WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.630 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.630 --> 00:00:03.840 align:middle line:84% Then maybe two points from-- and there's 00:00:03.840 --> 00:00:06.795 align:middle line:84% another group of poems in this book with titles 00:00:06.795 --> 00:00:07.920 align:middle line:90% that work very differently. 00:00:07.920 --> 00:00:12.180 align:middle line:84% They're not one word titles as most of those are. 00:00:12.180 --> 00:00:16.050 align:middle line:90% 00:00:16.050 --> 00:00:18.420 align:middle line:84% The two poems I'm going to read-- there is their titles. 00:00:18.420 --> 00:00:21.960 align:middle line:84% The first of them is called "The Interpretation of Dreams" 00:00:21.960 --> 00:00:24.390 align:middle line:84% and the second one is called "Civilization 00:00:24.390 --> 00:00:25.680 align:middle line:90% and its Discontents." 00:00:25.680 --> 00:00:28.350 align:middle line:90% 00:00:28.350 --> 00:00:30.480 align:middle line:84% The writing of these caused me great pleasure. 00:00:30.480 --> 00:00:34.890 align:middle line:90% 00:00:34.890 --> 00:00:38.280 align:middle line:84% Central to that pleasure was the fact that when a friend called 00:00:38.280 --> 00:00:42.150 align:middle line:84% me and asked if I could come out and play, I said, no, 00:00:42.150 --> 00:00:43.320 align:middle line:90% I'm sorry, I can't. 00:00:43.320 --> 00:00:46.125 align:middle line:84% I have to write "Civilization and its Discontents" tonight. 00:00:46.125 --> 00:00:49.950 align:middle line:90% 00:00:49.950 --> 00:00:54.820 align:middle line:84% Though each of the poems refers at some point to Freud, 00:00:54.820 --> 00:01:01.020 align:middle line:84% the poems are not transistorized book reviews in any way. 00:01:01.020 --> 00:01:07.020 align:middle line:84% And they refer as much to the sense 00:01:07.020 --> 00:01:11.100 align:middle line:84% we have that we know what Freud meant even though we haven't 00:01:11.100 --> 00:01:12.960 align:middle line:84% really read him and we just sort of know it 00:01:12.960 --> 00:01:15.720 align:middle line:90% by breathing the cultural air. 00:01:15.720 --> 00:01:18.780 align:middle line:84% And in a couple of places, I actually 00:01:18.780 --> 00:01:21.510 align:middle line:84% quote passages from his writings. 00:01:21.510 --> 00:01:23.958 align:middle line:90% 00:01:23.958 --> 00:01:25.875 align:middle line:84% This is called "The Interpretation of Dreams." 00:01:25.875 --> 00:01:30.980 align:middle line:90% 00:01:30.980 --> 00:01:35.480 align:middle line:84% "What animals dream of I do not know. 00:01:35.480 --> 00:01:38.390 align:middle line:84% The urchin cat we rented with the house 00:01:38.390 --> 00:01:43.910 align:middle line:84% was sun-stunned one minute and twitched the next, pursued 00:01:43.910 --> 00:01:46.250 align:middle line:90% by humans maybe. 00:01:46.250 --> 00:01:50.570 align:middle line:84% The valley could be dreaming the haze that filled it, both it 00:01:50.570 --> 00:01:55.730 align:middle line:84% and I replete, like a wound cat sleeping. 00:01:55.730 --> 00:01:59.480 align:middle line:84% The walled hill towns we drove to nights 00:01:59.480 --> 00:02:04.400 align:middle line:84% in search of the perfect pasta also curled in on themselves 00:02:04.400 --> 00:02:06.350 align:middle line:90% like nutmeats. 00:02:06.350 --> 00:02:11.570 align:middle line:84% How I loved those stone towns, stark against fire, 00:02:11.570 --> 00:02:15.530 align:middle line:84% the houses rising like tamed bluffs. 00:02:15.530 --> 00:02:18.620 align:middle line:90% Fortification is a way of life. 00:02:18.620 --> 00:02:21.030 align:middle line:84% When I imagined an afternoon nap in Gubbio, 00:02:21.030 --> 00:02:27.560 align:middle line:84% let's say, I dream of light, mild cousin to fire, bristling, 00:02:27.560 --> 00:02:31.700 align:middle line:84% its blind raised like a bottle brush down house facades 00:02:31.700 --> 00:02:35.300 align:middle line:84% until they flecked the stony street beds. 00:02:35.300 --> 00:02:39.380 align:middle line:84% Then I'd rise and walk in diminishing circles 00:02:39.380 --> 00:02:44.120 align:middle line:84% al centro, where there's a church and a square, 00:02:44.120 --> 00:02:48.980 align:middle line:84% a blare of blank space amidst all that habit and stricture. 00:02:48.980 --> 00:02:54.320 align:middle line:84% How often I've arrived at myself like that, as in a dream. 00:02:54.320 --> 00:02:58.280 align:middle line:84% Nothing can be brought to an end in the unconscious, where 00:02:58.280 --> 00:03:00.320 align:middle line:84% the circuits of self-dramatization 00:03:00.320 --> 00:03:03.350 align:middle line:90% complete themselves endlessly. 00:03:03.350 --> 00:03:08.130 align:middle line:84% The dream work, Freud called it, like fireworks, 00:03:08.130 --> 00:03:10.550 align:middle line:84% which require hours for their preparation 00:03:10.550 --> 00:03:13.490 align:middle line:90% and then flare up in a moment. 00:03:13.490 --> 00:03:16.640 align:middle line:84% Daydreams like mine of Gubbio imitate 00:03:16.640 --> 00:03:20.360 align:middle line:84% such condensation and release, though they 00:03:20.360 --> 00:03:23.930 align:middle line:84% lack that umbilical tether to the other world that makes 00:03:23.930 --> 00:03:27.740 align:middle line:90% dreams art and daydreams gossip. 00:03:27.740 --> 00:03:33.650 align:middle line:84% And daydreams can be broken off at sluggish will like mine. 00:03:33.650 --> 00:03:36.950 align:middle line:84% But dreams have their own urgencies. 00:03:36.950 --> 00:03:39.530 align:middle line:84% The other night I dreamed I was shaking myself awake 00:03:39.530 --> 00:03:43.770 align:middle line:84% beside that waif cat, dead now for two years. 00:03:43.770 --> 00:03:47.000 align:middle line:84% Let's go to Gubbio tonight and eat tortellini. 00:03:47.000 --> 00:03:49.460 align:middle line:84% How long it takes to make them right 00:03:49.460 --> 00:03:53.150 align:middle line:84% and how they flare up in the mouth like sunspots, 00:03:53.150 --> 00:03:57.220 align:middle line:90% both dense and evanescent."