WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.060 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.060 --> 00:00:02.170 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:00:02.170 --> 00:00:04.750 align:middle line:84% It's a real pleasure and a privilege 00:00:04.750 --> 00:00:08.500 align:middle line:90% to introduce one of my mentors. 00:00:08.500 --> 00:00:12.700 align:middle line:84% A couple of years ago, when her most recent book, Virgin Time, 00:00:12.700 --> 00:00:15.040 align:middle line:84% was released, I went to the bookstore 00:00:15.040 --> 00:00:17.920 align:middle line:84% here in Tucson to purchase a copy. 00:00:17.920 --> 00:00:22.780 align:middle line:84% And first, I looked in the autobiography section 00:00:22.780 --> 00:00:25.780 align:middle line:84% because I knew it was a type of memoir. 00:00:25.780 --> 00:00:29.170 align:middle line:84% And I was not successful in locating it there. 00:00:29.170 --> 00:00:33.110 align:middle line:84% So I thought, well, I'll try the nonfiction section. 00:00:33.110 --> 00:00:36.590 align:middle line:84% And again, there was no copy of the book. 00:00:36.590 --> 00:00:41.350 align:middle line:84% So I thought, well, I'll try religion. 00:00:41.350 --> 00:00:42.520 align:middle line:90% It was not there either. 00:00:42.520 --> 00:00:45.660 align:middle line:90% 00:00:45.660 --> 00:00:48.668 align:middle line:90% So I asked the clerk to help me. 00:00:48.668 --> 00:00:50.460 align:middle line:84% And I asked if they had a copy of the book. 00:00:50.460 --> 00:00:53.010 align:middle line:84% And she said, well, yes, we do, but we 00:00:53.010 --> 00:00:56.340 align:middle line:84% didn't know exactly what sort of book to call it. 00:00:56.340 --> 00:01:00.620 align:middle line:84% So we placed it under general interest. 00:01:00.620 --> 00:01:04.120 align:middle line:84% And I think that Patricia Hampl's work 00:01:04.120 --> 00:01:08.140 align:middle line:84% is general interest in the very best sense of the term. 00:01:08.140 --> 00:01:12.970 align:middle line:84% She writes about things that I think really matter 00:01:12.970 --> 00:01:16.870 align:middle line:84% and that everyone can relate to, issues of family and faith 00:01:16.870 --> 00:01:21.850 align:middle line:84% and skepticism and the contemplative life. 00:01:21.850 --> 00:01:26.650 align:middle line:84% Among her books are A Romantic Education, 00:01:26.650 --> 00:01:29.560 align:middle line:90% Spillville, Virgin Time. 00:01:29.560 --> 00:01:33.200 align:middle line:84% She's also written two books of poetry. 00:01:33.200 --> 00:01:37.790 align:middle line:84% And I'm told that she's just finished a screenplay. 00:01:37.790 --> 00:01:42.020 align:middle line:84% So she continues to branch out into new areas. 00:01:42.020 --> 00:01:46.000 align:middle line:84% So I hope you will help me in welcoming Patricia Hampl. 00:01:46.000 --> 00:01:46.510 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:01:46.510 --> 00:01:49.996 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:01:49.996 --> 00:01:54.480 align:middle line:90% 00:01:54.480 --> 00:01:56.340 align:middle line:84% Well, he's taller than I am, anyway. 00:01:56.340 --> 00:01:57.390 align:middle line:90% We know that. 00:01:57.390 --> 00:01:57.970 align:middle line:90% Excuse me. 00:01:57.970 --> 00:01:58.470 align:middle line:90% Hello. 00:01:58.470 --> 00:01:59.980 align:middle line:90% It's great to be here. 00:01:59.980 --> 00:02:01.980 align:middle line:84% I am not responsible for your bad weather 00:02:01.980 --> 00:02:04.840 align:middle line:84% in spite of the fact that I come from Minnesota, 00:02:04.840 --> 00:02:11.910 align:middle line:84% which is the bad weather place for a lot of people. 00:02:11.910 --> 00:02:14.610 align:middle line:84% I'm hoping it'll be sunny tomorrow, though. 00:02:14.610 --> 00:02:19.590 align:middle line:84% I feel that as a guest of the Poetry Center, 00:02:19.590 --> 00:02:22.740 align:middle line:84% I should at least read a poem or two 00:02:22.740 --> 00:02:25.590 align:middle line:84% before I launch into prose, which is what I've 00:02:25.590 --> 00:02:27.510 align:middle line:90% been up to for a long time now. 00:02:27.510 --> 00:02:34.180 align:middle line:84% So bearing in mind that I do come to you from Minnesota, 00:02:34.180 --> 00:02:38.990 align:middle line:84% I'm going to read you a kind of Minnesota late winter poem. 00:02:38.990 --> 00:02:42.140 align:middle line:84% You know that because there's a lot of slush in this poem. 00:02:42.140 --> 00:02:44.780 align:middle line:84% And then I'll read one other poem 00:02:44.780 --> 00:02:48.590 align:middle line:90% before I launch into some prose. 00:02:48.590 --> 00:02:50.720 align:middle line:84% And this, by the way, this poem has 00:02:50.720 --> 00:02:52.460 align:middle line:90% been done up as a broadside. 00:02:52.460 --> 00:02:56.165 align:middle line:84% And I'm giving the broadside as a gift to the Poetry Center. 00:02:56.165 --> 00:02:57.695 align:middle line:90% The poem is called "The Moment." 00:02:57.695 --> 00:03:00.480 align:middle line:90% 00:03:00.480 --> 00:03:04.560 align:middle line:84% "Standing by the parking ramp elevator a week ago, 00:03:04.560 --> 00:03:11.110 align:middle line:84% sunk stupid with sadness, black slush puddled on the cement 00:03:11.110 --> 00:03:17.500 align:middle line:84% floor, the place painted a killer pastel as in an asylum. 00:03:17.500 --> 00:03:20.860 align:middle line:84% A numeral 1, big as a person, was 00:03:20.860 --> 00:03:23.740 align:middle line:90% stenciled on the cinder block. 00:03:23.740 --> 00:03:26.940 align:middle line:90% Remember your level. 00:03:26.940 --> 00:03:29.400 align:middle line:90% The toneless bell sounded. 00:03:29.400 --> 00:03:32.910 align:middle line:90% Doors opened, nobody inside. 00:03:32.910 --> 00:03:38.790 align:middle line:84% Then, who knows why, a rod of light at the base of my skull 00:03:38.790 --> 00:03:43.050 align:middle line:84% flashed to every outpost of my far-flung body. 00:03:43.050 --> 00:03:46.340 align:middle line:90% I've got my life back. 00:03:46.340 --> 00:03:50.120 align:middle line:84% It was nothing, just the present moment occurring 00:03:50.120 --> 00:03:52.460 align:middle line:90% for the first time in months. 00:03:52.460 --> 00:03:55.130 align:middle line:90% My head translated light. 00:03:55.130 --> 00:03:58.460 align:middle line:90% My eyes spiked with tears. 00:03:58.460 --> 00:04:02.630 align:middle line:84% The awful green walls, I could have stroked them. 00:04:02.630 --> 00:04:06.860 align:middle line:84% The dirt, the moving cube I stepped into, 00:04:06.860 --> 00:04:10.910 align:middle line:84% it was all beautiful, everything that took me up." 00:04:10.910 --> 00:04:14.810 align:middle line:90% 00:04:14.810 --> 00:04:19.350 align:middle line:84% And the other poem I want to read you is from-- 00:04:19.350 --> 00:04:20.948 align:middle line:84% I can't really call it my latest book 00:04:20.948 --> 00:04:22.740 align:middle line:84% of poems, given the fact that this book was 00:04:22.740 --> 00:04:24.090 align:middle line:90% published in 1983. 00:04:24.090 --> 00:04:28.470 align:middle line:84% But in fact, it is my latest book of poems. 00:04:28.470 --> 00:04:31.500 align:middle line:84% I want to read it in the spirit of something 00:04:31.500 --> 00:04:34.770 align:middle line:84% that I think lies at the heart of literary enterprise. 00:04:34.770 --> 00:04:38.280 align:middle line:84% And that is the friendships that sustain many of us 00:04:38.280 --> 00:04:40.920 align:middle line:84% over long years when there isn't a whole lot 00:04:40.920 --> 00:04:44.250 align:middle line:84% of other recognition of what it is that we're up to. 00:04:44.250 --> 00:04:46.470 align:middle line:84% And I know there are many people in the room who 00:04:46.470 --> 00:04:49.110 align:middle line:84% know about that, who have been sustained 00:04:49.110 --> 00:04:52.980 align:middle line:84% and who are sustainers of others as they give their lives 00:04:52.980 --> 00:04:57.060 align:middle line:90% to this [INAUDIBLE] of writing. 00:04:57.060 --> 00:05:02.280 align:middle line:84% And I'm thinking particularly of my colleague 00:05:02.280 --> 00:05:05.430 align:middle line:84% Ted Wright, who has moved here from Minnesota 00:05:05.430 --> 00:05:08.910 align:middle line:84% at his retirement, and Alison Deming, a new friend, 00:05:08.910 --> 00:05:10.860 align:middle line:90% and others here-- 00:05:10.860 --> 00:05:14.520 align:middle line:84% Dick Shelton, who brought me here in 1980 the last time 00:05:14.520 --> 00:05:16.020 align:middle line:90% I was in Tucson. 00:05:16.020 --> 00:05:18.600 align:middle line:84% This poem is called "Last Letter." 00:05:18.600 --> 00:05:23.160 align:middle line:84% And it's for a poet perhaps not known to too many of you named 00:05:23.160 --> 00:05:24.630 align:middle line:90% James White. 00:05:24.630 --> 00:05:29.850 align:middle line:84% Not James Wright, but James White, the author of, 00:05:29.850 --> 00:05:32.490 align:middle line:84% among other books, The Salt Ecstasies. 00:05:32.490 --> 00:05:35.580 align:middle line:84% And he was a guy who lived in Minneapolis 00:05:35.580 --> 00:05:37.680 align:middle line:84% and was a friend of a lot of other writers, 00:05:37.680 --> 00:05:43.350 align:middle line:84% and he died at the age of 45, about in 1981, 00:05:43.350 --> 00:05:45.720 align:middle line:84% very early, of congestive heart failure. 00:05:45.720 --> 00:05:48.000 align:middle line:84% And I was at the north shore of Lake Superior 00:05:48.000 --> 00:05:49.230 align:middle line:90% when I heard about it. 00:05:49.230 --> 00:05:50.748 align:middle line:90% And I wrote this poem for him. 00:05:50.748 --> 00:05:52.290 align:middle line:84% So although it's an elegy and I don't 00:05:52.290 --> 00:05:55.920 align:middle line:84% mean to rope all of you people into an elegy in terms 00:05:55.920 --> 00:05:58.020 align:middle line:84% of the fellowship among poets, I do 00:05:58.020 --> 00:06:00.480 align:middle line:84% want to honor that fellowship that I think 00:06:00.480 --> 00:06:03.730 align:middle line:84% sustains writing over the long term. 00:06:03.730 --> 00:06:07.970 align:middle line:84% So this poem, called "Last Letter." 00:06:07.970 --> 00:06:10.660 align:middle line:84% "Everything is more beautiful today. 00:06:10.660 --> 00:06:12.010 align:middle line:90% I'm sorry. 00:06:12.010 --> 00:06:14.950 align:middle line:84% It's not right when you're dead for the first time 00:06:14.950 --> 00:06:16.210 align:middle line:90% this morning. 00:06:16.210 --> 00:06:18.760 align:middle line:84% But the rain hits the black asphalt 00:06:18.760 --> 00:06:23.170 align:middle line:84% like a hoofer, exhausted, heavy under the transparent 00:06:23.170 --> 00:06:25.000 align:middle line:90% strokes of dance. 00:06:25.000 --> 00:06:28.150 align:middle line:84% The pink geraniums-- do you like pink? 00:06:28.150 --> 00:06:30.340 align:middle line:84% I want to know if you like pink-- 00:06:30.340 --> 00:06:34.420 align:middle line:84% are hanging in a basket from the cafe awning as dry as tissue 00:06:34.420 --> 00:06:36.670 align:middle line:90% paper on a package. 00:06:36.670 --> 00:06:38.980 align:middle line:84% The lights of things have turned on 00:06:38.980 --> 00:06:45.540 align:middle line:84% more intensely just now as yours has clicked immaculately off. 00:06:45.540 --> 00:06:48.360 align:middle line:84% The women at the next table are saying 00:06:48.360 --> 00:06:52.470 align:middle line:84% something's cute, real cute, one of them 00:06:52.470 --> 00:06:55.620 align:middle line:84% with earrings the shape of hearts. 00:06:55.620 --> 00:06:59.700 align:middle line:84% No way would I follow that oaf around like she did. 00:06:59.700 --> 00:07:03.390 align:middle line:84% They're talking about love, the only subject, darling, 00:07:03.390 --> 00:07:06.420 align:middle line:84% except for this new one of yours. 00:07:06.420 --> 00:07:08.100 align:middle line:90% Here's what I meant to do-- 00:07:08.100 --> 00:07:10.680 align:middle line:84% call you this weekend, go for chicken 00:07:10.680 --> 00:07:15.690 align:middle line:84% salad sands at the Sky Room, and you'd whisper again the truth. 00:07:15.690 --> 00:07:20.640 align:middle line:84% The really great waitresses always chew gum. 00:07:20.640 --> 00:07:24.840 align:middle line:84% You approved of their dismissal of us, charmed always 00:07:24.840 --> 00:07:27.720 align:middle line:84% by any artist who couldn't be charmed. 00:07:27.720 --> 00:07:31.470 align:middle line:84% You posed glamour as the first honor of friendship, 00:07:31.470 --> 00:07:35.670 align:middle line:84% and we said "darling" to each other like movie stars. 00:07:35.670 --> 00:07:38.610 align:middle line:90% Your white, naughty smile. 00:07:38.610 --> 00:07:40.710 align:middle line:84% Tell me again, Trish darling, how 00:07:40.710 --> 00:07:43.870 align:middle line:84% we're going to claw our way to the top. 00:07:43.870 --> 00:07:45.550 align:middle line:84% The woman with the hearts at her ears 00:07:45.550 --> 00:07:50.250 align:middle line:84% is saying that after 30 years of marriage, you can't expect, 00:07:50.250 --> 00:07:52.680 align:middle line:84% and that the girl wasn't a gold digger. 00:07:52.680 --> 00:07:54.810 align:middle line:84% She says, when you order prime rib, 00:07:54.810 --> 00:07:58.730 align:middle line:84% you just better not think you're going to get it medium rare. 00:07:58.730 --> 00:08:02.030 align:middle line:84% But the only words today are endearments. 00:08:02.030 --> 00:08:07.070 align:middle line:90% Darling, sweet one, caro, caro. 00:08:07.070 --> 00:08:10.040 align:middle line:84% We liked to be affected and spoke all languages 00:08:10.040 --> 00:08:12.560 align:middle line:90% for their flair. 00:08:12.560 --> 00:08:15.740 align:middle line:84% Just this instant, a cat streaked by outside, 00:08:15.740 --> 00:08:20.180 align:middle line:84% wet and matted as carpeting in a vestibule. 00:08:20.180 --> 00:08:23.840 align:middle line:84% His brown and black stripes were green in the rain. 00:08:23.840 --> 00:08:25.130 align:middle line:90% A green cat, Jim. 00:08:25.130 --> 00:08:26.570 align:middle line:90% Bet you never saw that. 00:08:26.570 --> 00:08:29.840 align:middle line:84% And the hearts are gold, pressed tight against each lobe. 00:08:29.840 --> 00:08:33.919 align:middle line:84% Not hanging, in case you thought I meant the hanging kind. 00:08:33.919 --> 00:08:36.919 align:middle line:90% No, pressed like two kisses. 00:08:36.919 --> 00:08:39.049 align:middle line:84% And she's looking at the cat, too. 00:08:39.049 --> 00:08:41.960 align:middle line:84% She may be thinking about the cat or about something else. 00:08:41.960 --> 00:08:44.270 align:middle line:90% I can't say for sure. 00:08:44.270 --> 00:08:47.870 align:middle line:84% I'll keep describing things, getting the colors right, 00:08:47.870 --> 00:08:50.930 align:middle line:84% taking down the dialogue, packing the report 00:08:50.930 --> 00:08:54.590 align:middle line:84% with metaphors so it's art, watching the world be 00:08:54.590 --> 00:08:57.650 align:middle line:90% unlikely and eccentric. 00:08:57.650 --> 00:09:00.920 align:middle line:90% I call it honesty, as you do. 00:09:00.920 --> 00:09:05.090 align:middle line:84% But today, I call it keeping you alive just a little longer, 00:09:05.090 --> 00:09:08.390 align:middle line:84% using the present tense that's dishonest now. 00:09:08.390 --> 00:09:13.160 align:middle line:84% And it is unholy, darling, to hold you a second longer 00:09:13.160 --> 00:09:14.780 align:middle line:90% than you held onto us." 00:09:14.780 --> 00:09:19.560 align:middle line:90% 00:09:19.560 --> 00:09:22.600 align:middle line:84% The first little prose piece I want to read you 00:09:22.600 --> 00:09:25.450 align:middle line:84% is from a book called Spillville, 00:09:25.450 --> 00:09:29.290 align:middle line:84% which is named for a town, Spillville, Iowa, 00:09:29.290 --> 00:09:33.460 align:middle line:84% where the Czech composer Antonin Dvořák spent 00:09:33.460 --> 00:09:34.960 align:middle line:90% the summer of 1893. 00:09:34.960 --> 00:09:38.350 align:middle line:84% And in fact, it's from this book that I wrote the screenplay 00:09:38.350 --> 00:09:41.290 align:middle line:84% that Dan was mentioning and which 00:09:41.290 --> 00:09:44.830 align:middle line:84% I hope someday will actually turn into a movie. 00:09:44.830 --> 00:09:47.830 align:middle line:84% And I can wear that nonexistent gold lamé gown 00:09:47.830 --> 00:09:51.040 align:middle line:84% that I keep imagining myself showing up in somewhere, 00:09:51.040 --> 00:09:54.020 align:middle line:90% sometime, somehow. 00:09:54.020 --> 00:09:58.390 align:middle line:84% Anyway, this one, I want to read-- 00:09:58.390 --> 00:10:01.362 align:middle line:84% this consists of a lot of very short chapters. 00:10:01.362 --> 00:10:03.070 align:middle line:84% I mean, they aren't even really chapters. 00:10:03.070 --> 00:10:08.500 align:middle line:84% They're just little flashes of prose with different titles. 00:10:08.500 --> 00:10:10.180 align:middle line:84% And I want to read this one [INAUDIBLE] 00:10:10.180 --> 00:10:16.750 align:middle line:84% in honor of Dan Cooper Alarcon, whose work on travel 00:10:16.750 --> 00:10:21.280 align:middle line:84% and tourism is engaging a lot of interest in a lot of students 00:10:21.280 --> 00:10:21.860 align:middle line:90% here. 00:10:21.860 --> 00:10:23.860 align:middle line:84% So I'm going to throw this one out, 00:10:23.860 --> 00:10:29.170 align:middle line:84% my little piece about travel and the idea of travel 00:10:29.170 --> 00:10:33.580 align:middle line:84% in relation to the Midwest and to Antonin Dvořák. 00:10:33.580 --> 00:10:34.750 align:middle line:90% The piece is called-- 00:10:34.750 --> 00:10:37.390 align:middle line:84% and also, it figures later in a couple of other things 00:10:37.390 --> 00:10:38.980 align:middle line:90% I'm going to read to you. 00:10:38.980 --> 00:10:43.720 align:middle line:84% The title of this little piece is "Pilgrimage." 00:10:43.720 --> 00:10:47.380 align:middle line:84% "God, the sky is blue, and the air is shot with gold. 00:10:47.380 --> 00:10:51.460 align:middle line:84% A moment ago, we passed a farmyard where a girl about 12, 00:10:51.460 --> 00:10:54.160 align:middle line:84% wearing a blue and white dress, stood waving, 00:10:54.160 --> 00:10:58.570 align:middle line:84% dwarfed by a lilac bush whose blossoms were already rusted. 00:10:58.570 --> 00:11:00.190 align:middle line:90% She seemed to beckon. 00:11:00.190 --> 00:11:03.340 align:middle line:84% But of course, she was just waving at the world, us, 00:11:03.340 --> 00:11:04.660 align:middle line:90% passing by. 00:11:04.660 --> 00:11:07.210 align:middle line:84% She would have been alarmed if we'd stopped. 00:11:07.210 --> 00:11:09.250 align:middle line:90% But the impression remains. 00:11:09.250 --> 00:11:11.770 align:middle line:90% She was inviting us in. 00:11:11.770 --> 00:11:15.850 align:middle line:84% Now, on another side road, we've decided to stop for a picnic, 00:11:15.850 --> 00:11:17.800 align:middle line:84% spreading our provisions on a patch 00:11:17.800 --> 00:11:21.820 align:middle line:84% of rocky pasture overlooking the clean geometry of the fields 00:11:21.820 --> 00:11:22.990 align:middle line:90% below. 00:11:22.990 --> 00:11:26.560 align:middle line:84% Pilsner Urquell in green bottles, the heavy gold 00:11:26.560 --> 00:11:29.560 align:middle line:84% of Bohemian hops, cheese and salami 00:11:29.560 --> 00:11:33.520 align:middle line:84% set out on butcher paper sweating in the sun. 00:11:33.520 --> 00:11:36.790 align:middle line:84% We rip off hunks of sourdough from a big loaf, 00:11:36.790 --> 00:11:39.700 align:middle line:84% grimacing like men tearing the Manhattan telephone 00:11:39.700 --> 00:11:41.530 align:middle line:90% directory in half. 00:11:41.530 --> 00:11:44.410 align:middle line:84% For dessert, there's Belgian chocolate so bitter 00:11:44.410 --> 00:11:46.840 align:middle line:90% it makes my eyes hurt. 00:11:46.840 --> 00:11:49.870 align:middle line:84% This trip is a variation on a theme. 00:11:49.870 --> 00:11:54.330 align:middle line:84% Even for Dvořák, the theme was already stated. 00:11:54.330 --> 00:11:57.510 align:middle line:90% Even he was making a pilgrimage. 00:11:57.510 --> 00:12:00.390 align:middle line:84% He sought the familiarity of his own language 00:12:00.390 --> 00:12:02.010 align:middle line:90% in the wilderness of English. 00:12:02.010 --> 00:12:04.230 align:middle line:84% And he came to the farmland and woods 00:12:04.230 --> 00:12:09.690 align:middle line:84% his secretary, Kovařík, promised would remind him of Bohemia. 00:12:09.690 --> 00:12:12.930 align:middle line:84% A good place to compose away from the city. 00:12:12.930 --> 00:12:15.480 align:middle line:84% He had spent the school year in New York. 00:12:15.480 --> 00:12:18.060 align:middle line:90% All that, true enough. 00:12:18.060 --> 00:12:20.820 align:middle line:84% But he sought as well, I think, the higher 00:12:20.820 --> 00:12:24.420 align:middle line:84% pitch, the experience of immigration itself. 00:12:24.420 --> 00:12:27.660 align:middle line:84% He could have found peace and quiet closer to New York. 00:12:27.660 --> 00:12:30.780 align:middle line:84% He could even have found other Czechs nearer to hand. 00:12:30.780 --> 00:12:34.890 align:middle line:84% But he could not have replicated his countrymen's experience 00:12:34.890 --> 00:12:40.340 align:middle line:84% of immigration without crossing the wider stretch of land. 00:12:40.340 --> 00:12:43.730 align:middle line:84% Dvořák understood, it is clear from his letters, 00:12:43.730 --> 00:12:49.520 align:middle line:84% that poverty, not idealism, was the heart of immigration. 00:12:49.520 --> 00:12:51.440 align:middle line:84% "The poorest of the poor," he said, 00:12:51.440 --> 00:12:55.100 align:middle line:84% describing the background of the settlers of Spillville. 00:12:55.100 --> 00:12:57.650 align:middle line:84% He spent most of his afternoons in Spillville 00:12:57.650 --> 00:12:59.960 align:middle line:84% after his work was done for the day, 00:12:59.960 --> 00:13:02.390 align:middle line:84% talking to the oldest townspeople. 00:13:02.390 --> 00:13:05.300 align:middle line:90% He wanted to hear their stories. 00:13:05.300 --> 00:13:07.970 align:middle line:84% Dvořák came not to be an immigrant. 00:13:07.970 --> 00:13:10.130 align:middle line:84% That was, of course, not possible for such 00:13:10.130 --> 00:13:11.750 align:middle line:90% a celebrated man. 00:13:11.750 --> 00:13:14.540 align:middle line:84% But he could touch the experience, at least 00:13:14.540 --> 00:13:16.610 align:middle line:90% the hem of its cloak. 00:13:16.610 --> 00:13:20.960 align:middle line:84% Perhaps his coming here, best understood as an oblique homage 00:13:20.960 --> 00:13:26.540 align:middle line:84% paid to immigration, the cruel, kind song that beguiled so many 00:13:26.540 --> 00:13:28.160 align:middle line:90% of his people. 00:13:28.160 --> 00:13:33.290 align:middle line:84% The summer of 1893, he made his brief bow to what he knew 00:13:33.290 --> 00:13:36.380 align:middle line:84% was not only his countrymen's emigration 00:13:36.380 --> 00:13:38.720 align:middle line:90% but their banishment. 00:13:38.720 --> 00:13:42.020 align:middle line:84% The paradox-- there can be no pilgrimage 00:13:42.020 --> 00:13:43.700 align:middle line:90% without a destination. 00:13:43.700 --> 00:13:49.070 align:middle line:84% But the destination is also not the real point of the endeavor. 00:13:49.070 --> 00:13:51.950 align:middle line:84% Not the destination, but the willingness 00:13:51.950 --> 00:13:55.100 align:middle line:84% to wander in pursuit characterizes 00:13:55.100 --> 00:13:59.330 align:middle line:84% pilgrimage, willingness to hear the tales along the way, 00:13:59.330 --> 00:14:02.000 align:middle line:84% to make the casual choices of travel, 00:14:02.000 --> 00:14:04.490 align:middle line:90% to acquiesce even to boredom. 00:14:04.490 --> 00:14:09.020 align:middle line:84% That's pilgrimage, a mind full of journey. 00:14:09.020 --> 00:14:14.210 align:middle line:84% It's an adagio movement, the slow, lyrical mode of travel. 00:14:14.210 --> 00:14:19.880 align:middle line:84% Everything fits, as now, lying here, eyes closed. 00:14:19.880 --> 00:14:22.940 align:middle line:90% Winter face to the spring sun. 00:14:22.940 --> 00:14:26.360 align:middle line:84% Flies attracted to the sticky smell of flat beer left 00:14:26.360 --> 00:14:30.230 align:middle line:84% in the green bottles are making a low sizzling sound 00:14:30.230 --> 00:14:31.880 align:middle line:90% near my head. 00:14:31.880 --> 00:14:34.370 align:middle line:84% A wasp has zoned in on the salami. 00:14:34.370 --> 00:14:37.670 align:middle line:84% And I realize, touching my hand to my forehead, 00:14:37.670 --> 00:14:40.820 align:middle line:90% that my brow is furrowed. 00:14:40.820 --> 00:14:44.180 align:middle line:84% Somebody has put Dvořák's "American Quartet" 00:14:44.180 --> 00:14:47.570 align:middle line:84% on the tape deck and turned the volume up to the max. 00:14:47.570 --> 00:14:51.530 align:middle line:84% Our theme song, the piece he sketched his first few days 00:14:51.530 --> 00:14:52.640 align:middle line:90% in Spillville. 00:14:52.640 --> 00:14:56.330 align:middle line:84% The scherzo, modeled on the song of the scarlet tanager, 00:14:56.330 --> 00:14:59.030 align:middle line:84% is drilling itself over the pasture. 00:14:59.030 --> 00:15:01.360 align:middle line:90% A happy man wrote that. 00:15:01.360 --> 00:15:04.990 align:middle line:84% Dvořák ventured this far from home. 00:15:04.990 --> 00:15:09.370 align:middle line:84% The American Midwest was the farthest reach of his travels. 00:15:09.370 --> 00:15:12.310 align:middle line:90% Such an unlikely explorer. 00:15:12.310 --> 00:15:16.480 align:middle line:84% He was so hopelessly daunted by the carriage traffic in Prague, 00:15:16.480 --> 00:15:18.910 align:middle line:84% it is said, that he would ask a student 00:15:18.910 --> 00:15:21.250 align:middle line:90% to help him cross the street. 00:15:21.250 --> 00:15:23.860 align:middle line:90% What kind of pilgrim is that? 00:15:23.860 --> 00:15:26.935 align:middle line:84% A fearful one, the most authentic kind." 00:15:26.935 --> 00:15:30.800 align:middle line:90% 00:15:30.800 --> 00:15:33.680 align:middle line:84% Needless to say, when I was approached 00:15:33.680 --> 00:15:38.840 align:middle line:84% to write a screenplay about this very uncinematic movie, 00:15:38.840 --> 00:15:43.370 align:middle line:84% I thought I should maybe console this producer a little bit 00:15:43.370 --> 00:15:45.080 align:middle line:90% about the wisdom of this. 00:15:45.080 --> 00:15:50.265 align:middle line:84% But the screenplay is very different in tone and, in fact, 00:15:50.265 --> 00:15:51.890 align:middle line:84% has a lot of different characters in it 00:15:51.890 --> 00:15:52.970 align:middle line:90% from this book. 00:15:52.970 --> 00:15:55.310 align:middle line:84% But that was an interesting experience 00:15:55.310 --> 00:15:58.490 align:middle line:84% to write, also, very separate from this. 00:15:58.490 --> 00:16:02.180 align:middle line:84% Now, having spoken about Dvořák coming this way, 00:16:02.180 --> 00:16:03.740 align:middle line:90% I'd like to go the other way. 00:16:03.740 --> 00:16:07.220 align:middle line:84% And out of this book, A Romantic Education, 00:16:07.220 --> 00:16:09.740 align:middle line:84% I'd like to read you my first impression of Prague 00:16:09.740 --> 00:16:13.580 align:middle line:90% when I went there in 1975. 00:16:13.580 --> 00:16:15.080 align:middle line:84% I should mention that the other two 00:16:15.080 --> 00:16:18.110 align:middle line:84% books I'm going to read from, A Romantic Education and Virgin 00:16:18.110 --> 00:16:20.390 align:middle line:90% Time, are both memoirs. 00:16:20.390 --> 00:16:23.630 align:middle line:84% One is a memoir about growing up in a Czech family 00:16:23.630 --> 00:16:25.550 align:middle line:84% and going back to Czechoslovakia. 00:16:25.550 --> 00:16:26.570 align:middle line:90% And the other is about-- 00:16:26.570 --> 00:16:27.440 align:middle line:90% Catholic. 00:16:27.440 --> 00:16:29.600 align:middle line:90% And I don't know. 00:16:29.600 --> 00:16:33.050 align:middle line:84% You don't grow up deciding that you want to be a memoirist. 00:16:33.050 --> 00:16:35.300 align:middle line:84% I think a lot of people grow up wanting to be writers, 00:16:35.300 --> 00:16:38.600 align:middle line:84% but I don't think they think, I think I'll write my memoirs. 00:16:38.600 --> 00:16:41.190 align:middle line:84% It's just not what you think of doing. 00:16:41.190 --> 00:16:44.780 align:middle line:84% And so to find myself locked or at least living in the genre 00:16:44.780 --> 00:16:45.770 align:middle line:90% seems very strange. 00:16:45.770 --> 00:16:48.110 align:middle line:84% And I always had a notion in my mind 00:16:48.110 --> 00:16:51.270 align:middle line:84% that I had two books I had to write before I 00:16:51.270 --> 00:16:53.340 align:middle line:90% could write the real books. 00:16:53.340 --> 00:16:54.780 align:middle line:84% And one was about being Catholic, 00:16:54.780 --> 00:16:56.940 align:middle line:84% and the other was about this Czech background. 00:16:56.940 --> 00:16:59.880 align:middle line:84% And I saw these two books as like those lions 00:16:59.880 --> 00:17:02.700 align:middle line:84% outside the New York Public Library, 00:17:02.700 --> 00:17:05.700 align:middle line:84% Prudence and-- what's the other one called? 00:17:05.700 --> 00:17:06.630 align:middle line:90% Faith and Prudence? 00:17:06.630 --> 00:17:08.160 align:middle line:84% I don't remember, those two lions out there. 00:17:08.160 --> 00:17:10.050 align:middle line:84% And I thought, when I write these two books, 00:17:10.050 --> 00:17:11.765 align:middle line:84% I can begin writing the real books. 00:17:11.765 --> 00:17:13.890 align:middle line:84% I didn't know it would take me till I was almost 50 00:17:13.890 --> 00:17:14.807 align:middle line:90% to do them, of course. 00:17:14.807 --> 00:17:17.849 align:middle line:84% So I don't know what I had in mind about the real books. 00:17:17.849 --> 00:17:22.890 align:middle line:84% At any rate, I'm still waiting for the real books. 00:17:22.890 --> 00:17:25.650 align:middle line:84% I'll read you just a short description of Prague. 00:17:25.650 --> 00:17:29.130 align:middle line:84% Of course, it's the pre-revolution Prague 00:17:29.130 --> 00:17:30.120 align:middle line:90% I'm describing. 00:17:30.120 --> 00:17:35.370 align:middle line:84% And then I'll read you another portion from an afterword which 00:17:35.370 --> 00:17:39.870 align:middle line:84% I wrote for a new edition of this book after the revolution. 00:17:39.870 --> 00:17:42.125 align:middle line:84% A Romantic Education came out in 1981. 00:17:42.125 --> 00:17:44.250 align:middle line:84% So the first thing I'll read you is from that time. 00:17:44.250 --> 00:17:47.970 align:middle line:84% And then my publisher suggested I go back after the revolution 00:17:47.970 --> 00:17:49.920 align:middle line:90% and write an afterword. 00:17:49.920 --> 00:17:52.560 align:middle line:84% And so I'll read you a little brief section from that, 00:17:52.560 --> 00:17:54.080 align:middle line:90% which dates from 19-- 00:17:54.080 --> 00:17:55.770 align:middle line:90% what, '92, I think. 00:17:55.770 --> 00:17:58.700 align:middle line:90% 00:17:58.700 --> 00:18:01.320 align:middle line:90% "Here I am in Prague. 00:18:01.320 --> 00:18:03.960 align:middle line:90% Prague stopped my tourism flat. 00:18:03.960 --> 00:18:06.720 align:middle line:84% The weight of its history and the beauty of its architecture 00:18:06.720 --> 00:18:09.450 align:middle line:84% came to me first as an awareness of dirt, 00:18:09.450 --> 00:18:12.660 align:middle line:84% a sort of ancient grime I had never seen before. 00:18:12.660 --> 00:18:14.880 align:middle line:84% It bewitched me, that dirt, caulked 00:18:14.880 --> 00:18:16.710 align:middle line:84% in the corners of Baroque moldings 00:18:16.710 --> 00:18:17.940 align:middle line:90% and decorative cornices. 00:18:17.940 --> 00:18:21.390 align:middle line:84% And especially, I loved the dusty filth 00:18:21.390 --> 00:18:24.330 align:middle line:84% of the long, grave windows at sunset 00:18:24.330 --> 00:18:27.360 align:middle line:84% when the light flared against the tall oblongs 00:18:27.360 --> 00:18:29.265 align:middle line:90% and caused them to look gilded. 00:18:29.265 --> 00:18:34.350 align:middle line:90% 00:18:34.350 --> 00:18:36.690 align:middle line:84% I walked around Prague hardly caring 00:18:36.690 --> 00:18:40.380 align:middle line:84% if I hit the right tourist sites, missing Baroque gems, 00:18:40.380 --> 00:18:44.100 align:middle line:84% I suppose, getting lost, leaving the hotel without a map 00:18:44.100 --> 00:18:45.990 align:middle line:90% as if I had no destination. 00:18:45.990 --> 00:18:48.810 align:middle line:84% I just walked, stopping at coffee houses, 00:18:48.810 --> 00:18:51.630 align:middle line:84% smoking unfiltered cigarettes, and looking out 00:18:51.630 --> 00:18:55.590 align:middle line:84% from the blue wreath around me to other deep-drawing smokers. 00:18:55.590 --> 00:18:59.280 align:middle line:84% Everyone seemed to have time to sit, to smoke as if smoking 00:18:59.280 --> 00:19:02.940 align:middle line:84% were breathing, to stare into the vacancy of private thought, 00:19:02.940 --> 00:19:05.580 align:middle line:90% if their thoughts were private. 00:19:05.580 --> 00:19:07.320 align:middle line:90% I was in the '30s. 00:19:07.320 --> 00:19:10.200 align:middle line:84% I'd finally arrived in my parents' decade-- 00:19:10.200 --> 00:19:14.790 align:middle line:84% the men's soft caps, the dove colors of Depression pictures, 00:19:14.790 --> 00:19:17.220 align:middle line:84% the acquiescence to circumstance, 00:19:17.220 --> 00:19:19.440 align:middle line:90% the ruined quality. 00:19:19.440 --> 00:19:22.770 align:middle line:84% For the first time, I recognized the truth of beauty, 00:19:22.770 --> 00:19:24.210 align:middle line:90% that it is brokenness. 00:19:24.210 --> 00:19:25.950 align:middle line:90% It is on its knees. 00:19:25.950 --> 00:19:28.320 align:middle line:84% I sat and watched it and smoked-- 00:19:28.320 --> 00:19:31.440 align:middle line:84% I don't smoke, but I found myself buying cigarettes-- 00:19:31.440 --> 00:19:35.040 align:middle line:84% smoked a blue relation between those coffeehouses and-- 00:19:35.040 --> 00:19:38.760 align:middle line:84% for this sadness turned out to be, to me, beautiful. 00:19:38.760 --> 00:19:41.490 align:middle line:84% Or rather the missing quality of beauty, 00:19:41.490 --> 00:19:45.300 align:middle line:84% whatever makes it approachable, became apparent in Prague. 00:19:45.300 --> 00:19:49.860 align:middle line:84% I could sit, merely breathing, and be part of it. 00:19:49.860 --> 00:19:52.290 align:middle line:90% I was beautiful at last. 00:19:52.290 --> 00:19:55.290 align:middle line:90% And I didn't care at last. 00:19:55.290 --> 00:19:57.660 align:middle line:84% I stumbled through the ancient streets, 00:19:57.660 --> 00:20:00.750 align:middle line:84% stopped in the smoke-grimed coffee houses, 00:20:00.750 --> 00:20:04.830 align:middle line:84% and added my signature of ash, anonymous and yet 00:20:04.830 --> 00:20:06.600 align:middle line:90% entirely satisfied. 00:20:06.600 --> 00:20:08.970 align:middle line:84% I had ceased even to be a reverse immigrant. 00:20:08.970 --> 00:20:11.850 align:middle line:84% I sought no one, no sign of my family 00:20:11.850 --> 00:20:14.580 align:middle line:84% or any ethnic heritage that might be mine. 00:20:14.580 --> 00:20:17.010 align:middle line:84% I was simply in the most beautiful place 00:20:17.010 --> 00:20:22.200 align:middle line:84% I had ever seen, and it was grimy and sad and broken. 00:20:22.200 --> 00:20:25.920 align:middle line:84% I was relieved of some weight, the odd burden of happiness 00:20:25.920 --> 00:20:28.740 align:middle line:84% and unblemished joy of the adored child. 00:20:28.740 --> 00:20:32.880 align:middle line:84% Or perhaps I was free of beauty itself as an abstract concept. 00:20:32.880 --> 00:20:34.480 align:middle line:90% I didn't think about it. 00:20:34.480 --> 00:20:36.210 align:middle line:90% And I didn't bother to wonder. 00:20:36.210 --> 00:20:37.860 align:middle line:90% I sat and smoked. 00:20:37.860 --> 00:20:40.410 align:middle line:84% I walked and got lost and didn't care 00:20:40.410 --> 00:20:42.210 align:middle line:90% because I couldn't get lost. 00:20:42.210 --> 00:20:44.580 align:middle line:90% I hardly understood I was happy. 00:20:44.580 --> 00:20:48.840 align:middle line:84% My happiness consisted of encountering sadness. 00:20:48.840 --> 00:20:53.710 align:middle line:90% I simply felt accurate." 00:20:53.710 --> 00:20:57.490 align:middle line:84% The Prague that I went to and discovered and wrote about 00:20:57.490 --> 00:21:00.940 align:middle line:84% was, of course, the Prague before the Americans 00:21:00.940 --> 00:21:02.723 align:middle line:90% came to it. 00:21:02.723 --> 00:21:04.390 align:middle line:84% In fact, I ended this book talking about 00:21:04.390 --> 00:21:07.090 align:middle line:84% how, if only the American expatriates could 00:21:07.090 --> 00:21:10.060 align:middle line:84% find this town and live in it, they would overwhelm it. 00:21:10.060 --> 00:21:12.250 align:middle line:84% But of course, that would never be possible 00:21:12.250 --> 00:21:15.070 align:middle line:84% because it was a communist country. 00:21:15.070 --> 00:21:17.320 align:middle line:84% And it would not be possible for people to come there. 00:21:17.320 --> 00:21:20.500 align:middle line:84% Well, now there are something like 30,000 Americans living 00:21:20.500 --> 00:21:25.420 align:middle line:84% in Prague right now and two English-language newspapers. 00:21:25.420 --> 00:21:29.050 align:middle line:84% When I went back in the early '90s, 00:21:29.050 --> 00:21:31.090 align:middle line:84% I discovered a very different Prague. 00:21:31.090 --> 00:21:35.860 align:middle line:84% And I met some friends there, a hardworking doctor 00:21:35.860 --> 00:21:40.330 align:middle line:84% who took me on a tour and an American who'd returned, 00:21:40.330 --> 00:21:42.580 align:middle line:84% having escaped in 1948, to receive 00:21:42.580 --> 00:21:44.890 align:middle line:84% his degree, which had been denied him 00:21:44.890 --> 00:21:46.900 align:middle line:90% when he'd been arrested. 00:21:46.900 --> 00:21:50.830 align:middle line:84% I want to read you about another person I met there in '90-- 00:21:50.830 --> 00:21:53.410 align:middle line:90% what was it, '91 or '92-- 00:21:53.410 --> 00:21:55.570 align:middle line:84% another person like me, returning, 00:21:55.570 --> 00:21:57.850 align:middle line:84% although this had been his home originally. 00:21:57.850 --> 00:22:01.268 align:middle line:90% 00:22:01.268 --> 00:22:03.810 align:middle line:84% "The next day," meaning after some other things had happened, 00:22:03.810 --> 00:22:06.390 align:middle line:84% "I managed to find the antiquarian book shop 00:22:06.390 --> 00:22:10.710 align:middle line:84% in the warren of tangled streets behind Old Town Square, where 00:22:10.710 --> 00:22:13.650 align:middle line:84% Anna, my doctor friend, had admired a children's 00:22:13.650 --> 00:22:14.970 align:middle line:90% encyclopedia. 00:22:14.970 --> 00:22:16.770 align:middle line:90% I snapped up the whole set-- 00:22:16.770 --> 00:22:18.360 align:middle line:84% The Animal World, it was called-- 00:22:18.360 --> 00:22:21.450 align:middle line:84% for $15 as a farewell gift for her. 00:22:21.450 --> 00:22:23.580 align:middle line:84% Then standing outside the shop, trying 00:22:23.580 --> 00:22:25.500 align:middle line:84% to open my umbrella in a driving rain, 00:22:25.500 --> 00:22:28.410 align:middle line:84% I realized I would have to carry this bag of bricks 00:22:28.410 --> 00:22:30.510 align:middle line:90% around the rest of the day. 00:22:30.510 --> 00:22:33.300 align:middle line:84% It was this dispiriting awareness, I think, 00:22:33.300 --> 00:22:37.200 align:middle line:84% that caused me to decide on the long, expensive lunch. 00:22:37.200 --> 00:22:40.140 align:middle line:84% I dragged The Animal World to Prague's only kosher 00:22:40.140 --> 00:22:43.920 align:middle line:84% restaurant, a place that used to be cheap and [INAUDIBLE].. 00:22:43.920 --> 00:22:45.990 align:middle line:84% But it had become popular with tourists, 00:22:45.990 --> 00:22:48.570 align:middle line:84% and the prix fixe menu was now out of reach for most 00:22:48.570 --> 00:22:50.750 align:middle line:90% of the people of Prague."