WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.930 align:middle line:90%


00:00:00.930 --> 00:00:02.280 align:middle line:90%
"Fable of the 20th Century."

00:00:02.280 --> 00:00:06.470 align:middle line:90%


00:00:06.470 --> 00:00:09.710 align:middle line:84%
"The conveyor belts bearing
hubcaps and loneliness

00:00:09.710 --> 00:00:13.520 align:middle line:84%
were everywhere, and the
invisible ruts in the air

00:00:13.520 --> 00:00:17.750 align:middle line:84%
could transport you for a
lifetime if you weren't careful.

00:00:17.750 --> 00:00:20.120 align:middle line:84%
Monotony had a hair
trigger, and there

00:00:20.120 --> 00:00:22.460 align:middle line:84%
were machines that
sounded like the sea

00:00:22.460 --> 00:00:26.780 align:middle line:84%
and put you to sleep if the
jackhammers with something Oh,

00:00:26.780 --> 00:00:30.380 align:middle line:84%
when the sun broke through
the pink haze of our luxuries,

00:00:30.380 --> 00:00:34.700 align:middle line:84%
lovers fell into the same
ancient swoon of photosynthesis.

00:00:34.700 --> 00:00:37.820 align:middle line:84%
But at the same time,
the ledgers of motels

00:00:37.820 --> 00:00:42.410 align:middle line:84%
grew spectacular with aliases,
and the nights came down hard

00:00:42.410 --> 00:00:45.650 align:middle line:90%
with quiz shows and melodramas.

00:00:45.650 --> 00:00:49.220 align:middle line:84%
Opportunities raised
themselves alongside highways

00:00:49.220 --> 00:00:51.680 align:middle line:90%
in Dayglo and boldface.

00:00:51.680 --> 00:00:54.440 align:middle line:84%
The suburbs were
crowded with manuals,

00:00:54.440 --> 00:00:57.230 align:middle line:84%
and the chickens stopped
clucking on the farms,

00:00:57.230 --> 00:01:00.500 align:middle line:84%
yet there were
eggs for everyone.

00:01:00.500 --> 00:01:05.480 align:middle line:84%
And some of us were happy
for hours, days, weeks.

00:01:05.480 --> 00:01:08.240 align:middle line:84%
Even in the subways,
there were people to love.

00:01:08.240 --> 00:01:10.880 align:middle line:84%
There were children who
ripped apart their mothers

00:01:10.880 --> 00:01:13.040 align:middle line:84%
to get into the
world, and the mothers

00:01:13.040 --> 00:01:17.330 align:middle line:84%
called them daughter or son, and
the fathers got drunk and felt

00:01:17.330 --> 00:01:20.150 align:middle line:90%
they had a say in the universe.

00:01:20.150 --> 00:01:23.570 align:middle line:84%
This would happen every
day, and for every breath,

00:01:23.570 --> 00:01:26.060 align:middle line:84%
there was a building,
and for every death,

00:01:26.060 --> 00:01:28.070 align:middle line:90%
there was a building or a poem.

00:01:28.070 --> 00:01:32.090 align:middle line:84%
For every lame god a kiss
in a dark alley, a belief

00:01:32.090 --> 00:01:34.460 align:middle line:90%
in moments and luck.

00:01:34.460 --> 00:01:38.360 align:middle line:84%
We learned to put history
books down gently on the table.

00:01:38.360 --> 00:01:41.780 align:middle line:84%
If curious, we asked
a Jew about Hitler

00:01:41.780 --> 00:01:45.620 align:middle line:84%
or invented our own
satisfactory monster.

00:01:45.620 --> 00:01:49.760 align:middle line:84%
In difficult times, we came to
understand everything is either

00:01:49.760 --> 00:01:52.750 align:middle line:90%
personal or a fable."

00:01:52.750 --> 00:01:55.000 align:middle line:90%