WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.800 align:middle line:90%
That's really so sweet.

00:00:01.800 --> 00:00:04.470 align:middle line:84%
Thank you, very kind
of all that to say.

00:00:04.470 --> 00:00:07.800 align:middle line:84%
Of course, all it does
is arousing the irony,

00:00:07.800 --> 00:00:10.650 align:middle line:84%
so that when you
talk about art, I

00:00:10.650 --> 00:00:14.298 align:middle line:84%
want to say something that Andy
Warhol said when he was asked

00:00:14.298 --> 00:00:16.590 align:middle line:84%
what art was, you know about
the famous line that said,

00:00:16.590 --> 00:00:17.910 align:middle line:90%
"Andy, what is art?"

00:00:17.910 --> 00:00:20.483 align:middle line:84%
He said, "isn't
that a guy's name?"

00:00:20.483 --> 00:00:21.900 align:middle line:84%
So that took care
of that problem.

00:00:21.900 --> 00:00:27.940 align:middle line:90%


00:00:27.940 --> 00:00:31.630 align:middle line:84%
I thought I'd read tonight
from a short story of not

00:00:31.630 --> 00:00:33.640 align:middle line:84%
interminable length,
because I'm very

00:00:33.640 --> 00:00:37.340 align:middle line:84%
aware when I go to readings,
how I hate the reader.

00:00:37.340 --> 00:00:38.800 align:middle line:84%
There is a certain
breaking point,

00:00:38.800 --> 00:00:40.540 align:middle line:90%
I'm not sure if it's 12 minutes.

00:00:40.540 --> 00:00:43.730 align:middle line:84%
There's a certain aesthetic
of time that's involved.

00:00:43.730 --> 00:00:44.770 align:middle line:90%
And then I know--

00:00:44.770 --> 00:00:46.720 align:middle line:84%
I'm with the reader
until a certain point,

00:00:46.720 --> 00:00:49.657 align:middle line:84%
and then oh, now
I'm with no one.

00:00:49.657 --> 00:00:51.490 align:middle line:84%
I'm with the reader
until a certain-- writer

00:00:51.490 --> 00:00:53.115 align:middle line:84%
until a certain point,
and then there's

00:00:53.115 --> 00:00:56.440 align:middle line:84%
a certain point where I
think about other things,

00:00:56.440 --> 00:00:57.820 align:middle line:90%
like being not there.

00:00:57.820 --> 00:01:00.700 align:middle line:84%
And then it fades into
the point where I think,

00:01:00.700 --> 00:01:02.350 align:middle line:90%
I hate this person.

00:01:02.350 --> 00:01:04.300 align:middle line:90%
I want this person to die.

00:01:04.300 --> 00:01:06.550 align:middle line:90%
And I really think that--

00:01:06.550 --> 00:01:09.520 align:middle line:84%
for making me be here, and
listening to this driveling,

00:01:09.520 --> 00:01:12.040 align:middle line:90%
self-aggrandizing stuff.

00:01:12.040 --> 00:01:15.130 align:middle line:84%
It's best when they tell you
when they arrive-- tell you

00:01:15.130 --> 00:01:17.590 align:middle line:84%
how they got here,
and why they're there,

00:01:17.590 --> 00:01:19.750 align:middle line:84%
and the books they've
written, it just never ends.

00:01:19.750 --> 00:01:22.630 align:middle line:84%
Anyway, I'll try to
be as brief as I can

00:01:22.630 --> 00:01:25.600 align:middle line:84%
and still allow
time for the story.

00:01:25.600 --> 00:01:27.280 align:middle line:84%
This is called,
A Ship at Anchor,

00:01:27.280 --> 00:01:32.038 align:middle line:84%
and it came out last
fall in Granta magazine.

00:01:32.038 --> 00:01:33.580 align:middle line:84%
Very nice of them
to take this story.

00:01:33.580 --> 00:01:36.730 align:middle line:90%


00:01:36.730 --> 00:01:38.800 align:middle line:90%
"Mother was old now.

00:01:38.800 --> 00:01:40.630 align:middle line:84%
After all the years
of being her son,

00:01:40.630 --> 00:01:44.380 align:middle line:84%
I could finally
judge her age, old.

00:01:44.380 --> 00:01:46.330 align:middle line:84%
I wanted to say,
"just yesterday, you

00:01:46.330 --> 00:01:47.500 align:middle line:90%
were still young, mom.

00:01:47.500 --> 00:01:49.765 align:middle line:90%
But today, you're old."

00:01:49.765 --> 00:01:51.640 align:middle line:84%
But that's not the thing
you say to a mother,

00:01:51.640 --> 00:01:53.170 align:middle line:84%
especially when
she's come to visit

00:01:53.170 --> 00:01:57.090 align:middle line:84%
and is settled by you on
a porch in a wicker chair.

00:01:57.090 --> 00:01:58.450 align:middle line:90%
The boy was drawing.

00:01:58.450 --> 00:02:01.110 align:middle line:84%
The sun was sliding into
the pocket of the horizon.

00:02:01.110 --> 00:02:05.160 align:middle line:84%
The ship lay tethered
to a roving sea.

00:02:05.160 --> 00:02:08.850 align:middle line:84%
"The sea is roving under
our eyes," my mother said.

00:02:08.850 --> 00:02:11.910 align:middle line:84%
"The sea is roving,
dad," the boy repeated.

00:02:11.910 --> 00:02:14.640 align:middle line:84%
He was fond of
replaying certain words

00:02:14.640 --> 00:02:18.180 align:middle line:84%
when their sounds suggested
a shape or an image to him.

00:02:18.180 --> 00:02:21.510 align:middle line:84%
He often made drawings of
sounds like the word sound

00:02:21.510 --> 00:02:24.450 align:middle line:84%
itself, which looked
like an empty cave

00:02:24.450 --> 00:02:26.250 align:middle line:90%
with a hanging light bulb.

00:02:26.250 --> 00:02:28.890 align:middle line:84%
Or the word pirate,
which he once

00:02:28.890 --> 00:02:32.100 align:middle line:84%
represented in his more
literal realist period

00:02:32.100 --> 00:02:38.340 align:middle line:84%
as a rat-shaped pie with an eye
patch and a needle thin sword.

00:02:38.340 --> 00:02:40.470 align:middle line:84%
"That was just the
visual pun," I explained,

00:02:40.470 --> 00:02:43.680 align:middle line:84%
"a translation of parts
of a word to a picture."

00:02:43.680 --> 00:02:45.930 align:middle line:84%
And thus, was much
less interesting

00:02:45.930 --> 00:02:50.250 align:middle line:84%
than his usual more abstract
and evocative images.

00:02:50.250 --> 00:02:52.920 align:middle line:84%
He agreed, he said,
but it was much harder

00:02:52.920 --> 00:02:55.680 align:middle line:84%
to make images representing
the heart of the word.

00:02:55.680 --> 00:02:57.420 align:middle line:84%
"Those images were
painful to make,"

00:02:57.420 --> 00:03:00.660 align:middle line:84%
he said, "because they did
not come from his eyes,

00:03:00.660 --> 00:03:02.550 align:middle line:84%
but from a place
deep inside him.

00:03:02.550 --> 00:03:06.150 align:middle line:84%
From a place he had
no words to describe.

00:03:06.150 --> 00:03:07.170 align:middle line:90%
From your soul."

00:03:07.170 --> 00:03:11.310 align:middle line:84%
I wanted to say, but explaining
that would have taken him

00:03:11.310 --> 00:03:14.370 align:middle line:84%
too soon from a world he
would one day and on his own

00:03:14.370 --> 00:03:16.020 align:middle line:90%
discover.

00:03:16.020 --> 00:03:19.770 align:middle line:84%
For now, he was drawing from
life, the ship at anchor

00:03:19.770 --> 00:03:21.720 align:middle line:90%
in a flat sea.

00:03:21.720 --> 00:03:24.240 align:middle line:84%
He put a full red
moon above her bow

00:03:24.240 --> 00:03:27.390 align:middle line:84%
though there was none
there in the sky.

00:03:27.390 --> 00:03:29.070 align:middle line:84%
Nothing glowing there
at all, not even

00:03:29.070 --> 00:03:31.740 align:middle line:84%
a hint of a star
as the night fell.

00:03:31.740 --> 00:03:34.470 align:middle line:84%
Soon, we would have to
put on the porch lights,

00:03:34.470 --> 00:03:38.340 align:middle line:84%
and soon we'd have to
go down into the house.

00:03:38.340 --> 00:03:39.960 align:middle line:84%
"This will be for
you, Nana," he said,

00:03:39.960 --> 00:03:43.110 align:middle line:84%
holding up the unfinished
drawing to his grandmother.

00:03:43.110 --> 00:03:44.910 align:middle line:84%
"Why don't I take
you along with it,"

00:03:44.910 --> 00:03:48.560 align:middle line:84%
she said, "then I can have
both of you at the same time,

00:03:48.560 --> 00:03:49.880 align:middle line:90%
all the time."

00:03:49.880 --> 00:03:50.750 align:middle line:90%
He laughed.

00:03:50.750 --> 00:03:53.318 align:middle line:90%
"Nana, my Nana," he said.

00:03:53.318 --> 00:03:54.860 align:middle line:84%
"Do you want me to
get you some tea?"

00:03:54.860 --> 00:03:56.883 align:middle line:90%
I asked my mother.

00:03:56.883 --> 00:03:58.550 align:middle line:84%
"I'll be going home
soon," she answered.

00:03:58.550 --> 00:04:00.800 align:middle line:84%
"Stay with me here
a while longer,

00:04:00.800 --> 00:04:04.270 align:middle line:84%
and let's devour
the time together.

00:04:04.270 --> 00:04:06.190 align:middle line:84%
Let's devour the
whole night," I said.

00:04:06.190 --> 00:04:08.080 align:middle line:84%
Anyway, what's the
point of going home

00:04:08.080 --> 00:04:10.540 align:middle line:90%
when you're already home.

00:04:10.540 --> 00:04:11.950 align:middle line:90%
I liked my mother.

00:04:11.950 --> 00:04:15.933 align:middle line:84%
I loved her as much
as I had my wife.

00:04:15.933 --> 00:04:17.350 align:middle line:84%
The boy looked up
from his drawing

00:04:17.350 --> 00:04:19.690 align:middle line:90%
and said, "Don't go, Nana."

00:04:19.690 --> 00:04:21.310 align:middle line:84%
"I'll think about
that," she said.

00:04:21.310 --> 00:04:24.070 align:middle line:84%
"Come up here and give
me a big hug first."

00:04:24.070 --> 00:04:27.170 align:middle line:84%
He rushed to her, throwing
his arms around her neck.

00:04:27.170 --> 00:04:29.420 align:middle line:90%
"Stay with us, please," he said.

00:04:29.420 --> 00:04:32.170 align:middle line:84%
"Well, since you asked me so
nicely my dear boy," she said,

00:04:32.170 --> 00:04:34.180 align:middle line:90%
"I think maybe I will."

00:04:34.180 --> 00:04:36.220 align:middle line:90%
"Stay forever," he said.

00:04:36.220 --> 00:04:38.740 align:middle line:84%
"Forever is a long
time, don't you think?"

00:04:38.740 --> 00:04:43.150 align:middle line:90%
"Not long enough, Nana."

00:04:43.150 --> 00:04:44.620 align:middle line:90%
"Forever is an eternity.

00:04:44.620 --> 00:04:46.450 align:middle line:84%
I'd gladly spend an
eternity with you,

00:04:46.450 --> 00:04:49.570 align:middle line:84%
just as we are right now,"
she said, hugging him to her.

00:04:49.570 --> 00:04:52.080 align:middle line:90%


00:04:52.080 --> 00:04:53.670 align:middle line:90%
It was soon his bedtime.

00:04:53.670 --> 00:04:56.340 align:middle line:84%
He made no fuss, but
asked that his grandmother

00:04:56.340 --> 00:04:58.140 align:middle line:84%
come up and read to
him as she always

00:04:58.140 --> 00:05:00.300 align:middle line:90%
did when she stayed with us.

00:05:00.300 --> 00:05:03.000 align:middle line:84%
"Of course," she said, of course
since little else in the world

00:05:03.000 --> 00:05:05.850 align:middle line:84%
made her happy than to
read him, to be with him,

00:05:05.850 --> 00:05:09.270 align:middle line:84%
to kiss those cheeks so smooth
with childhood, and his eyes,

00:05:09.270 --> 00:05:13.260 align:middle line:84%
she said, to kiss those
eyes so sweet with life.

00:05:13.260 --> 00:05:15.420 align:middle line:84%
She took his hand,
letting him lead her step

00:05:15.420 --> 00:05:20.920 align:middle line:84%
by step up the stairs to his
blue room peppered with stars.

00:05:20.920 --> 00:05:23.740 align:middle line:84%
When they left, I
brought out my binoculars

00:05:23.740 --> 00:05:27.220 align:middle line:84%
and took a long look at
the ship in the last light.

00:05:27.220 --> 00:05:30.580 align:middle line:84%
She was a shabby hulk, black
paint scaling off the bow,

00:05:30.580 --> 00:05:33.790 align:middle line:84%
rigging flopping in the
breeze, lines, laying about,

00:05:33.790 --> 00:05:36.460 align:middle line:90%
uncoiled in slack heaps.

00:05:36.460 --> 00:05:39.730 align:middle line:84%
Some men appeared now and then,
smoking in a shiftless way,

00:05:39.730 --> 00:05:43.000 align:middle line:84%
looking over the gun walls
toward the shore toward me,

00:05:43.000 --> 00:05:44.470 align:middle line:90%
a speck on a porch.

00:05:44.470 --> 00:05:47.740 align:middle line:90%
I waved, but no one answered.

00:05:47.740 --> 00:05:49.810 align:middle line:84%
The ship had lay there
all day and into dusk.

00:05:49.810 --> 00:05:52.600 align:middle line:84%
And now at night, lolled
about with her running lights

00:05:52.600 --> 00:05:56.770 align:middle line:84%
and dull glow, like a
string of dirty pearls.

00:05:56.770 --> 00:05:59.293 align:middle line:84%
When I first went up to see the
boy, the ship was out there.

00:05:59.293 --> 00:06:01.960 align:middle line:84%
And even after I kissed him good
night and turned off the light,

00:06:01.960 --> 00:06:04.720 align:middle line:90%
she was still out there.

00:06:04.720 --> 00:06:08.470 align:middle line:84%
He was reading one of his
Tintin books when I came up,

00:06:08.470 --> 00:06:10.540 align:middle line:84%
looking at me in the
last possible moment

00:06:10.540 --> 00:06:13.180 align:middle line:84%
before he felt it
impolite not to do so.

00:06:13.180 --> 00:06:15.910 align:middle line:90%
He had good manners in any case.

00:06:15.910 --> 00:06:18.280 align:middle line:84%
You carry your
civilization with you,

00:06:18.280 --> 00:06:21.880 align:middle line:84%
his Nana had taught him at an
age when it could still stick.

00:06:21.880 --> 00:06:24.280 align:middle line:84%
He took to the idea
instantly, seeing it

00:06:24.280 --> 00:06:27.730 align:middle line:84%
as part of a game,
which indeed it is.

00:06:27.730 --> 00:06:30.400 align:middle line:84%
That was what had made him
seem older than his years,

00:06:30.400 --> 00:06:33.100 align:middle line:84%
his manners and the
kindness beneath them

00:06:33.100 --> 00:06:35.578 align:middle line:90%
which gave them value.

00:06:35.578 --> 00:06:37.120 align:middle line:84%
"I'm sorry," I said,
"I know you want

00:06:37.120 --> 00:06:39.580 align:middle line:84%
to go on reading but
it's time for sleep."

00:06:39.580 --> 00:06:41.830 align:middle line:84%
"Well," he said, as if
considering the point,

00:06:41.830 --> 00:06:44.476 align:middle line:90%
"Why don't you read to me?"

00:06:44.476 --> 00:06:46.370 align:middle line:84%
"It would be the
same thing," I said,

00:06:46.370 --> 00:06:49.120 align:middle line:84%
"because you'd still
be up and awake."

00:06:49.120 --> 00:06:50.410 align:middle line:90%
He nodded.

00:06:50.410 --> 00:06:53.170 align:middle line:84%
He seldom argued unless
he thought I or the world

00:06:53.170 --> 00:06:57.190 align:middle line:84%
was being unfair, unjust,
being his ultimate word

00:06:57.190 --> 00:06:58.540 align:middle line:90%
of disapproval.

00:06:58.540 --> 00:07:01.060 align:middle line:84%
A friend who had struck him
in the back or a teacher who

00:07:01.060 --> 00:07:02.830 align:middle line:84%
had berated him for
another's wrongdoing

00:07:02.830 --> 00:07:07.060 align:middle line:84%
was unjust as was the world
which caused the night to come

00:07:07.060 --> 00:07:09.150 align:middle line:90%
before its time."