 00:38:30.170 align:middle line:84% The hands pressed to his face were limp and clammy. 00:38:30.170 --> 00:38:32.840 align:middle line:84% I'm flying all apart, he thought, At the same time 00:38:32.840 --> 00:38:35.280 align:middle line:84% his chest constricted ever more tightly. 00:38:35.280 --> 00:38:36.860 align:middle line:90% Let go, he told himself aloud. 00:38:36.860 --> 00:38:38.450 align:middle line:90% Let go. 00:38:38.450 --> 00:38:42.740 align:middle line:84% He rolled over on the side and blinked at the other bed. 00:38:42.740 --> 00:38:46.280 align:middle line:84% Color-- the room billowed with it, the room breathed. 00:38:46.280 --> 00:38:48.982 align:middle line:84% When he closed his, eyes the color dazzled him-- he soared. 00:38:48.982 --> 00:38:50.690 align:middle line:84% But there was trouble in his lungs again, 00:38:50.690 --> 00:38:53.810 align:middle line:84% and his heart thumped so, in heavy spasmodic leaps, 00:38:53.810 --> 00:38:56.150 align:middle line:84% that it must surely stall and die. 00:38:56.150 --> 00:38:59.120 align:middle line:84% He broke into a sweat, and his hands turned cold 00:38:59.120 --> 00:39:02.090 align:middle line:90% as small bags of wet sand. 00:39:02.090 --> 00:39:04.100 align:middle line:84% He sat up, aching, in a foreign room. 00:39:04.100 --> 00:39:06.890 align:middle line:84% He could breathe again, although his heart still hurled itself 00:39:06.890 --> 00:39:09.290 align:middle line:90% unmercifully against his chest. 00:39:09.290 --> 00:39:12.860 align:middle line:84% How thin a man's poor chest was, after all. 00:39:12.860 --> 00:39:16.460 align:middle line:84% It was as thin as paper, surrounding a hollow oval space 00:39:16.460 --> 00:39:18.290 align:middle line:90% of wind and bitterness. 00:39:18.290 --> 00:39:22.115 align:middle line:84% Thump, thump-ump, ump-thump, it would crash through any minute, 00:39:22.115 --> 00:39:23.390 align:middle line:90% and what then? 00:39:23.390 --> 00:39:24.710 align:middle line:90% Do I greet it? 00:39:24.710 --> 00:39:26.300 align:middle line:90% Introduce myself? 00:39:26.300 --> 00:39:29.645 align:middle line:84% How long can a man sit holding his heart in his hands? 00:39:29.645 --> 00:39:32.390 align:middle line:84% Or was that thump coming from elsewhere? 00:39:32.390 --> 00:39:33.710 align:middle line:90% The thump of a bed-- 00:39:33.710 --> 00:39:36.130 align:middle line:84% were the missionaries making love? 00:39:36.130 --> 00:39:39.770 align:middle line:84% The male missionary making love to the female missionary? 00:39:39.770 --> 00:39:42.590 align:middle line:84% The Courtship of Missionaries-- the male missionary, 00:39:42.590 --> 00:39:44.270 align:middle line:84% larger and more splendidly plumaged 00:39:44.270 --> 00:39:47.330 align:middle line:84% than his shy dowdy mate, hurls his head back 00:39:47.330 --> 00:39:50.540 align:middle line:84% joyfully and sings "Praise the Lord," upon which he rushes 00:39:50.540 --> 00:39:53.900 align:middle line:84% forth, tail feathers spread and mounting a decorous and even 00:39:53.900 --> 00:39:56.900 align:middle line:84% pious manner, inserts his tongue into her right ear." 00:39:56.900 --> 00:39:59.840 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:39:59.840 --> 00:40:01.337 align:middle line:84% "You are the Lost Tribe of Israel, 00:40:01.337 --> 00:40:03.170 align:middle line:84% and therefore you must pray especially hard, 00:40:03.170 --> 00:40:06.500 align:middle line:84% for the Lost Tribe of Israel is under God's everlasting curse. 00:40:06.500 --> 00:40:08.530 align:middle line:90% Do you understand? 00:40:08.530 --> 00:40:09.530 align:middle line:90% Why don't you answer me? 00:40:09.530 --> 00:40:11.113 align:middle line:84% What is the matter with you children-- 00:40:11.113 --> 00:40:12.760 align:middle line:90% do you wish to remain accursed? 00:40:12.760 --> 00:40:16.640 align:middle line:84% Now you answer me, Lewis Moon, or I'm going to beat you. 00:40:16.640 --> 00:40:19.360 align:middle line:90% Lewis! 00:40:19.360 --> 00:40:22.420 align:middle line:84% --his body cavity felt hollowed out as if cold sterile winds 00:40:22.420 --> 00:40:24.010 align:middle line:90% were blowing through it-- 00:40:24.010 --> 00:40:26.140 align:middle line:90% loss, loss, loss. 00:40:26.140 --> 00:40:28.660 align:middle line:90% Loss. 00:40:28.660 --> 00:40:30.430 align:middle line:84% Look into the sky and think of nothing, 00:40:30.430 --> 00:40:33.940 align:middle line:84% said Alvin Moon "Joe Redcloud," but do not look into the sun, 00:40:33.940 --> 00:40:35.500 align:middle line:90% for the sun will blind you. 00:40:35.500 --> 00:40:38.260 align:middle line:84% Face east on the first day, south on the second, 00:40:38.260 --> 00:40:40.300 align:middle line:84% west on the third, north on the fourth, 00:40:40.300 --> 00:40:42.250 align:middle line:84% until you are at the center of the circle, 00:40:42.250 --> 00:40:46.210 align:middle line:84% and then you will know the power of the world. 00:40:46.210 --> 00:40:47.890 align:middle line:84% After the first day his stomach hurt 00:40:47.890 --> 00:40:50.620 align:middle line:84% and he felt foolish, all alone on a rock lookout 00:40:50.620 --> 00:40:53.560 align:middle line:84% above a river bend of box elder and cottonwood. 00:40:53.560 --> 00:40:55.990 align:middle line:90% All that night he shivered. 00:40:55.990 --> 00:40:58.750 align:middle line:84% He was not like the old men, nor even like his father. 00:40:58.750 --> 00:41:02.320 align:middle line:84% He spoke American and raised the American flag at school, 00:41:02.320 --> 00:41:05.260 align:middle line:84% he wore blue jeans and looked at magazines and stores 00:41:05.260 --> 00:41:07.360 align:middle line:84% and stood around outside the movie in the town, 00:41:07.360 --> 00:41:09.970 align:middle line:84% searching his pockets as if he had real money. 00:41:09.970 --> 00:41:12.163 align:middle line:84% And he did not believe in visions. 00:41:12.163 --> 00:41:14.830 align:middle line:84% Like all the children, he killed his hunger at the mission house 00:41:14.830 --> 00:41:17.920 align:middle line:84% on Sunday and afterward felt ashamed. 00:41:17.920 --> 00:41:19.930 align:middle line:84% Once he went hungry, telling the missionaries 00:41:19.930 --> 00:41:23.470 align:middle line:84% that Cheyennes never ate on Sundays. 00:41:23.470 --> 00:41:25.090 align:middle line:84% He remained on the rock a second day 00:41:25.090 --> 00:41:27.910 align:middle line:84% and a second night, just out of stubbornness, and because he 00:41:27.910 --> 00:41:31.480 align:middle line:84% was proud of the rifle that Alvin Moon had laid beside him. 00:41:31.480 --> 00:41:33.435 align:middle line:90% No bear nor cougar came-- 00:41:33.435 --> 00:41:34.810 align:middle line:84% the animals would not bother him, 00:41:34.810 --> 00:41:37.180 align:middle line:84% his father said, if he sat still-- 00:41:37.180 --> 00:41:39.760 align:middle line:84% and on the third morning he did not feel hungry anymore 00:41:39.760 --> 00:41:42.430 align:middle line:84% and sat there motionless, letting the sun and wind 00:41:42.430 --> 00:41:43.810 align:middle line:90% blow through him. 00:41:43.810 --> 00:41:47.500 align:middle line:84% He was as firmly rooted in the ground as a young pine. 00:41:47.500 --> 00:41:49.750 align:middle line:84% By afternoon he was growing weak and became 00:41:49.750 --> 00:41:51.250 align:middle line:90% filled with apprehension. 00:41:51.250 --> 00:41:53.050 align:middle line:90% Something was happening. 00:41:53.050 --> 00:41:55.590 align:middle line:84% The jays and squirrels had lost all fear of him, 00:41:55.590 --> 00:41:58.450 align:middle line:84% flicking over and about him as if he had turned to stone, 00:41:58.450 --> 00:42:01.600 align:middle line:84% and the shrill of insects crystallized in a huge ringing 00:42:01.600 --> 00:42:02.500 align:middle line:90% silence. 00:42:02.500 --> 00:42:04.930 align:middle line:84% The sky was ringing, and the pine trees on the rocks 00:42:04.930 --> 00:42:08.380 align:middle line:84% turned a bright rigid, green, each needle shimmering. 00:42:08.380 --> 00:42:10.570 align:middle line:84% The pines were ringing and beside him a blue lupine 00:42:10.570 --> 00:42:11.950 align:middle line:90% opened, breathing. 00:42:11.950 --> 00:42:14.560 align:middle line:84% Then the river turned to silver and stop flowing. 00:42:14.560 --> 00:42:17.410 align:middle line:84% The jays trembled on the rock, their eyes too bright, 00:42:17.410 --> 00:42:21.580 align:middle line:84% and the squirrel was still, the gold hairs flowing on its tail. 00:42:21.580 --> 00:42:25.810 align:middle line:84% He stared at the enormous sky, and the sky descended 00:42:25.810 --> 00:42:27.880 align:middle line:84% and the earth was rising from below, 00:42:27.880 --> 00:42:31.150 align:middle line:84% and he was soaring toward the center-- 00:42:31.150 --> 00:42:35.140 align:middle line:84% Then, in the ringing, far away, rose a flat droning. 00:42:35.140 --> 00:42:38.410 align:middle line:84% The airplane unraveled the high silence as it crossed the sky. 00:42:38.410 --> 00:42:40.630 align:middle line:84% It disappeared without ever appearing, 00:42:40.630 --> 00:42:44.050 align:middle line:84% and when it had gone, the sky no longer rang. 00:42:44.050 --> 00:42:46.780 align:middle line:84% He sat a long time on his rock, but the sky 00:42:46.780 --> 00:42:50.080 align:middle line:90% had risen, leaving him desolate. 00:42:50.080 --> 00:42:52.720 align:middle line:84% Light-headed, he went down to the river, where he drank. 00:42:52.720 --> 00:42:55.240 align:middle line:84% He found mushrooms and fresh-water mussels, 00:42:55.240 --> 00:42:57.280 align:middle line:84% and some berries, and when he had eaten 00:42:57.280 --> 00:42:59.140 align:middle line:84% he laughed at his three-day vigil, 00:42:59.140 --> 00:43:02.350 align:middle line:84% pretending that he did not feel a dreadful sorrow. 00:43:02.350 --> 00:43:06.010 align:middle line:84% On the fourth day, waiting for Alvin Moon to come, he hunted. 00:43:06.010 --> 00:43:07.930 align:middle line:84% He killed a wild goose on the river, 00:43:07.930 --> 00:43:10.780 align:middle line:90% and boasted of it to his father. 00:43:10.780 --> 00:43:13.570 align:middle line:90% His father gazed at him. 00:43:13.570 --> 00:43:16.270 align:middle line:84% And where is the goose, his father said. 00:43:16.270 --> 00:43:18.280 align:middle line:84% I could not reach it, the boy said. 00:43:18.280 --> 00:43:22.658 align:middle line:84% It came so close, and then it drifted far away. 00:43:22.658 --> 00:43:24.700 align:middle line:84% He reeled from the bed and drifted to the window, 00:43:24.700 --> 00:43:27.400 align:middle line:84% but the figure coming down the street was gone. 00:43:27.400 --> 00:43:29.770 align:middle line:84% Again he had missed some unknown chance. 00:43:29.770 --> 00:43:33.400 align:middle line:84% The street was void, a void, avoid. 00:43:33.400 --> 00:43:35.560 align:middle line:84% Dog, heat, a vulture, nothing more-- 00:43:35.560 --> 00:43:38.080 align:middle line:84% a dog, a vulture, nothing more, and thus we parted, 00:43:38.080 --> 00:43:40.000 align:middle line:90% sang Lenore. 00:43:40.000 --> 00:43:40.565 align:middle line:90% Singing. 00:43:40.565 --> 00:43:42.190 align:middle line:84% Somewhere, somewhere there was singing. 00:43:42.190 --> 00:43:44.680 align:middle line:84% His whole body shimmered with the chords, the fountainhead 00:43:44.680 --> 00:43:47.440 align:middle line:90% of music, overflowing. 00:43:47.440 --> 00:43:49.990 align:middle line:84% You're sleeping your life away, he told the dog. 00:43:49.990 --> 00:43:50.900 align:middle line:90% Do you hear me? 00:43:50.900 --> 00:43:52.570 align:middle line:90% I said, Do you hear me? 00:43:52.570 --> 00:43:55.120 align:middle line:90% Meri-wether, the Sheriff said. 00:43:55.120 --> 00:43:57.160 align:middle line:84% That's some name for red nigger, ain't it? 00:43:57.160 --> 00:43:58.660 align:middle line:84% You're the smart one, ain't you kid? 00:43:58.660 --> 00:44:00.460 align:middle line:84% Ain't you supposed to be the smart Cheyenne? 00:44:00.460 --> 00:44:01.720 align:middle line:84% Done good in the war, and now they 00:44:01.720 --> 00:44:03.470 align:middle line:84% gone to send their little pet Christ-lovin 00:44:03.470 --> 00:44:05.453 align:middle line:84% Cheyenne to college, ain't that right, kid. 00:44:05.453 --> 00:44:07.120 align:middle line:84% Well, kid, if you're a real smart Injun, 00:44:07.120 --> 00:44:08.920 align:middle line:84% you won't even go look at me that way, 00:44:08.920 --> 00:44:12.880 align:middle line:84% you'll keep your Injun nose clean, kid. 00:44:12.880 --> 00:44:14.050 align:middle line:90% Oh, to be an Indian! 00:44:14.050 --> 00:44:17.200 align:middle line:90% Now that spring is here. 00:44:17.200 --> 00:44:18.820 align:middle line:90% Big Irma-- be a good boy, Lewis. 00:44:18.820 --> 00:44:20.140 align:middle line:90% Do not fight so much. 00:44:20.140 --> 00:44:22.660 align:middle line:90% You come back and see us now. 00:44:22.660 --> 00:44:25.930 align:middle line:84% Alas, too late-- the world is dead you sleepyhead. 00:44:25.930 --> 00:44:28.180 align:middle line:84% The Inn of the Dog and the Vulture. 00:44:28.180 --> 00:44:30.325 align:middle line:84% There are voices, you see, then singing voices, 00:44:30.325 --> 00:44:32.020 align:middle line:84% then strange musics, hollowed out, 00:44:32.020 --> 00:44:33.970 align:middle line:84% as if drifted through a wind tunnel, 00:44:33.970 --> 00:44:39.850 align:middle line:84% these followed by a huge void of bleak silence suggesting Death. 00:44:39.850 --> 00:44:43.780 align:middle line:84% The Story Of My Life, by Lewis Moon. 00:44:43.780 --> 00:44:47.140 align:middle line:84% Now-- something has happened, was happening, is happening. 00:44:47.140 --> 00:44:48.850 align:middle line:90% But will not happen. 00:44:48.850 --> 00:44:49.910 align:middle line:90% Do you hear me? 00:44:49.910 --> 00:44:52.010 align:middle line:90% I said, do you hear me? 00:44:52.010 --> 00:44:54.760 align:middle line:90% A softer tone, please. 00:44:54.760 --> 00:44:56.450 align:middle line:90% To begin at the beginning-- 00:44:56.450 --> 00:44:58.780 align:middle line:84% my name is Meriwether Lewis Moon. 00:44:58.780 --> 00:45:00.280 align:middle line:90% Or is that the end? 00:45:00.280 --> 00:45:02.500 align:middle line:84% Again-- I was named Meriwether Lewis Moon, 00:45:02.500 --> 00:45:05.440 align:middle line:84% after Meriwether Lewis, who with Lieutenant William Clark 00:45:05.440 --> 00:45:09.910 align:middle line:84% crossed North America without killing a single Indian. 00:45:09.910 --> 00:45:11.650 align:middle line:90% So said my father. 00:45:11.650 --> 00:45:13.990 align:middle line:84% My father is Alvin Moon "Joe Redcloud," 00:45:13.990 --> 00:45:15.940 align:middle line:90% who lived up on North Mountain. 00:45:15.940 --> 00:45:19.200 align:middle line:84% Alvin Moon still traps and hunts, and in World War I, 00:45:19.200 --> 00:45:21.300 align:middle line:84% when still a despised non-citizen, 00:45:21.300 --> 00:45:26.040 align:middle line:84% exempt from service, joined those 16,999 other Indians as 00:45:26.040 --> 00:45:27.960 align:middle line:84% insane as himself who volunteered 00:45:27.960 --> 00:45:31.860 align:middle line:84% to serve in World War I. Alvin Moon is half-Cheyenne. 00:45:31.860 --> 00:45:34.290 align:middle line:84% He went down South when he came home and took up 00:45:34.290 --> 00:45:36.870 align:middle line:84% with a Creole Choctaw woman named Big Irma 00:45:36.870 --> 00:45:39.030 align:middle line:84% and brought her back up to his mountain. 00:45:39.030 --> 00:45:40.860 align:middle line:84% The worst mistake that Alvin Moon ever made 00:45:40.860 --> 00:45:42.900 align:middle line:84% was to trying to educate himself. 00:45:42.900 --> 00:45:44.880 align:middle line:84% His information about Lewis and Clark 00:45:44.880 --> 00:45:47.310 align:middle line:84% was the only piece of education he ever obtained, 00:45:47.310 --> 00:45:48.840 align:middle line:90% and it was wrong. 00:45:48.840 --> 00:45:50.840 align:middle line:84% He used to joke that he couldn't educate himself 00:45:50.840 --> 00:45:52.680 align:middle line:84% unless he learned to read, and how could he 00:45:52.680 --> 00:45:55.050 align:middle line:84% learn to read if he didn't educate himself? 00:45:55.050 --> 00:45:56.610 align:middle line:84% So he left off hunting and trapping 00:45:56.610 --> 00:45:58.353 align:middle line:84% and came down off his mountain and took 00:45:58.353 --> 00:46:00.270 align:middle line:84% work near the reservation to keep his children 00:46:00.270 --> 00:46:04.290 align:middle line:84% in the mission school, to give them a better chance in life. 00:46:04.290 --> 00:46:06.300 align:middle line:84% I ain't got nothin, said Joe Redcloud, 00:46:06.300 --> 00:46:08.620 align:middle line:84% and I don't know nothin, not a thing. 00:46:08.620 --> 00:46:11.670 align:middle line:84% And the hell of it is, I broke my back, paid out every cent, 00:46:11.670 --> 00:46:14.040 align:middle line:84% to keep them kids into that school, 00:46:14.040 --> 00:46:17.620 align:middle line:84% and now they don't know nothin, neither, only Jesus Christ. 00:46:17.620 --> 00:46:18.870 align:middle line:90% Now ain't that somethin? 00:46:18.870 --> 00:46:21.330 align:middle line:84% They sit around here thinking about Godamighty, I reckon, 00:46:21.330 --> 00:46:24.510 align:middle line:84% while they're waiting on their gover'ment reliefs. 00:46:24.510 --> 00:46:27.660 align:middle line:90% All but Meriwether Lewis. 00:46:27.660 --> 00:46:30.600 align:middle line:84% Again-- my name is Lewis Moon, and I I'm lying on a bed-- 00:46:30.600 --> 00:46:31.800 align:middle line:90% Deathbed? 00:46:31.800 --> 00:46:34.045 align:middle line:84% In a strange country, and I hear eerie voices 00:46:34.045 --> 00:46:37.140 align:middle line:84% and a crack is appearing on the wall, wider and wider, 00:46:37.140 --> 00:46:39.900 align:middle line:84% and the bulb in the ceiling is growing more and more bulbous, 00:46:39.900 --> 00:46:41.790 align:middle line:90% and will surely explode-- 00:46:41.790 --> 00:46:43.260 align:middle line:90% a crack-- of doom? 00:46:43.260 --> 00:46:44.595 align:middle line:90% Of lightning down the walls. 00:46:44.595 --> 00:46:47.430 align:middle line:90% 00:46:47.430 --> 00:46:49.020 align:middle line:84% You listen to me, Meriwether Lewis-- 00:46:49.020 --> 00:46:51.150 align:middle line:84% what the hell you sass that Sheriff for? 00:46:51.150 --> 00:46:52.625 align:middle line:90% He mighta kilt you. 00:46:52.625 --> 00:46:54.000 align:middle line:84% You stay clear of whiskey, then-- 00:46:54.000 --> 00:46:55.170 align:middle line:84% long as you can't stay out of trouble, 00:46:55.170 --> 00:46:56.430 align:middle line:90% you ain't welcome back. 00:46:56.430 --> 00:46:58.458 align:middle line:84% And don't show your Mam that bad face, neither. 00:46:58.458 --> 00:47:00.000 align:middle line:84% I whupped you plenty of times before, 00:47:00.000 --> 00:47:02.670 align:middle line:84% and I'll whup you again, hero or no hero. 00:47:02.670 --> 00:47:05.550 align:middle line:84% Alvin Moon "Joe Redcloud" said, you're 00:47:05.550 --> 00:47:08.130 align:middle line:84% all your people have got left to count on. 00:47:08.130 --> 00:47:10.168 align:middle line:84% You go get that education, hear me now? 00:47:10.168 --> 00:47:12.210 align:middle line:84% And then you come on home and learn it back to us 00:47:12.210 --> 00:47:13.567 align:middle line:90% as best you can. 00:47:13.567 --> 00:47:15.150 align:middle line:84% Because the way things are goin' here, 00:47:15.150 --> 00:47:16.320 align:middle line:84% there ain't no hope for none of us, 00:47:16.320 --> 00:47:18.030 align:middle line:84% lest we don't get somethin' learned here 00:47:18.030 --> 00:47:21.540 align:middle line:90% to us pretty quick. 00:47:21.540 --> 00:47:24.600 align:middle line:84% I have opened my eyes again, to shut off all that blue. 00:47:24.600 --> 00:47:26.760 align:middle line:84% Color can threaten, overwhelm, whirling 00:47:26.760 --> 00:47:28.980 align:middle line:84% like that-- an ant in the kaleidoscope 00:47:28.980 --> 00:47:30.600 align:middle line:90% might sense the problem. 00:47:30.600 --> 00:47:33.000 align:middle line:84% But out here the bed shudders, the chair sneaks, 00:47:33.000 --> 00:47:34.110 align:middle line:90% the bureau budges-- 00:47:34.110 --> 00:47:35.880 align:middle line:90% they back and fill-- 00:47:35.880 --> 00:47:39.360 align:middle line:84% --plenty times before and I'll whup you again hero or no hero. 00:47:39.360 --> 00:47:42.420 align:middle line:84% Alvin Moon "Joe Redcloud" said, you're 00:47:42.420 --> 00:47:44.790 align:middle line:84% all your people here got left to count on. 00:47:44.790 --> 00:47:46.828 align:middle line:84% You go get that education, hear me now? 00:47:46.828 --> 00:47:48.870 align:middle line:84% And then you come on home and learn it back to us 00:47:48.870 --> 00:47:50.268 align:middle line:90% as best you can. 00:47:50.268 --> 00:47:51.810 align:middle line:84% Because the way things are goin here, 00:47:51.810 --> 00:47:52.950 align:middle line:84% there ain't no hope for none of us, 00:47:52.950 --> 00:47:54.660 align:middle line:84% lest we don't get somethin' learned here 00:47:54.660 --> 00:47:58.140 align:middle line:90% to us pretty quick. 00:47:58.140 --> 00:48:01.170 align:middle line:84% I have opened my eyes again to shut off all that blue. 00:48:01.170 --> 00:48:03.330 align:middle line:84% Color can threaten, overwhelm, whirling 00:48:03.330 --> 00:48:05.520 align:middle line:84% like that-- an ant in a kaleidoscope 00:48:05.520 --> 00:48:07.110 align:middle line:90% might sense the problem. 00:48:07.110 --> 00:48:09.540 align:middle line:84% But out here the bed shudders, the chair sneaks, 00:48:09.540 --> 00:48:10.650 align:middle line:90% the bureau budges-- 00:48:10.650 --> 00:48:14.820 align:middle line:84% they back and fill, about to charge. 00:48:14.820 --> 00:48:18.330 align:middle line:84% From above the bulb socket descends like a falling spider, 00:48:18.330 --> 00:48:21.000 align:middle line:90% leaving the bulb behind. 00:48:21.000 --> 00:48:23.670 align:middle line:84% I am cut off, I feel both silly and depressed-- 00:48:23.670 --> 00:48:26.760 align:middle line:84% it is the solitude, not solitude but isolation. 00:48:26.760 --> 00:48:30.960 align:middle line:84% Death is the final isolation, but from what, from what? 00:48:30.960 --> 00:48:34.380 align:middle line:84% I am trying to reach out to you, but I do not know who you are, 00:48:34.380 --> 00:48:36.030 align:middle line:90% I cannot see you. 00:48:36.030 --> 00:48:38.940 align:middle line:84% I only feel your presence in this room. 00:48:38.940 --> 00:48:43.920 align:middle line:84% Perhaps, I wonder, are you inside me? 00:48:43.920 --> 00:48:47.040 align:middle line:84% And if so-- now listen carefully. 00:48:47.040 --> 00:48:51.480 align:middle line:84% There is a lost reality, a reality lost long ago. 00:48:51.480 --> 00:48:52.890 align:middle line:90% Are you in touch with it-- 00:48:52.890 --> 00:48:54.330 align:middle line:90% can you tell me-- 00:48:54.330 --> 00:48:56.430 align:middle line:90% did you see? 00:48:56.430 --> 00:48:59.070 align:middle line:84% Or are you the figure in the center of the street? 00:48:59.070 --> 00:49:01.260 align:middle line:90% So you came here, after all! 00:49:01.260 --> 00:49:02.260 align:middle line:90% Can you hear me? 00:49:02.260 --> 00:49:04.860 align:middle line:90% I said, can you hear me? 00:49:04.860 --> 00:49:06.780 align:middle line:90% He felt like crying but did not. 00:49:06.780 --> 00:49:08.610 align:middle line:90% He had not cried in 20 years-- 00:49:08.610 --> 00:49:09.300 align:middle line:90% no, more. 00:49:09.300 --> 00:49:10.530 align:middle line:90% Had he ever cried? 00:49:10.530 --> 00:49:12.270 align:middle line:84% And he did not really feel like crying. 00:49:12.270 --> 00:49:15.000 align:middle line:84% He felt like laughing, but did not. 00:49:15.000 --> 00:49:17.460 align:middle line:84% Stalking Joe Redcloud's shack as twilight came, 00:49:17.460 --> 00:49:20.250 align:middle line:84% he waited to be called back, beaten, and forgiven, 00:49:20.250 --> 00:49:22.560 align:middle line:84% but with a clear prairie darkness came the knowledge 00:49:22.560 --> 00:49:25.058 align:middle line:84% that the call would never come, that the days of tears 00:49:25.058 --> 00:49:26.850 align:middle line:84% and comfort had come and gone before he had 00:49:26.850 --> 00:49:28.620 align:middle line:90% realized they would ever end. 00:49:28.620 --> 00:49:31.170 align:middle line:84% Dry-eyed, enraged, he crouched in the sagebrush 00:49:31.170 --> 00:49:33.030 align:middle line:84% for a little while, and then moved off 00:49:33.030 --> 00:49:36.480 align:middle line:84% like a lean yearling grizzly driven snarling from the cave, 00:49:36.480 --> 00:49:38.940 align:middle line:84% feeling very bad and very good at the same time, 00:49:38.940 --> 00:49:41.470 align:middle line:90% and spoiling for a fight. 00:49:41.470 --> 00:49:44.160 align:middle line:84% He crouched beside the window sill, his back to the world 00:49:44.160 --> 00:49:46.560 align:middle line:84% without and far away you heard them coming, 00:49:46.560 --> 00:49:49.680 align:middle line:84% the marching huge nameless armies coming toward him, 00:49:49.680 --> 00:49:51.540 align:middle line:84% and once again his hands turned cold. 00:49:51.540 --> 00:49:53.040 align:middle line:90% He felt very cold. 00:49:53.040 --> 00:49:54.690 align:middle line:84% On the wall of the room, over the door, 00:49:54.690 --> 00:49:58.260 align:middle line:84% he saw a huge moth with a large white spot on each wing. 00:49:58.260 --> 00:50:01.320 align:middle line:84% It palpitated gently-- he could hear the palpitations, 00:50:01.320 --> 00:50:02.490 align:middle line:90% and the spots were growing. 00:50:02.490 --> 00:50:05.520 align:middle line:90% 00:50:05.520 --> 00:50:07.680 align:middle line:84% The dark was rolling from the forest all around, 00:50:07.680 --> 00:50:10.920 align:middle line:84% and the sky was so wild as the sun set that it hurt his eyes. 00:50:10.920 --> 00:50:13.500 align:middle line:84% He reeled and fell, then thrashed to his feet 00:50:13.500 --> 00:50:16.020 align:middle line:84% and fell again, across the bed, and was sucked down 00:50:16.020 --> 00:50:18.150 align:middle line:84% into the darkness as the music burst the walls 00:50:18.150 --> 00:50:19.080 align:middle line:90% and overwhelmed him. 00:50:19.080 --> 00:50:21.810 align:middle line:90% 00:50:21.810 --> 00:50:24.690 align:middle line:90% Snow, dawn, black aspens. 00:50:24.690 --> 00:50:26.850 align:middle line:84% The creature rose at the boy's coming 00:50:26.850 --> 00:50:29.190 align:middle line:84% and somersaulted backward, whining and snarling, 00:50:29.190 --> 00:50:31.860 align:middle line:84% the trap clatter muffled in white silences. 00:50:31.860 --> 00:50:34.590 align:middle line:84% Whiteness, the blood pools colored black, 00:50:34.590 --> 00:50:37.080 align:middle line:90% the tight-sewn cold. 00:50:37.080 --> 00:50:40.530 align:middle line:84% A great head, and yellow eyes too big for Coyote-- 00:50:40.530 --> 00:50:43.260 align:middle line:84% the last wolf from the mountains, first and only wolf 00:50:43.260 --> 00:50:45.250 align:middle line:90% the boy had ever seen. 00:50:45.250 --> 00:50:46.500 align:middle line:90% He had no rifle. 00:50:46.500 --> 00:50:48.690 align:middle line:84% The old wolf leaped, to drive him back, 00:50:48.690 --> 00:50:51.630 align:middle line:84% and fell forward on its muzzle, which rose white-tipped 00:50:51.630 --> 00:50:52.620 align:middle line:90% from the snow. 00:50:52.620 --> 00:50:54.510 align:middle line:90% Its tongue fell out. 00:50:54.510 --> 00:50:56.610 align:middle line:84% The icy steel worked tighter on its foreleg, 00:50:56.610 --> 00:50:59.460 align:middle line:84% and the pain confused it, for it looked aside and wagged 00:50:59.460 --> 00:51:01.770 align:middle line:90% his tail a little, shivering. 00:51:01.770 --> 00:51:04.350 align:middle line:84% Then, just once, it howled a real wolf howl, 00:51:04.350 --> 00:51:07.410 align:middle line:84% pure as the black air of the mountain forest. 00:51:07.410 --> 00:51:08.820 align:middle line:90% Then it lay down. 00:51:08.820 --> 00:51:10.560 align:middle line:84% It had been gnawing on its foreleg, 00:51:10.560 --> 00:51:12.660 align:middle line:84% just above where a trap had snapped, 00:51:12.660 --> 00:51:14.730 align:middle line:84% and now it began again, whining and snarling 00:51:14.730 --> 00:51:17.700 align:middle line:84% at its own agony, and stubbornness of its own bone 00:51:17.700 --> 00:51:19.620 align:middle line:90% which held it earthbound. 00:51:19.620 --> 00:51:22.380 align:middle line:84% The mad yellow eyes watched him, the taut muzzle, 00:51:22.380 --> 00:51:25.740 align:middle line:84% the purplish curled gum, red teeth, the jaw. 00:51:25.740 --> 00:51:29.220 align:middle line:84% The scrape of teeth on living bone made him cry out. 00:51:29.220 --> 00:51:33.000 align:middle line:84% The ears flicked forward, but the gnawing did not stop. 00:51:33.000 --> 00:51:35.370 align:middle line:84% When he came close, it sprang sideways-- 00:51:35.370 --> 00:51:37.470 align:middle line:84% another such spring might free it. 00:51:37.470 --> 00:51:41.250 align:middle line:84% He drew back, frightened of the mad wild yellow eyes. 00:51:41.250 --> 00:51:44.130 align:middle line:84% The sun rose to low banks of winter clouds, 00:51:44.130 --> 00:51:45.510 align:middle line:90% the day grew cold. 00:51:45.510 --> 00:51:49.140 align:middle line:84% He cut a sapling and carved a spear point, long and white. 00:51:49.140 --> 00:51:51.270 align:middle line:84% Confronting the wolf, he drove the raw white wood 00:51:51.270 --> 00:51:53.220 align:middle line:84% into its chest as it came up at him 00:51:53.220 --> 00:51:54.750 align:middle line:84% and fought to pin it to the ground 00:51:54.750 --> 00:51:56.430 align:middle line:90% and grind the pain out of it. 00:51:56.430 --> 00:51:59.040 align:middle line:84% But still it fought to live, dull heavy thumps 00:51:59.040 --> 00:52:01.080 align:middle line:90% in the white flying powder. 00:52:01.080 --> 00:52:02.820 align:middle line:90% A blood flecked seared his lip-- 00:52:02.820 --> 00:52:05.850 align:middle line:84% the wolf was snapping the place where the stake pierced it. 00:52:05.850 --> 00:52:08.400 align:middle line:84% Shaken free, he had fallen within reach of it, 00:52:08.400 --> 00:52:11.040 align:middle line:84% but the stunned creature only raised its bleeding teeth 00:52:11.040 --> 00:52:14.550 align:middle line:84% from its own wounds and stared at him and past him, 00:52:14.550 --> 00:52:17.400 align:middle line:84% blinked once at the dying winter world, in daze, 00:52:17.400 --> 00:52:19.620 align:middle line:84% and lay its head upon its forepaws panting. 00:52:19.620 --> 00:52:22.322 align:middle line:90% 00:52:22.322 --> 00:52:24.780 align:middle line:84% This is a proud day for the mission, Lewis, and a proud day 00:52:24.780 --> 00:52:25.530 align:middle line:90% for your people. 00:52:25.530 --> 00:52:26.520 align:middle line:90% We all count on you. 00:52:26.520 --> 00:52:29.018 align:middle line:90% 00:52:29.018 --> 00:52:30.810 align:middle line:84% He struggled to free himself, but the stake 00:52:30.810 --> 00:52:33.000 align:middle line:84% held in his heart, the hole in his heart-- 00:52:33.000 --> 00:52:35.130 align:middle line:84% even breathing hurt him, even breathing. 00:52:35.130 --> 00:52:37.470 align:middle line:84% He clawed at his own chest to ease it. 00:52:37.470 --> 00:52:39.150 align:middle line:84% If only he could get that pain out, 00:52:39.150 --> 00:52:41.775 align:middle line:84% then his heart would bleed his life away, but gently. 00:52:41.775 --> 00:52:45.842 align:middle line:90% 00:52:45.842 --> 00:52:47.300 align:middle line:84% With the music rising in the summer 00:52:47.300 --> 00:52:49.880 align:middle line:84% breeze that came a gay preposterous parade 00:52:49.880 --> 00:52:51.140 align:middle line:90% along the high road-- 00:52:51.140 --> 00:52:54.950 align:middle line:84% calliope floodings and fanfare, with bandwagons and floats 00:52:54.950 --> 00:52:58.460 align:middle line:84% and maelstroms of confetti, pouter pigeons 00:52:58.460 --> 00:53:02.120 align:middle line:84% and emerald parakeets, bursting drums and golden tubas, 00:53:02.120 --> 00:53:06.290 align:middle line:84% and gauzy fat-cheeked majorettes in crotch tight sateen suits, 00:53:06.290 --> 00:53:09.125 align:middle line:84% chins bouncing on high squeaking breasts like taut balloons-- 00:53:09.125 --> 00:53:11.450 align:middle line:90% oompa, oompa, oompa, oompa. 00:53:11.450 --> 00:53:14.570 align:middle line:84% And an immense blowzy one-man band of a hand-me-down Big 00:53:14.570 --> 00:53:16.640 align:middle line:84% Irma, beer-soaked and high-colored, 00:53:16.640 --> 00:53:19.760 align:middle line:84% all billowing bows and curlicues and furbelows 00:53:19.760 --> 00:53:23.120 align:middle line:84% of hue and texture Look At Her Go, Hurrah Hurrah! 00:53:23.120 --> 00:53:24.950 align:middle line:84% All leer and wink, hiking her skirts 00:53:24.950 --> 00:53:27.380 align:middle line:84% to turn the ankle, pretty still beneath the mass 00:53:27.380 --> 00:53:29.540 align:middle line:84% of tired flesh, and trying in vain 00:53:29.540 --> 00:53:32.660 align:middle line:84% to shake a ball of hair and dog turd from her heel, 00:53:32.660 --> 00:53:36.140 align:middle line:84% squinshing and squashing and squirting along like a banquet 00:53:36.140 --> 00:53:37.760 align:middle line:90% dumped into a bag. 00:53:37.760 --> 00:53:39.650 align:middle line:84% She wore a gigantesque plumed hat, 00:53:39.650 --> 00:53:42.860 align:middle line:84% which she flew like a flag, and as the old tub pushed along, 00:53:42.860 --> 00:53:44.660 align:middle line:84% batting her eyes and swinging her butt, 00:53:44.660 --> 00:53:47.750 align:middle line:84% she leaked and sagged and oozed so woefully at the seams 00:53:47.750 --> 00:53:50.210 align:middle line:84% that rats and crows fought for her leavings, 00:53:50.210 --> 00:53:52.730 align:middle line:84% while in the front and alongside, as trumpets blew 00:53:52.730 --> 00:53:56.120 align:middle line:84% and pennants flew and children snickered and horses nickered, 00:53:56.120 --> 00:53:59.570 align:middle line:84% stores and provisions and water and fuel were crammed aboard. 00:53:59.570 --> 00:54:02.000 align:middle line:84% Varlets hurled up trays of tarts and heaved up 00:54:02.000 --> 00:54:04.790 align:middle line:84% meats and strung up wine flagons and kegs of ale, 00:54:04.790 --> 00:54:08.060 align:middle line:84% while others ran to pump in gasoline and air, 00:54:08.060 --> 00:54:10.310 align:middle line:84% barely able to offset the waste and loss 00:54:10.310 --> 00:54:12.500 align:middle line:84% of the vast outpourings beneath-- 00:54:12.500 --> 00:54:14.240 align:middle line:84% Big Irma meanwhile, nothing daunted, 00:54:14.240 --> 00:54:15.890 align:middle line:84% leering and winking to beat hell, 00:54:15.890 --> 00:54:18.530 align:middle line:84% and curtsying prettily as the bands played and hats were 00:54:18.530 --> 00:54:21.680 align:middle line:84% tossed and wild cheers rent the air hip hip hurroo 00:54:21.680 --> 00:54:23.870 align:middle line:84% and winking her blinkers and twinking her pinky 00:54:23.870 --> 00:54:27.650 align:middle line:84% and twirling a tiny parasol, all giggling and goosed and poked, 00:54:27.650 --> 00:54:29.360 align:middle line:84% as if to say, well, sweet Christ knows 00:54:29.360 --> 00:54:30.545 align:middle line:90% I always done my damnedest." 00:54:30.545 --> 00:54:32.694 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:54:32.694 --> 00:54:35.030 align:middle line:90% 00:54:35.030 --> 00:54:37.670 align:middle line:84% "Once upon a time, at morning, a small blood-silver river 00:54:37.670 --> 00:54:40.340 align:middle line:84% in the rising plains, the silver undersides 00:54:40.340 --> 00:54:43.880 align:middle line:84% of wind-awakened leaves, the silver spider webs in dew. 00:54:43.880 --> 00:54:46.340 align:middle line:84% A small boy hunting, poised, quick, listening, 00:54:46.340 --> 00:54:49.160 align:middle line:84% in a fine old-smelling boat parting new reeds. 00:54:49.160 --> 00:54:53.330 align:middle line:84% Soft drops falling from an oar, a newborn sun, far bugling, 00:54:53.330 --> 00:54:54.290 align:middle line:90% a swan. 00:54:54.290 --> 00:54:56.900 align:middle line:84% The stalk, the shot, the yell of blackbirds, 00:54:56.900 --> 00:55:00.080 align:middle line:84% the white bird turning a slow circle, head under water. 00:55:00.080 --> 00:55:02.660 align:middle line:84% Feathers floating and wild silence. 00:55:02.660 --> 00:55:05.060 align:middle line:84% That morning his skin tingled, and he laughed aloud 00:55:05.060 --> 00:55:07.850 align:middle line:84% in that sky-high aloneness that was not loneliness, 00:55:07.850 --> 00:55:10.220 align:middle line:84% the strength of a young animal among animals 00:55:10.220 --> 00:55:13.020 align:middle line:90% and the soft summer sunrise. 00:55:13.020 --> 00:55:13.520 align:middle line:90% Horses-- 00:55:13.520 --> 00:55:16.490 align:middle line:84% --rodeos, long murky bars and rotten sawdust smell 00:55:16.490 --> 00:55:19.190 align:middle line:84% and high small sandy towns of the Great Basin, 00:55:19.190 --> 00:55:21.650 align:middle line:84% a coyote trapped by hurtling cars where a road cut 00:55:21.650 --> 00:55:23.660 align:middle line:84% through the rock, a lone whiskey bottle 00:55:23.660 --> 00:55:25.280 align:middle line:90% on the shoulder of the road. 00:55:25.280 --> 00:55:29.240 align:middle line:84% Night voices, speed, a dirtied strength, a flight, a maiming, 00:55:29.240 --> 00:55:30.350 align:middle line:90% a lost friend. 00:55:30.350 --> 00:55:32.900 align:middle line:84% Women and bystanders overrun, struck aside 00:55:32.900 --> 00:55:36.470 align:middle line:84% by wheels spun loose from flying axles, flying hooves, 00:55:36.470 --> 00:55:37.580 align:middle line:90% by fenders-- 00:55:37.580 --> 00:55:40.910 align:middle line:84% highways, sirens, howling lights, a crash. 00:55:40.910 --> 00:55:41.960 align:middle line:90% Dread silence-- 00:55:41.960 --> 00:55:42.890 align:middle line:90% --smoke-- 00:55:42.890 --> 00:55:46.310 align:middle line:84% --and twisted metal shards, flayed twisted limbs, 00:55:46.310 --> 00:55:49.700 align:middle line:84% a staring eye, and gasoline spreading like a stain of blood 00:55:49.700 --> 00:55:51.680 align:middle line:90% on the stunned pavement-- 00:55:51.680 --> 00:55:54.500 align:middle line:84% hiss of steam, oncoming sirens, sirens, 00:55:54.500 --> 00:55:58.800 align:middle line:90% I-A-R-R-A-O-W-A-O-A-O-W. 00:55:58.800 --> 00:56:00.420 align:middle line:90% Down the road. 00:56:00.420 --> 00:56:02.910 align:middle line:84% The big two-tone auto stank of lotion and cigar 00:56:02.910 --> 00:56:04.650 align:middle line:90% butts, but it moved. 00:56:04.650 --> 00:56:06.870 align:middle line:84% It roared across the land like an apocalypse, 00:56:06.870 --> 00:56:10.680 align:middle line:84% almost to the state line, before the oil gauge flash red. 00:56:10.680 --> 00:56:13.260 align:middle line:84% Then he forced it harder still, grinding his teeth 00:56:13.260 --> 00:56:15.600 align:middle line:84% and driving the gas through it to burn it clean, 00:56:15.600 --> 00:56:18.030 align:middle line:84% until it tires reeked in the body shuddered, 00:56:18.030 --> 00:56:21.290 align:middle line:84% until the fat plastic dashboard bulging with warnings, 00:56:21.290 --> 00:56:23.460 align:middle line:84% until the whole fat contraption of churchgoing 00:56:23.460 --> 00:56:25.830 align:middle line:84% chromium and patriotic plush screeched 00:56:25.830 --> 00:56:28.740 align:middle line:84% and choked on its own heat and burst its block 00:56:28.740 --> 00:56:31.800 align:middle line:84% and screamed to a hissing locked fiery halt with eight 00:56:31.800 --> 00:56:34.120 align:middle line:84% million all-American motorcycles hard behind. 00:56:34.120 --> 00:56:38.010 align:middle line:84% I-A-R-R-A-O-A-O-W. A last swig and he broke the bottle, 00:56:38.010 --> 00:56:39.690 align:middle line:84% then toppled out, rolling laughing, 00:56:39.690 --> 00:56:41.190 align:middle line:90% on the highway shoulder. 00:56:41.190 --> 00:56:43.440 align:middle line:84% Down he went through waving weeds into the swamp, 00:56:43.440 --> 00:56:45.420 align:middle line:84% hailing and cursing the cop silhouettes, 00:56:45.420 --> 00:56:48.360 align:middle line:84% with two thousand dollars and a hand cut by broken teeth, 00:56:48.360 --> 00:56:50.910 align:middle line:84% and nothing and nowhere, but free, by Christ, 00:56:50.910 --> 00:56:53.970 align:middle line:84% how free of their whole Indian game. 00:56:53.970 --> 00:56:56.010 align:middle line:90% He headed eastward to New York. 00:56:56.010 --> 00:56:57.900 align:middle line:84% On a truck radio he heard the charges. 00:56:57.900 --> 00:57:00.990 align:middle line:84% Grand larceny-- an automobile and two thousand dollars-- 00:57:00.990 --> 00:57:03.750 align:middle line:90% and felonious assault. 00:57:03.750 --> 00:57:06.000 align:middle line:84% See, Lewis, it ain't gonna work, man. 00:57:06.000 --> 00:57:08.670 align:middle line:90% You find yourself another local. 00:57:08.670 --> 00:57:09.373 align:middle line:90% I don't get it. 00:57:09.373 --> 00:57:11.790 align:middle line:84% You had a fight in here yourself only last week-- you guys 00:57:11.790 --> 00:57:14.370 align:middle line:90% were drunk right on the job. 00:57:14.370 --> 00:57:16.110 align:middle line:84% You don't fight the way we fight. 00:57:16.110 --> 00:57:18.090 align:middle line:90% We fight for fun, Lewis. 00:57:18.090 --> 00:57:19.230 align:middle line:90% Because we like it. 00:57:19.230 --> 00:57:20.730 align:middle line:90% Because we like it. 00:57:20.730 --> 00:57:22.410 align:middle line:90% We ain't trying to prove nothin. 00:57:22.410 --> 00:57:24.810 align:middle line:84% So you just find yourself a nice white local where 00:57:24.810 --> 00:57:26.730 align:middle line:90% they fight the way you fight. 00:57:26.730 --> 00:57:27.930 align:middle line:90% White local, huh? 00:57:27.930 --> 00:57:30.305 align:middle line:84% There's more Cheyenne in this blood coming out of my nose 00:57:30.305 --> 00:57:32.820 align:middle line:84% than there is Mohawk in all you bastards put together-- 00:57:32.820 --> 00:57:34.680 align:middle line:90% You got shit in your blood too. 00:57:34.680 --> 00:57:37.140 align:middle line:84% We never heard of Cheyennes, hardly, until you come along, 00:57:37.140 --> 00:57:40.320 align:middle line:84% and anyway, we ain't professional Indians like you. 00:57:40.320 --> 00:57:45.270 align:middle line:84% All we know about Indians, bub, is what we seen on television. 00:57:45.270 --> 00:57:47.670 align:middle line:84% Sirens, howling lights, another crash, another, 00:57:47.670 --> 00:57:49.620 align:middle line:90% still another-- modern times. 00:57:49.620 --> 00:57:54.570 align:middle line:84% Crash, crash, ca-rash-- that crazy kid is ca-razy-- 00:57:54.570 --> 00:57:55.950 align:middle line:90% he began to laugh. 00:57:55.950 --> 00:57:58.590 align:middle line:84% The crashes became gimcrack destruction, a breaking 00:57:58.590 --> 00:58:00.480 align:middle line:84% and tinkling of deafening dimensions, 00:58:00.480 --> 00:58:03.360 align:middle line:84% a mounting heap of slow jalopies hurling themselves together 00:58:03.360 --> 00:58:04.960 align:middle line:90% at a crossroads. 00:58:04.960 --> 00:58:05.460 align:middle line:90% Port-- 00:58:05.460 --> 00:58:08.730 align:middle line:84% --scene with rum, tropical colors, high white birds, 00:58:08.730 --> 00:58:10.710 align:middle line:90% the lonely palms of dawn-- 00:58:10.710 --> 00:58:13.360 align:middle line:84% a crazy legged Negress dancing nude-- 00:58:13.360 --> 00:58:13.860 align:middle line:90% --Wistaria-- 00:58:13.860 --> 00:58:15.705 align:middle line:90% --Her flesh-- 00:58:15.705 --> 00:58:17.080 align:middle line:84% Because the way things are going, 00:58:17.080 --> 00:58:18.450 align:middle line:84% there ain't no hope for none of us, 00:58:18.450 --> 00:58:20.450 align:middle line:84% lessen we don't get something learned here to us 00:58:20.450 --> 00:58:22.620 align:middle line:90% pretty quick-- 00:58:22.620 --> 00:58:23.370 align:middle line:90% Lucidity. 00:58:23.370 --> 00:58:24.030 align:middle line:90% He sighed. 00:58:24.030 --> 00:58:27.060 align:middle line:84% He lay there all laughed out and loose, loose as a dead snake 00:58:27.060 --> 00:58:30.360 align:middle line:84% slung on a rail, lay there drunk with gentleness and pleasure. 00:58:30.360 --> 00:58:33.315 align:middle line:84% Be a good boy, Lewis do not hate so much. 00:58:33.315 --> 00:58:36.678 align:middle line:84% --but this time, even as he laughed, an apprehension came. 00:58:36.678 --> 00:58:38.220 align:middle line:84% He crawled to the corner of the room, 00:58:38.220 --> 00:58:40.900 align:middle line:84% where he crouched low, watching both door and window. 00:58:40.900 --> 00:58:42.570 align:middle line:84% The noises were surrounding him, there 00:58:42.570 --> 00:58:44.850 align:middle line:84% was something happening to him, something happening, 00:58:44.850 --> 00:58:46.710 align:middle line:84% and he felt too tired now to deal with it. 00:58:46.710 --> 00:58:49.560 align:middle line:84% If he could only stop this laughing, but he could not. 00:58:49.560 --> 00:58:51.678 align:middle line:84% His laughter grew louder and louder, 00:58:51.678 --> 00:58:53.970 align:middle line:84% and when he tried to stop he could not close his mouth. 00:58:53.970 --> 00:58:55.710 align:middle line:84% It stretched wider and wider, until he 00:58:55.710 --> 00:58:58.440 align:middle line:84% swallowed the ceiling light, the room, the window and the night. 00:58:58.440 --> 00:59:01.270 align:middle line:84% The world rushed down into the cavernous void inside him, 00:59:01.270 --> 00:59:04.200 align:middle line:84% leaving him alone in space, pin-wheeling wildly 00:59:04.200 --> 00:59:07.890 align:middle line:84% like a jagged fragment spun out from a planet. 00:59:07.890 --> 00:59:09.870 align:middle line:84% A terrific wind blew, and his ears 00:59:09.870 --> 00:59:12.240 align:middle line:84% rang with the bells of blue-black space. 00:59:12.240 --> 00:59:14.700 align:middle line:84% The wind sealed his throat, his flesh turned cold, 00:59:14.700 --> 00:59:17.130 align:middle line:84% his screams were but squeaks snapped out and away 00:59:17.130 --> 00:59:19.350 align:middle line:90% by the passage of night spheres. 00:59:19.350 --> 00:59:21.300 align:middle line:84% Nor could he hear, there was no one to hear, 00:59:21.300 --> 00:59:23.280 align:middle line:84% there was no one where he had gone-- 00:59:23.280 --> 00:59:25.080 align:middle line:84% what's happening, what is happening-- 00:59:25.080 --> 00:59:27.040 align:middle line:84% He had flung himself away from life, 00:59:27.040 --> 00:59:30.000 align:middle line:84% from the very last realities, had strayed to the cold windy 00:59:30.000 --> 00:59:31.620 align:middle line:90% reaches of insanity. 00:59:31.620 --> 00:59:34.470 align:middle line:84% This perception was so clear and final that he moaned-- 00:59:34.470 --> 00:59:36.330 align:middle line:90% he would not find his way back. 00:59:36.330 --> 00:59:39.750 align:middle line:84% You've gone too far this time, you've gone too far. 00:59:39.750 --> 00:59:43.110 align:middle line:84% As he rolled into oblivion, his body cooled and became numb, 00:59:43.110 --> 00:59:47.400 align:middle line:84% inert, like a log seized up and borne out skyward by a cyclone. 00:59:47.400 --> 00:59:51.240 align:middle line:84% He struggled to reach out, catch hold, grasp, grip, hang on, 00:59:51.240 --> 00:59:52.110 align:middle line:90% but he could not. 00:59:52.110 --> 00:59:53.910 align:middle line:84% He could not, he was made of wood, 00:59:53.910 --> 00:59:56.730 align:middle line:84% and there was nothing to hang on to, not even his own thought-- 00:59:56.730 --> 00:59:58.470 align:middle line:84% thought shredding, drifting out of reach, 00:59:58.470 --> 01:00:00.060 align:middle line:90% like blowing spider webs. 01:00:00.060 --> 01:00:02.670 align:middle line:90% He was gone, gone, gone, gone-- 01:00:02.670 --> 01:00:04.140 align:middle line:90% and around again. 01:00:04.140 --> 01:00:05.820 align:middle line:84% The howling was in his head, and all 01:00:05.820 --> 01:00:07.620 align:middle line:90% about lay depthless silence. 01:00:07.620 --> 01:00:10.290 align:middle line:84% His screaming was ripped away before it had left his mouth, 01:00:10.290 --> 01:00:12.090 align:middle line:84% and the mouth itself was far away, 01:00:12.090 --> 01:00:14.490 align:middle line:84% a huge papered hoop blown through 01:00:14.490 --> 01:00:16.140 align:middle line:90% and tattered by the gales. 01:00:16.140 --> 01:00:18.880 align:middle line:84% The air rushed past, too fast to breathe-- 01:00:18.880 --> 01:00:22.530 align:middle line:84% his lungs sucked tight, shrivel like prunes, collapsed. 01:00:22.530 --> 01:00:24.390 align:middle line:90% He died. 01:00:24.390 --> 01:00:26.520 align:middle line:84% Death came as a huge bounteous quiet, 01:00:26.520 --> 01:00:28.770 align:middle line:84% in the bosom of a high white cloud. 01:00:28.770 --> 01:00:31.530 align:middle line:84% The wood of his body softened, the knots loosened. 01:00:31.530 --> 01:00:33.570 align:middle line:84% He opened up, lay back, exhausted, 01:00:33.570 --> 01:00:37.710 align:middle line:84% mouth slack, eyes wide like a bald eyes of a corpse. 01:00:37.710 --> 01:00:40.320 align:middle line:84% He glimpsed a hard light lucid region of his mind 01:00:40.320 --> 01:00:43.020 align:middle line:84% like a lone comet, wandering far out 01:00:43.020 --> 01:00:47.505 align:middle line:84% across the long night of the universe." 01:00:47.505 --> 01:00:49.485 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 01:00:49.485 --> 01:01:12.290 align:middle line:90% 01:01:12.290 --> 01:01:13.100 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 01:01:13.100 --> 01:01:15.170 align:middle line:84% I'd be very happy to answer any questions 01:01:15.170 --> 01:01:18.140 align:middle line:84% about those things I read or anything else that 01:01:18.140 --> 01:01:19.430 align:middle line:90% might occur to you. 01:01:19.430 --> 01:01:23.072 align:middle line:90% 01:01:23.072 --> 01:01:27.670 align:middle line:84% How did you decide to write about the Indian-- 01:01:27.670 --> 01:01:35.970 align:middle line:84% [INAUDIBLE] it's generally worse but, [INAUDIBLE] Indians. 01:01:35.970 --> 01:01:36.630 align:middle line:90% Mhm. 01:01:36.630 --> 01:01:40.860 align:middle line:84% My very first book, too, has an Indian guy 01:01:40.860 --> 01:01:42.600 align:middle line:84% who's sort of run over and trampled 01:01:42.600 --> 01:01:45.660 align:middle line:84% by the situation in New England where he is. 01:01:45.660 --> 01:01:49.800 align:middle line:84% So it's a long time, kind of, preoccupation. 01:01:49.800 --> 01:01:53.760 align:middle line:84% I think it's an underlying preoccupation of all of us 01:01:53.760 --> 01:01:58.140 align:middle line:90% in this country, really, that-- 01:01:58.140 --> 01:02:00.810 align:middle line:84% we talk a lot about Vietnam, now, and our uneasiness 01:02:00.810 --> 01:02:03.460 align:middle line:84% about that war, and that's been debated, as we all know, 01:02:03.460 --> 01:02:06.010 align:middle line:90% many times back and forth. 01:02:06.010 --> 01:02:09.900 align:middle line:84% But I think that, in part, that's kind of-- not a cover 01:02:09.900 --> 01:02:13.560 align:middle line:84% for our preoccupation on Indian people, 01:02:13.560 --> 01:02:16.680 align:middle line:84% I think that this really is, for those of us who feel strongly 01:02:16.680 --> 01:02:19.700 align:middle line:84% about this country, who feel and realize what a great country it 01:02:19.700 --> 01:02:23.212 align:middle line:84% is and could be, cannot live with our treatment 01:02:23.212 --> 01:02:24.420 align:middle line:90% of the Indian people, really. 01:02:24.420 --> 01:02:28.470 align:middle line:84% I think it's the kind of ongoing guilt and dread that we have. 01:02:28.470 --> 01:02:31.720 align:middle line:84% And that they-- anyway, in my life, 01:02:31.720 --> 01:02:34.440 align:middle line:84% I've always been bothered by it, and preoccupied with it, 01:02:34.440 --> 01:02:38.520 align:middle line:84% and I think it began that way, and it keeps popping up 01:02:38.520 --> 01:02:40.680 align:middle line:84% in more than half of my books, there 01:02:40.680 --> 01:02:43.590 align:middle line:84% is something having to do with Indians, 01:02:43.590 --> 01:02:44.910 align:middle line:90% it's not just recent at all. 01:02:44.910 --> 01:02:49.257 align:middle line:90% 01:02:49.257 --> 01:02:53.540 align:middle line:84% Is there any positive acceptance of In the Spirit 01:02:53.540 --> 01:02:56.870 align:middle line:84% of Crazy Horse, in state of South Dakota at all? 01:02:56.870 --> 01:02:58.910 align:middle line:90% Oh, yeah. 01:02:58.910 --> 01:03:00.500 align:middle line:90% Sure, there was. 01:03:00.500 --> 01:03:02.000 align:middle line:84% There are a lot of people there that 01:03:02.000 --> 01:03:04.280 align:middle line:84% aren't crazy about Governor Janklow, 01:03:04.280 --> 01:03:09.375 align:middle line:84% and those people liked it a lot, at least up 01:03:09.375 --> 01:03:11.107 align:middle line:90% to the time he sued. 01:03:11.107 --> 01:03:12.440 align:middle line:90% I'm don't want to be funny here. 01:03:12.440 --> 01:03:13.325 align:middle line:90% I think a lot-- 01:03:13.325 --> 01:03:16.190 align:middle line:84% I think the feeling among Indian people was very mixed. 01:03:16.190 --> 01:03:18.740 align:middle line:84% It kind of depended where your head was, 01:03:18.740 --> 01:03:20.810 align:middle line:84% and I've had a lot of wonderful letters, 01:03:20.810 --> 01:03:25.430 align:middle line:84% and response from there, and also some negative response. 01:03:25.430 --> 01:03:29.102 align:middle line:84% I think most of the white people in South Dakota 01:03:29.102 --> 01:03:30.560 align:middle line:84% are pretty suspicious of that book, 01:03:30.560 --> 01:03:33.560 align:middle line:84% unless they had a personal dislike for some of the FBI 01:03:33.560 --> 01:03:37.772 align:middle line:84% agents, or the governor, or some of the other people involved. 01:03:37.772 --> 01:03:39.230 align:middle line:84% I don't know, now, at least they're 01:03:39.230 --> 01:03:40.772 align:middle line:84% reading it though, thanks to the fact 01:03:40.772 --> 01:03:43.592 align:middle line:84% that I'm being sued up there by the governor. 01:03:43.592 --> 01:03:46.050 align:middle line:84% A lot of people are, kind of, picking it up and reading it. 01:03:46.050 --> 01:03:48.650 align:middle line:84% And there's quite a lot of editorial discussion. 01:03:48.650 --> 01:03:50.150 align:middle line:84% In fact, it's the biggest news story 01:03:50.150 --> 01:03:53.690 align:middle line:84% in South Dakota in the past year, been a lot of attention 01:03:53.690 --> 01:03:54.620 align:middle line:90% to it. 01:03:54.620 --> 01:03:58.340 align:middle line:84% I said to somebody today, my sales went up from 3 to 30 01:03:58.340 --> 01:04:01.280 align:middle line:90% because of it. 01:04:01.280 --> 01:04:04.130 align:middle line:90% Statewide, you know? 01:04:04.130 --> 01:04:06.890 align:middle line:84% So I'm not sure if that answers your question, but-- 01:04:06.890 --> 01:04:13.638 align:middle line:90% 01:04:13.638 --> 01:04:16.771 align:middle line:84% How extensive is your experience in the jungles 01:04:16.771 --> 01:04:17.500 align:middle line:90% of South America? 01:04:17.500 --> 01:04:18.083 align:middle line:90% How extensive? 01:04:18.083 --> 01:04:20.363 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 01:04:20.363 --> 01:04:22.030 align:middle line:84% Can you hear me if I get away from this? 01:04:22.030 --> 01:04:22.956 align:middle line:90% [RUSTLING] 01:04:22.956 --> 01:04:25.271 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 01:04:25.271 --> 01:04:27.130 align:middle line:90% 01:04:27.130 --> 01:04:27.970 align:middle line:90% Not very extensive. 01:04:27.970 --> 01:04:30.760 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 01:04:30.760 --> 01:04:32.010 align:middle line:90% No, I just was-- 01:04:32.010 --> 01:04:34.690 align:middle line:84% I had an assignment to go there, and I went down there 01:04:34.690 --> 01:04:37.660 align:middle line:84% for The New Yorker magazine, and I was fascinated by it. 01:04:37.660 --> 01:04:40.600 align:middle line:84% And I've been there, and I've since returned once or twice, 01:04:40.600 --> 01:04:41.873 align:middle line:90% for short periods. 01:04:41.873 --> 01:04:43.540 align:middle line:84% I was there for several months, I guess. 01:04:43.540 --> 01:04:46.158 align:middle line:84% I took-- I began by taking a freighter up the Amazon, 01:04:46.158 --> 01:04:47.950 align:middle line:84% from Belem all the way up to Iquitos, which 01:04:47.950 --> 01:04:50.770 align:middle line:84% is about 1800 miles up the Amazon, 01:04:50.770 --> 01:04:53.290 align:middle line:84% so it's a good, slow, relaxed way to see the Amazon. 01:04:53.290 --> 01:04:56.410 align:middle line:84% And then I got hung up on it, that whole area, 01:04:56.410 --> 01:04:59.230 align:middle line:84% and I heard about this fantastic fossil jawbone that 01:04:59.230 --> 01:05:01.930 align:middle line:84% had been discovered there, and I was out in the jungle, 01:05:01.930 --> 01:05:05.040 align:middle line:84% and got a couple of people together, 01:05:05.040 --> 01:05:07.670 align:middle line:84% and we actually went in canoes, and found the damn thing. 01:05:07.670 --> 01:05:10.740 align:middle line:90% It turned out to be a fossil-- 01:05:10.740 --> 01:05:12.705 align:middle line:84% I took pictures of it to the American Museum 01:05:12.705 --> 01:05:14.080 align:middle line:84% of Natural History, and they said 01:05:14.080 --> 01:05:17.050 align:middle line:84% that it was a fossil crocodilian, 01:05:17.050 --> 01:05:18.260 align:middle line:90% unknown to science. 01:05:18.260 --> 01:05:20.590 align:middle line:84% It was not less than 50 feet long. 01:05:20.590 --> 01:05:23.020 align:middle line:90% That's quite a crocodile. 01:05:23.020 --> 01:05:27.040 align:middle line:84% And unfortunately we lugged this damn jaw, it's petrified, 01:05:27.040 --> 01:05:29.312 align:middle line:84% it was a huge stone, it practically sank the canoe. 01:05:29.312 --> 01:05:31.270 align:middle line:84% And we lugged it down the river, it was really, 01:05:31.270 --> 01:05:35.140 align:middle line:84% I guess hundreds of miles, only have the Peruvian authorities 01:05:35.140 --> 01:05:36.910 align:middle line:84% confiscate it at the last minute, 01:05:36.910 --> 01:05:38.710 align:middle line:90% before we got it over the Andes. 01:05:38.710 --> 01:05:40.210 align:middle line:84% And unfortunately, nobody down there 01:05:40.210 --> 01:05:42.110 align:middle line:84% is really qualified to analyze it. 01:05:42.110 --> 01:05:44.830 align:middle line:84% So it's-- as far as I know, it still sits in the police yard 01:05:44.830 --> 01:05:47.493 align:middle line:90% in Pucallpa, Peru. 01:05:47.493 --> 01:05:48.910 align:middle line:84% If any of you ever go to Pucallpa, 01:05:48.910 --> 01:05:50.553 align:middle line:90% please see if it's still there. 01:05:50.553 --> 01:05:52.918 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 01:05:52.918 --> 01:05:57.175 align:middle line:90% 01:05:57.175 --> 01:06:00.003 align:middle line:84% When you're writing, what kind of discipline 01:06:00.003 --> 01:06:02.729 align:middle line:84% do you impose on yourself, such as number of hours per day, 01:06:02.729 --> 01:06:06.110 align:middle line:90% or things like that? 01:06:06.110 --> 01:06:09.530 align:middle line:84% Well, if I get obsessed, I work all day long. 01:06:09.530 --> 01:06:13.100 align:middle line:84% I don't really impose anything, except a sort 01:06:13.100 --> 01:06:15.650 align:middle line:84% of neurotic compulsion, you know. 01:06:15.650 --> 01:06:18.200 align:middle line:84% But I usually work in mornings, and if things are going well, 01:06:18.200 --> 01:06:21.060 align:middle line:84% I'll work into the early afternoon. 01:06:21.060 --> 01:06:24.320 align:middle line:84% And generally speaking, writing about five hours a day, 01:06:24.320 --> 01:06:27.080 align:middle line:84% I guess, and then I do research, and reading, and trying 01:06:27.080 --> 01:06:29.080 align:middle line:90% to pull it all together. 01:06:29.080 --> 01:06:32.000 align:middle line:90%