1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 2 00:00:06,049 --> 00:00:10,184 VICKI: God speaks to Hagar about her son Ishmael. 3 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 4 00:00:10,227 --> 00:00:12,664 And God says to her, 5 00:00:12,708 --> 00:00:15,232 "He will be called a wild man, 6 00:00:15,276 --> 00:00:19,367 "and the world's hand will be against him." 7 00:00:30,117 --> 00:00:33,642 Yeah? You want me to run through that one one more time for you? 8 00:00:33,685 --> 00:00:36,993 The point is that in that, Melville starts with 9 00:00:37,037 --> 00:00:39,039 "Call me Ishmael." 10 00:00:40,562 --> 00:00:44,827 So what do know about our narrator from three words? 11 00:00:45,436 --> 00:00:46,481 That he's... 12 00:00:47,003 --> 00:00:48,222 BOY: Wild. 13 00:00:48,265 --> 00:00:50,659 That he is... He's considered a wild man. 14 00:00:50,702 --> 00:00:51,747 Kendall? 15 00:00:51,790 --> 00:00:53,270 [KENDALL SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY] 16 00:00:53,314 --> 00:00:55,751 That he feels like the whole world is against him. 17 00:00:55,794 --> 00:00:57,970 Yipes. Three words. 18 00:00:58,014 --> 00:01:00,582 Really, Hebert? Is the rest of this book gonna be this way? 19 00:01:00,625 --> 00:01:01,844 Yeah. Okay. 20 00:01:02,845 --> 00:01:04,107 "Though I cannot tell 21 00:01:04,151 --> 00:01:07,719 "why it was exactly that those stage managers, 22 00:01:07,763 --> 00:01:09,373 "the Fates, put me down 23 00:01:09,417 --> 00:01:12,681 "for this shabby part of a whaling voyage yet, 24 00:01:12,724 --> 00:01:15,423 "now that I recall the circumstances, 25 00:01:15,466 --> 00:01:19,166 "I think I can see a little into the springs and motives, 26 00:01:19,209 --> 00:01:21,429 "which, being cunningly presented to me 27 00:01:21,472 --> 00:01:23,300 "under various disguises, 28 00:01:23,344 --> 00:01:27,087 "induced me to set about performing the part that I did 29 00:01:27,130 --> 00:01:30,916 "besides cajoling me into the delusion that it was a choice 30 00:01:30,960 --> 00:01:35,051 "resulting from my own unbiased free will and discriminating judgment." 31 00:01:38,794 --> 00:01:40,100 BOY: That's a long sentence. 32 00:01:40,143 --> 00:01:41,710 That is one long sentence. 33 00:01:41,753 --> 00:01:43,364 Do you understand what he just said? 34 00:01:44,365 --> 00:01:45,931 Yeah, you missed me with that. 35 00:01:45,975 --> 00:01:48,108 VICKI: Pshew, pshew! 36 00:01:48,151 --> 00:01:49,457 So Melville is saying, 37 00:01:49,500 --> 00:01:51,807 "Now that I look back on it, 38 00:01:51,850 --> 00:01:55,767 "all these choices I thought I was making 39 00:01:57,291 --> 00:02:01,338 "are actually not choices at all! 40 00:02:01,382 --> 00:02:05,734 "I thought I was choosing, but now that I look at it, 41 00:02:07,170 --> 00:02:08,389 "No. 42 00:02:08,432 --> 00:02:09,868 "I wasn't choosing at all. 43 00:02:10,913 --> 00:02:12,262 "I'm fated." 44 00:02:12,306 --> 00:02:15,613 He's just sitting around, whispering in our ears, 45 00:02:15,657 --> 00:02:19,661 [WHISPERS] "We're fated. We're fated. We're fated." 46 00:02:19,704 --> 00:02:21,967 We think we have a choice, 47 00:02:22,011 --> 00:02:24,535 but we don't really have a choice. 48 00:02:24,579 --> 00:02:26,929 What we're doing in this life 49 00:02:26,972 --> 00:02:29,671 is because that's what we're supposed to do. 50 00:02:30,759 --> 00:02:32,064 Right? 51 00:02:32,108 --> 00:02:34,850 Okay. Yeah? 52 00:02:35,894 --> 00:02:38,680 Darlings, we're so fated 53 00:02:38,723 --> 00:02:43,163 that this book is told in flashback. 54 00:02:44,947 --> 00:02:48,603 Everything that we read 55 00:02:48,646 --> 00:02:52,824 has already happened. 56 00:02:52,868 --> 00:02:54,174 We can't change it. 57 00:02:54,913 --> 00:02:56,350 And, darlings, 58 00:02:56,393 --> 00:03:01,703 there's also that wink and that nudge from Melville. 59 00:03:01,746 --> 00:03:08,666 Because no matter when in time we pick up this book... 60 00:03:13,323 --> 00:03:19,373 Ishmael is always about to go 61 00:03:20,156 --> 00:03:21,157 to sea... 62 00:03:25,466 --> 00:03:26,771 and so are we. 63 00:03:36,041 --> 00:03:37,869 MARK: So I wanted to tell you a little bit 64 00:03:37,913 --> 00:03:41,221 about why I came upon doing this project. 65 00:03:41,264 --> 00:03:43,832 I happened to be readingMoby-Dick, 66 00:03:43,875 --> 00:03:47,139 and I felt like I need to contact Janet Werner, 67 00:03:47,183 --> 00:03:48,793 not for a sentimental reason, 68 00:03:48,837 --> 00:03:52,319 but I realized I also had this thing like Ahab did. 69 00:03:52,362 --> 00:03:58,760 He's got this thing in his past that he has to reencounter. 70 00:03:58,803 --> 00:04:01,415 JANET: Hi! How ya doin'? Boy, you look great! 71 00:04:01,458 --> 00:04:03,112 You really do! Come on in! 72 00:04:03,155 --> 00:04:06,028 MARK: And then I read the book, and I felt like 73 00:04:06,071 --> 00:04:09,205 it had sort of opened up something for me. 74 00:04:09,249 --> 00:04:11,773 Like it was some kind of a... Like a weird transformation. 75 00:04:11,816 --> 00:04:13,035 Yeah. 76 00:04:13,078 --> 00:04:14,906 MARK: And so, I wanted to encounter you 77 00:04:14,950 --> 00:04:16,517 because I didn't know what would happen 78 00:04:16,560 --> 00:04:18,170 if I talked to you again about it. 79 00:04:18,214 --> 00:04:21,348 Oh! [LAUGHS] Okay. 80 00:04:21,391 --> 00:04:25,395 MARK: I kinda wanna go through that process of figuring out 81 00:04:25,439 --> 00:04:28,093 what the teacher-student relationship is around literature... 82 00:04:28,137 --> 00:04:29,704 Okay. 83 00:04:29,747 --> 00:04:33,011 MARK: ...um, because I think you understand it really well. 84 00:04:33,055 --> 00:04:35,187 I had had a very good experience with your older sister, 85 00:04:35,231 --> 00:04:36,885 you know, and some... How you're... 86 00:04:36,928 --> 00:04:38,452 And I'm not saying that, 87 00:04:38,495 --> 00:04:41,585 you know, a bad experience with an older sibling would... 88 00:04:41,629 --> 00:04:42,891 -[CELL PHONE RINGS] -Oh. 89 00:04:42,934 --> 00:04:46,068 This is... This is... This is my cell phone. 90 00:04:46,111 --> 00:04:47,461 -CALEB: Oh, watch out! -[THUDS] 91 00:04:47,504 --> 00:04:48,984 JANET: Shit! CALEB: Sorry there. 92 00:04:49,027 --> 00:04:50,551 JANET: Did I break that? MARK: No, it's okay. 93 00:04:50,594 --> 00:04:52,857 JANET: I don't even know where it is... Oh, here. 94 00:04:52,901 --> 00:04:56,731 ♪ I see earthquakes and lightnin' ♪ 95 00:04:56,774 --> 00:04:58,472 JANET: You know what? This isn't even... 96 00:04:59,864 --> 00:05:01,213 It's okay. She'll call me... 97 00:05:01,257 --> 00:05:03,041 I hope she doesn't call me back. 98 00:05:03,085 --> 00:05:04,652 But a lot... Did I break this? 99 00:05:04,695 --> 00:05:06,349 MARK: No, it's okay. JANET: I fell... Shit. 100 00:05:06,393 --> 00:05:07,655 CALEB: Let me see. Can I hear you talk now? 101 00:05:07,698 --> 00:05:08,960 No? Still going. 102 00:05:09,004 --> 00:05:10,353 JANET: You think it's all right? Okay. 103 00:05:10,397 --> 00:05:11,659 CALEB: It's metal as can be. JANET: Sorry. 104 00:05:11,702 --> 00:05:14,401 You know, you feel a certain regret 105 00:05:14,444 --> 00:05:19,623 when you can't, um, help people 106 00:05:19,667 --> 00:05:23,584 to create a path that's workable, 107 00:05:23,627 --> 00:05:26,630 at least temporarily for them. [CHUCKLES] 108 00:05:26,674 --> 00:05:28,153 CALEB: High school's a difficult time, man. 109 00:05:28,197 --> 00:05:29,546 Yeah, it is. Don't you think? 110 00:05:29,590 --> 00:05:31,635 CALEB: I can only imagine as a teacher trying to... 111 00:05:31,679 --> 00:05:32,897 JANET: Yes, but he did come back, 112 00:05:32,941 --> 00:05:34,551 and he did share with me 113 00:05:34,595 --> 00:05:36,553 that he felt it was a good experience 114 00:05:36,597 --> 00:05:38,947 not doing well in the class. 115 00:05:38,990 --> 00:05:41,906 Because he said he felt it woke him up. 116 00:05:41,950 --> 00:05:47,216 But I just hate to see that having to happen to anyone. 117 00:05:47,259 --> 00:05:49,958 -[PIANO MUSIC PLAYING] -EDWIN: I have another opener downstairs 118 00:05:50,001 --> 00:05:51,655 if this doesn't work. 119 00:05:51,699 --> 00:05:52,961 MARTA: Why are you all dressed up? 120 00:05:53,004 --> 00:05:54,354 -EDWIN: Okay. -I'm always dressed like this. 121 00:05:54,397 --> 00:05:55,659 EDWIN: Well, Happy New Year. 122 00:05:56,312 --> 00:05:57,835 ALL: Happy New Year! 123 00:05:57,879 --> 00:06:01,230 Like, all the papers came back filled with notes. 124 00:06:01,273 --> 00:06:02,971 ALISSA: Oh, wow. RENATA: I have them. 125 00:06:04,755 --> 00:06:06,496 I even have the letter of recommendation 126 00:06:06,540 --> 00:06:08,716 that she wrote for me when I was going to college. 127 00:06:10,457 --> 00:06:11,719 MARK: She didn't write one for me. 128 00:06:11,762 --> 00:06:13,503 [ALL LAUGH] 129 00:06:15,897 --> 00:06:17,420 But now, we're friends, 130 00:06:17,464 --> 00:06:19,204 so now I get to hang out with her all the time. 131 00:06:19,248 --> 00:06:20,336 How many years later? 132 00:06:20,380 --> 00:06:22,077 Fifteen years. 133 00:06:22,120 --> 00:06:26,473 And then, I decided that I needed the Norton Critical Edition. 134 00:06:26,516 --> 00:06:28,562 -MARK: Mm-hmm. -Because this has like... 135 00:06:28,605 --> 00:06:31,739 Like loads of stuff in it. All kinds of stuff. 136 00:06:31,782 --> 00:06:33,958 MARK: You've gotta have the letters to Hawthorne. 137 00:06:34,002 --> 00:06:36,047 -That's... That's pretty important. -Yeah, yeah. 138 00:06:38,920 --> 00:06:40,922 MARK: But, has anyone read a really good book 139 00:06:40,965 --> 00:06:44,055 that they feel has changed their lives? 140 00:06:44,099 --> 00:06:46,231 EDWIN: It's not like, you know, you read a book, 141 00:06:46,275 --> 00:06:48,538 and then, suddenly you go in a different direction. 142 00:06:49,496 --> 00:06:50,758 Well, that happens for Mark. 143 00:06:52,716 --> 00:06:55,850 MARK: I probably had a huge act to follow 144 00:06:55,893 --> 00:06:58,766 with my sister going along this course. 145 00:06:58,809 --> 00:07:01,333 Aw, so I should have heard what you were saying and said, 146 00:07:01,377 --> 00:07:04,467 "Take a little more time to do what you have to do." 147 00:07:04,511 --> 00:07:05,860 MARK: No, I think you were giving me time. 148 00:07:05,903 --> 00:07:08,863 [CHUCKLING] Oh, okay. Okay, all right. Okay. 149 00:07:08,906 --> 00:07:12,432 MARK: You gave me time, and, no, you were very liberal with me because... 150 00:07:12,475 --> 00:07:13,868 Maybe that wasn't good. 151 00:07:13,911 --> 00:07:15,696 -Maybe I should have been more... -[MARK CHUCKLES] 152 00:07:15,739 --> 00:07:17,480 More authoritarian. Like my dad. 153 00:07:17,524 --> 00:07:20,004 MARK: But do you remember these scenes that we had in the hallway 154 00:07:20,048 --> 00:07:21,658 before class sometimes and I like... 155 00:07:21,702 --> 00:07:22,920 I didn't want to talk to you 156 00:07:22,964 --> 00:07:24,400 'cause I still didn't have this paper yet. 157 00:07:24,444 --> 00:07:26,446 And then you'd stop me before coming in... 158 00:07:27,185 --> 00:07:28,273 Do you remember those? 159 00:07:28,317 --> 00:07:30,188 God, those I don't remember. 160 00:07:30,232 --> 00:07:32,452 I must've blocked them out. 161 00:07:32,495 --> 00:07:35,019 RENATA: Where's that, um, binder that I gave you 162 00:07:35,063 --> 00:07:36,630 of all the letters you wrote to me? 163 00:07:36,673 --> 00:07:40,547 'Cause I think there might be some about Mark. [LAUGHS] 164 00:07:40,590 --> 00:07:42,897 Because I was in Paris, then. Studying abroad. 165 00:07:44,812 --> 00:07:46,509 MARTA: Oop, this is it. 166 00:07:46,553 --> 00:07:48,468 "I would absolutely love to see you 167 00:07:48,511 --> 00:07:50,644 "but I have a big problem with Mark." 168 00:07:50,687 --> 00:07:54,517 They were gonna come visit me in France. In Paris. 169 00:07:54,561 --> 00:07:57,041 -But, because of him... -ALISSA: Oh, you ruined the trip. 170 00:07:57,085 --> 00:07:59,740 "His grades have sunk in two important subjects, 171 00:07:59,783 --> 00:08:02,656 "and he has lied, claiming that he is studying 172 00:08:02,699 --> 00:08:04,745 "and just can't do the tests. 173 00:08:04,788 --> 00:08:08,531 "He is on probation for acting so stupidly, 174 00:08:08,575 --> 00:08:11,403 "and I am upset beyond comprehension. 175 00:08:11,447 --> 00:08:15,320 "He needs some common sense not beat into him." [LAUGHS] 176 00:08:17,714 --> 00:08:20,238 Do you have any other specific memories of me 177 00:08:20,282 --> 00:08:21,588 from that... from that year? 178 00:08:28,682 --> 00:08:30,510 My biggest memory 179 00:08:30,553 --> 00:08:34,122 was after the last grades were handed in. 180 00:08:34,165 --> 00:08:37,342 And you came in... Meaning the end of the school year. 181 00:08:37,386 --> 00:08:39,562 The grades had already been handed in. 182 00:08:39,606 --> 00:08:42,086 And you came in with some papers 183 00:08:42,130 --> 00:08:45,307 that you wanted to get credit for, 184 00:08:45,350 --> 00:08:47,744 for the marking period, maybe fourth marking period. 185 00:08:47,788 --> 00:08:49,920 It might've made a difference in whether ya... 186 00:08:49,964 --> 00:08:54,272 Whether you, um, passed for the year or not. 187 00:08:54,316 --> 00:08:56,579 And I couldn't accept them, 188 00:08:56,623 --> 00:09:00,409 because the grades had already been handed in. 189 00:09:00,452 --> 00:09:03,455 And I felt terrible about that. 190 00:09:03,499 --> 00:09:05,632 RENATA: Here's Mom's letter that I had from her. 191 00:09:05,675 --> 00:09:08,591 JANET: So, to me, like, even a grade in my stupid... 192 00:09:08,635 --> 00:09:10,506 Well, not my "stupid class," but my class, 193 00:09:10,550 --> 00:09:12,595 is not the most important thing 194 00:09:12,639 --> 00:09:13,814 because look, you know, 195 00:09:13,857 --> 00:09:17,513 you're living proof of that, in my view. 196 00:09:17,557 --> 00:09:20,255 You know, I consider you to be, 197 00:09:20,298 --> 00:09:24,128 you know, kind of an intellectual. 198 00:09:24,172 --> 00:09:26,304 [INDISTINCT CONVERSATION] 199 00:09:38,316 --> 00:09:39,579 Oh, hi, Janet? 200 00:09:39,622 --> 00:09:40,667 JANET: [OVER PHONE] Yes?[LAUGHS] 201 00:09:40,710 --> 00:09:42,277 I just wanted to call and thank you 202 00:09:42,320 --> 00:09:44,932 for having us over yesterday. It was really great. 203 00:09:44,975 --> 00:09:46,760 JANET: [OVER PHONE] Oh, thank you. That's very nice. 204 00:09:46,803 --> 00:09:50,328 I hope I can be helpful in whatever it is that you're doing. 205 00:09:50,372 --> 00:09:52,548 I went to breakfast with some of my friends today 206 00:09:52,592 --> 00:09:53,897 and they were all asking me about it 207 00:09:53,941 --> 00:09:55,290 because they knew we had that appointment. 208 00:09:55,333 --> 00:09:57,248 And I told them how well you... 209 00:09:57,292 --> 00:09:58,772 You turned out so well! 210 00:09:58,815 --> 00:10:00,861 [LAUGHS] In my view. 211 00:10:00,904 --> 00:10:02,253 Like, you know? 212 00:10:02,297 --> 00:10:04,473 You know, you're serious, you're dedicated. 213 00:10:04,516 --> 00:10:07,563 You're the complete package. So that's great.[LAUGHS] 214 00:10:07,607 --> 00:10:10,261 Well, thanks. I like being called a "complete package." 215 00:10:10,305 --> 00:10:11,611 JANET: [OVER PHONE] Okay. 216 00:10:11,654 --> 00:10:13,308 I hope the rest of your research goes well. 217 00:10:13,351 --> 00:10:14,831 -MARK: [OVER PHONE] I hope so, too. -JANET: [OVER PHONE] Yes. 218 00:10:14,875 --> 00:10:18,182 MARK: [OVER PHONE] Anyway, I guess what would be... 219 00:10:18,226 --> 00:10:20,968 What would be helpful for me to think of, at least, 220 00:10:21,011 --> 00:10:23,057 is as I sort of continue doing this research 221 00:10:23,100 --> 00:10:25,189 that this is somehow, 222 00:10:25,233 --> 00:10:28,236 uh, the book report or presentation 223 00:10:28,279 --> 00:10:29,672 that I should've done for you. 224 00:10:29,716 --> 00:10:31,543 JANET: [OVER PHONE] Oh, yes. And don't even... 225 00:10:31,587 --> 00:10:33,850 Don't even be thinking about that. 226 00:10:33,894 --> 00:10:36,984 - Because I'm thinking... -No, I wanna think about it. That's what I'm telling you. 227 00:10:37,027 --> 00:10:39,247 I'm not gonna lie to you, sweethearts. 228 00:10:39,290 --> 00:10:42,250 This is not an easy read. 229 00:10:42,293 --> 00:10:45,079 If you took it to the beach to read it, 230 00:10:45,122 --> 00:10:47,255 the only purpose for doing that 231 00:10:47,298 --> 00:10:51,259 is because you wanted a really bad sunburn. 232 00:10:51,302 --> 00:10:54,523 It's partly a book about whales, 233 00:10:54,566 --> 00:10:57,395 it's partly a theological meditation, 234 00:10:57,439 --> 00:11:01,051 only tied to characters in certain places. 235 00:11:01,095 --> 00:11:04,533 Getting through Moby-Dick gives readers membership 236 00:11:04,576 --> 00:11:08,189 in a kind of cohort, or club. 237 00:11:08,232 --> 00:11:11,845 One finds a little disturbing as well as exhilarating 238 00:11:11,888 --> 00:11:14,195 the sense, for many readers, 239 00:11:14,238 --> 00:11:16,327 that the book was written for them. 240 00:11:17,198 --> 00:11:18,852 [BELL DINGS] 241 00:11:18,895 --> 00:11:22,986 MAN: Welcome to the 21st Annual Moby-DickMarathon. 242 00:11:23,030 --> 00:11:25,554 -Welcome, everybody. -[APPLAUSE] 243 00:11:25,597 --> 00:11:31,691 MAN: Marathoners must read aloud an average of 141.8 words per minute 244 00:11:31,734 --> 00:11:34,171 to complete the book on time. 245 00:11:34,215 --> 00:11:35,477 Good luck! 246 00:11:35,520 --> 00:11:37,174 VICKI: We've got tough vocabulary, 247 00:11:37,218 --> 00:11:38,741 tough sentence structure, 248 00:11:38,785 --> 00:11:41,657 and sweetie-pies, tough ideas. 249 00:11:42,789 --> 00:11:45,008 How many of you can ride a skateboard? 250 00:11:48,359 --> 00:11:49,360 Oh, my. 251 00:11:51,362 --> 00:11:53,974 This is going to get you where you can go voop 252 00:11:54,017 --> 00:11:55,323 and flip it and go back down 253 00:11:55,366 --> 00:11:57,107 and come back up and flip it again. 254 00:11:58,239 --> 00:12:00,937 Okay? This is tougher reading. 255 00:12:00,981 --> 00:12:03,461 MAN: Now, we welcome to the stage 256 00:12:03,505 --> 00:12:06,464 the great-great-grandson of Herman Melville. 257 00:12:06,508 --> 00:12:08,379 No pressure, Peter! 258 00:12:08,423 --> 00:12:09,859 [CLEARS THROAT] Excuse us. 259 00:12:14,516 --> 00:12:16,344 "Call me Ishmael." 260 00:12:16,387 --> 00:12:19,739 MARK: Your great-grandfather said he wrote the gospels of his century. 261 00:12:19,782 --> 00:12:23,568 And he wrote a wicked book and felt spotless as a lamb. 262 00:12:23,612 --> 00:12:26,049 And so I'm... I'm caught up on this idea 263 00:12:26,093 --> 00:12:29,792 that he's seen the annihilating force behind everything. 264 00:12:29,836 --> 00:12:31,185 What if Ahab experienced that 265 00:12:31,228 --> 00:12:33,753 when he had his first encounter with Moby-Dick? 266 00:12:33,796 --> 00:12:35,798 'Cause he talks about whiteness too, 267 00:12:35,842 --> 00:12:38,105 as a kind of like, clean-slate kind of blankness 268 00:12:38,148 --> 00:12:39,889 that's kind of scary, right? 269 00:12:39,933 --> 00:12:41,804 'Cause it's like you're letting go of everything. 270 00:12:43,066 --> 00:12:44,502 It's one of my mottos in life 271 00:12:44,546 --> 00:12:47,592 that people are secretly extremely afraid of freedom. 272 00:12:48,332 --> 00:12:50,291 -They are? -Yeah. 273 00:12:50,334 --> 00:12:52,510 Can you explain that a little bit? What do you mean? 274 00:12:52,554 --> 00:12:55,426 A lot of this is going to be me, Peter Gansevoort Whittemore, 275 00:12:55,470 --> 00:12:58,038 talking about my family lineage. 276 00:12:58,081 --> 00:13:03,304 And there's a lot of DNA that I feel akin to Melville with. 277 00:13:03,347 --> 00:13:05,219 Sometimes I read Moby-Dick and I say, 278 00:13:06,568 --> 00:13:08,788 "Nobody else would understand me like he would." 279 00:13:08,831 --> 00:13:11,225 -Right. -'Cause I think the same things. 280 00:13:11,268 --> 00:13:13,444 So I stand here talking to you about my family, 281 00:13:13,488 --> 00:13:16,273 but there's a Peter inside me watching me do this. 282 00:13:16,317 --> 00:13:17,579 -Uh-huh. -That says... 283 00:13:18,798 --> 00:13:21,409 I'm not just a product of my family. 284 00:13:21,452 --> 00:13:25,282 I'm also this independent spark of consciousness 285 00:13:25,326 --> 00:13:27,067 -that we all are. -Right. 286 00:13:27,110 --> 00:13:30,418 But if you were to let go of all your, what... 287 00:13:30,461 --> 00:13:33,029 -"My family keeps me together." -Uh-huh. 288 00:13:33,073 --> 00:13:35,379 What happens when you don't have any family anymore? 289 00:13:35,423 --> 00:13:36,598 Who are you then? 290 00:13:37,686 --> 00:13:39,470 "Well, my history keeps me together. 291 00:13:39,514 --> 00:13:41,995 "My culture keeps me together." 292 00:13:42,038 --> 00:13:44,562 What if you could really stand free of all that? 293 00:13:44,606 --> 00:13:47,217 And say, "Who am I really?" 294 00:13:47,261 --> 00:13:50,090 -[PIANO MUSIC PLAYING] -PETER: "A stove boat will make me an immortal, 295 00:13:50,133 --> 00:13:51,874 my brethren. 296 00:13:51,918 --> 00:13:54,703 "Yes, there is death in this business of whaling, 297 00:13:54,746 --> 00:13:59,577 "a speechlessly quick, chaotic bundling of a man into eternity. 298 00:14:00,274 --> 00:14:02,058 "But what then? 299 00:14:02,102 --> 00:14:03,799 "Methinks we have hugely mistaken 300 00:14:03,843 --> 00:14:06,236 "this matter of life and death. 301 00:14:06,280 --> 00:14:10,327 "Methinks that what they call my shadow here on Earth 302 00:14:10,371 --> 00:14:12,677 "is my true substance. 303 00:14:12,721 --> 00:14:16,507 "Methinks that in looking at things spiritual, 304 00:14:16,551 --> 00:14:18,814 "we are too much like oysters, 305 00:14:18,858 --> 00:14:21,164 "observing the sun through the water, 306 00:14:21,208 --> 00:14:25,908 "and thinking that thick water the thinnest of air. 307 00:14:25,952 --> 00:14:30,739 "Methinks my body is but the lees of my better being. 308 00:14:30,782 --> 00:14:36,397 "In fact, take my body who will, take it, I say, it is not me." 309 00:14:36,440 --> 00:14:40,967 In some way he's trying to say, you know, "Take my body, please! 310 00:14:41,010 --> 00:14:42,925 "'Cause that's not who I am." 311 00:14:42,969 --> 00:14:45,188 That paragraph is unbelievable metaphysics 312 00:14:45,232 --> 00:14:47,016 about what's the nature of who it is 313 00:14:47,060 --> 00:14:48,757 that's even asking the question, "Who am I?" 314 00:14:48,800 --> 00:14:50,411 -Right. -Who wants to know? 315 00:14:50,454 --> 00:14:51,760 [LAUGHS] 316 00:14:51,803 --> 00:14:53,936 Well, damn, ain't that a question, too? 317 00:14:53,980 --> 00:14:56,721 The story is a story of waking up... 318 00:14:57,722 --> 00:14:59,507 -Right. -...to, um, 319 00:15:00,595 --> 00:15:02,162 an essential nature of who we are 320 00:15:03,685 --> 00:15:06,122 that Melville was really struggling with all his life. 321 00:15:09,386 --> 00:15:12,172 BOY: Were you looking at that as a foreshadow quote? 322 00:15:12,215 --> 00:15:14,435 No, I was just trying to figure out what it meant. 323 00:15:14,478 --> 00:15:17,090 What about, "Finally I always go to sea as a sailor, 324 00:15:17,133 --> 00:15:20,354 "because... [MUMBLES]." Right? 325 00:15:21,268 --> 00:15:23,748 VICKI: No help? Need no help? 326 00:15:23,792 --> 00:15:26,490 -Not yet. -VICKI: Not yet? That's fabulous. 327 00:15:26,534 --> 00:15:27,927 GIRL: Um, then it says, 328 00:15:27,970 --> 00:15:29,972 "Methinks that in looking at things spiritual, 329 00:15:30,016 --> 00:15:31,321 "we are too much like oysters, 330 00:15:31,365 --> 00:15:33,106 "observing the sun through the water 331 00:15:33,149 --> 00:15:35,935 "and thinking that thick water the thinnest of air." 332 00:15:35,978 --> 00:15:39,373 "Since it is but well to be on friendly terms 333 00:15:39,416 --> 00:15:42,376 "with all the inmates of the place one lodges in." 334 00:15:42,419 --> 00:15:45,683 So he's saying that he wants to be friendly 335 00:15:45,727 --> 00:15:48,512 with people who, like, don't want the friendliness 336 00:15:48,556 --> 00:15:52,603 and he's social, and he's ready for an adventure. 337 00:15:52,647 --> 00:15:56,520 ELIZABETH: Place the right foot in between your two hands. 338 00:15:56,564 --> 00:16:00,133 Release the hands as you continue to lift the legs. 339 00:16:00,176 --> 00:16:01,569 Beautiful. 340 00:16:01,612 --> 00:16:04,528 And then from here, we'll see if we can roll back 341 00:16:04,572 --> 00:16:07,096 onto your shoulder blades. 342 00:16:07,140 --> 00:16:11,927 It's like a super-late book report, film-form, 343 00:16:11,971 --> 00:16:13,929 um, for his high school English teacher 344 00:16:13,973 --> 00:16:15,670 because he didn't read it in high school 345 00:16:15,713 --> 00:16:17,106 -and failed the class. -Shut up! 346 00:16:17,150 --> 00:16:19,717 -He failed? -Yeah, he failed American Lit. 347 00:16:19,761 --> 00:16:22,068 Okay, take a second. Lift your ribs for just a second. 348 00:16:22,111 --> 00:16:23,417 See if you can come back up. 349 00:16:23,460 --> 00:16:24,679 So you know that Herman Melville 350 00:16:24,722 --> 00:16:26,681 was my great-great-great-grandfather? 351 00:16:27,464 --> 00:16:28,900 What? [LAUGHS] 352 00:16:28,944 --> 00:16:31,033 And then in school, everybody hated Moby-Dick, 353 00:16:31,077 --> 00:16:33,731 so I... You know, you really didn't want to tell your classmates that, 354 00:16:33,775 --> 00:16:36,125 "Oh, yeah, well, my great-great-grandfather wrote that thing." 355 00:16:36,169 --> 00:16:37,953 "Shut up!" 356 00:16:37,997 --> 00:16:40,695 I wrote this play based on Herman Melville, 357 00:16:40,738 --> 00:16:44,220 also called Poor Herman that's, um... 358 00:16:44,264 --> 00:16:46,092 Yeah, that I've been working on. 359 00:16:46,135 --> 00:16:48,050 That's so weird! 360 00:16:48,094 --> 00:16:50,531 He has to meet you. This is... 361 00:16:50,574 --> 00:16:53,142 -Yeah, I would really like to meet him. -Oh, my God. 362 00:16:53,186 --> 00:16:56,667 ELIZABETH: I also made the play about Herman Melville's wife and daughters 363 00:16:56,711 --> 00:16:59,409 and I wrote my gender, 364 00:16:59,453 --> 00:17:01,933 yeah, into the... into the family. 365 00:17:01,977 --> 00:17:04,110 Do you, like, resemble Melville at all? 366 00:17:04,153 --> 00:17:06,764 Um, well, some people say in my family, 367 00:17:06,808 --> 00:17:09,854 this, like, cheekbone-eye thing. 368 00:17:10,942 --> 00:17:13,206 Um, I think... 369 00:17:14,990 --> 00:17:19,342 He's like, broad through the chest and sort of high cheeks. 370 00:17:19,386 --> 00:17:20,996 Everybody said he was handsome. 371 00:17:21,040 --> 00:17:22,476 [ALISSA LAUGHS] 372 00:17:22,519 --> 00:17:24,652 -So I like to think I resemble him. -[ALL LAUGH] 373 00:17:24,695 --> 00:17:27,263 I don't know, if I have a big beard... 374 00:17:27,307 --> 00:17:29,700 Or you know, I'm not... I'm not so large. 375 00:17:29,744 --> 00:17:32,181 But in my heart, I'm like a big man. 376 00:17:34,009 --> 00:17:37,795 BERGMAN: Melville was ill at the time. He had a form of the flu. 377 00:17:37,839 --> 00:17:40,276 And when he was found by a local tribe, 378 00:17:40,320 --> 00:17:43,236 he was near death, and they nursed him back to life. 379 00:17:43,279 --> 00:17:46,152 They offered him a membership in the tribe. 380 00:17:46,804 --> 00:17:48,980 Sadly, it would mean 381 00:17:49,024 --> 00:17:51,287 for him being tattooed from head to foot. 382 00:17:51,331 --> 00:17:52,419 [CHUCKLES] 383 00:17:54,203 --> 00:17:55,987 So he said "No, thank you." 384 00:17:56,031 --> 00:17:57,467 And they said "It's not a problem. 385 00:17:57,511 --> 00:17:59,730 "We understand. But we're so fond of you, 386 00:17:59,774 --> 00:18:01,993 "we're going to offer you the other option. 387 00:18:02,037 --> 00:18:05,214 "We're going to elevate you to the top of the menu." 388 00:18:05,258 --> 00:18:06,781 They were a cannibal tribe. 389 00:18:07,564 --> 00:18:09,175 He ran off again. 390 00:18:09,218 --> 00:18:12,743 He decided to visit old family friends, the Shaws. 391 00:18:14,180 --> 00:18:16,965 Lemuel Shaw was by now the Chief Justice 392 00:18:17,008 --> 00:18:20,360 of the Massachusetts Judicial Supreme Court, 393 00:18:20,403 --> 00:18:24,146 and he had sons, and he had a daughter named Elizabeth. 394 00:18:24,190 --> 00:18:27,193 Elizabeth fell in love with Herman. 395 00:18:27,236 --> 00:18:28,890 ELIZABETH: Lizzie could have married any doctor, 396 00:18:28,933 --> 00:18:30,631 any lawyer, any judge, 397 00:18:30,674 --> 00:18:33,721 but Herman came back from being overseas, 398 00:18:33,764 --> 00:18:36,724 and he was like hot, and tan, and built. 399 00:18:36,767 --> 00:18:38,769 So she's like, "That guy." 400 00:18:38,813 --> 00:18:40,380 BERGMAN: He was a very handsome man. 401 00:18:40,423 --> 00:18:45,515 Five-foot-ten, sturdy, broad-shouldered with a tan, 402 00:18:45,559 --> 00:18:48,083 and apparently, a beautiful speaking voice. 403 00:18:48,997 --> 00:18:51,347 Very mesmerizing. 404 00:18:51,391 --> 00:18:53,262 She told her father she was going to marry him, 405 00:18:53,306 --> 00:18:55,917 and her father said, "Absolutely not. 406 00:18:55,960 --> 00:18:59,181 "This is a man with no money, no education. 407 00:18:59,225 --> 00:19:01,575 "He's been a sailor for five years 408 00:19:01,618 --> 00:19:03,968 "and you know what they do." 409 00:19:04,012 --> 00:19:07,711 And he said, "This is not a possible marriage. 410 00:19:07,755 --> 00:19:09,322 "How is he going to support you?" 411 00:19:09,365 --> 00:19:11,280 She said, "Well, he's going to be a writer." 412 00:19:11,324 --> 00:19:13,848 And her father said, "Exactly, how is he going to support you?" 413 00:19:13,891 --> 00:19:16,198 [CHUCKLES] 414 00:19:16,242 --> 00:19:21,595 So the play finds Herman ready to move to Pittsfield, 415 00:19:21,638 --> 00:19:24,119 frustrated by his lack of success, 416 00:19:24,163 --> 00:19:26,861 and he's gonna, um... He's gonna write Moby-Dick. 417 00:19:26,904 --> 00:19:29,820 So this is sort of like... Almost like a prologue scene. 418 00:19:29,864 --> 00:19:31,300 MARK: You should be Poor Herman. 419 00:19:31,344 --> 00:19:33,259 ELIZABETH: Yeah, we should do that. 420 00:19:33,302 --> 00:19:36,349 I never have really gotten to act in it before. That would be fun. 421 00:19:36,392 --> 00:19:39,656 MARK: And, Alissa you should be, uh, Herman's wife. 422 00:19:39,700 --> 00:19:41,789 She's also never really acted before. 423 00:19:41,832 --> 00:19:43,269 ALISSA: I acted when I was a kid. 424 00:19:43,312 --> 00:19:45,053 I just, you know, got stage fright once 425 00:19:45,096 --> 00:19:46,359 and then never did it again. 426 00:19:51,277 --> 00:19:56,543 I just had a dream with the answer in it. 427 00:19:56,586 --> 00:19:58,893 We must move to the country! 428 00:19:58,936 --> 00:20:00,242 -[WINDOW OPENS] -[CARS HONK] 429 00:20:00,286 --> 00:20:03,898 Oh, too many people here making god-awful noise! 430 00:20:03,941 --> 00:20:06,553 Spewing nonsense from their blowholes 431 00:20:06,596 --> 00:20:09,860 such that I cannot think straight! 432 00:20:09,904 --> 00:20:12,123 Without stimulation, what will you write about? 433 00:20:14,169 --> 00:20:20,044 On this island, my writing lies stuck inside me. 434 00:20:20,088 --> 00:20:24,875 I can't see my inner forest through the smog of the city. 435 00:20:24,919 --> 00:20:28,270 Like a corseted woman at a banquet, 436 00:20:28,314 --> 00:20:30,577 I am starved and squished, 437 00:20:30,620 --> 00:20:34,015 and bound too tight to even taste a morsel. 438 00:20:37,192 --> 00:20:39,020 If the Harper Brothers forget you, 439 00:20:39,063 --> 00:20:40,978 who will publish you then? 440 00:20:41,022 --> 00:20:44,025 The field mice, and the summer squash? 441 00:20:44,068 --> 00:20:47,681 Nathaniel Hawthorne does fine for himself 442 00:20:47,724 --> 00:20:49,987 without pounding this Manhattan pavement 443 00:20:50,031 --> 00:20:52,294 like a draft horse at death's door. 444 00:20:52,947 --> 00:20:54,340 Oh. 445 00:20:54,383 --> 00:20:56,820 You wish to be Nathaniel Hawthorne? 446 00:20:57,778 --> 00:20:59,170 Would you still love me? 447 00:21:00,476 --> 00:21:02,348 ALISSA: We just left Boston. 448 00:21:02,391 --> 00:21:04,480 Everyone will think you can't hack it here. 449 00:21:04,524 --> 00:21:06,787 Why, I was born on this island, 450 00:21:06,830 --> 00:21:09,833 and I'll come and go from it as I please. 451 00:21:09,877 --> 00:21:12,053 [SIGHS] Just as soon as I take root, 452 00:21:12,096 --> 00:21:13,533 you pluck me up. 453 00:21:13,576 --> 00:21:17,885 Far better it is to cover ground than be buried in it! 454 00:21:17,928 --> 00:21:22,890 Why, I've sailed and swum and searched this Earth 455 00:21:22,933 --> 00:21:24,544 to its antipodes! 456 00:21:24,587 --> 00:21:28,635 My dear Lizzie, we may share a bed and a roof, 457 00:21:28,678 --> 00:21:30,332 but as you put down roots, 458 00:21:30,376 --> 00:21:34,684 -I put up sails! -[THUNDER RUMBLING] 459 00:21:34,728 --> 00:21:37,296 If we are to make do, you must make ends meet. 460 00:21:37,339 --> 00:21:39,907 We can't go now! 461 00:21:39,950 --> 00:21:43,214 I've already borrowed the money from your father 462 00:21:43,258 --> 00:21:46,653 as a loan against your inheritance. 463 00:21:46,696 --> 00:21:51,005 I'm writing a light-hearted take on the whaling industry. 464 00:21:51,048 --> 00:21:52,615 How can it not sell? 465 00:21:52,659 --> 00:21:54,574 How much do you already owe the Harpers 466 00:21:54,617 --> 00:21:56,140 for advances never recouped? 467 00:21:57,664 --> 00:22:02,059 Here, I write in great haste, dizzied by distraction. 468 00:22:02,103 --> 00:22:04,758 In the country, I will write in slow-motion. 469 00:22:06,237 --> 00:22:08,979 There, my dear Lizzie, 470 00:22:09,023 --> 00:22:13,375 I will write something worthy of your struggle. 471 00:22:13,419 --> 00:22:17,118 With his last words, I am ousted from the argument 472 00:22:17,161 --> 00:22:19,338 before I can tell him. 473 00:22:19,381 --> 00:22:21,731 He'll soon need to write for three. 474 00:22:26,214 --> 00:22:28,999 Initially, there was a little unrest. 475 00:22:29,043 --> 00:22:32,525 His wife was not happy with the physical layout of the house. 476 00:22:32,568 --> 00:22:34,744 She wanted to take out the central chimney, 477 00:22:34,788 --> 00:22:36,485 which is mammoth, 478 00:22:36,529 --> 00:22:40,576 um, and replace it with a grand front hall and staircase. 479 00:22:40,620 --> 00:22:44,058 Melville immortalized that battle in his work, 480 00:22:44,101 --> 00:22:47,409 1856 work, I And My Chimney. 481 00:22:47,453 --> 00:22:50,934 This is the singular most important sentence, 482 00:22:50,978 --> 00:22:53,372 and it's how Melville saw his future. 483 00:22:53,415 --> 00:22:56,723 "I and my chimney are settling together." 484 00:22:56,766 --> 00:22:58,420 He saw himself as an old man, 485 00:22:58,464 --> 00:23:00,509 sitting here in front of the fireplace, 486 00:23:00,553 --> 00:23:05,122 enjoying all that he had brought together in this place. 487 00:23:05,166 --> 00:23:07,298 And that sadly never happened. 488 00:23:07,342 --> 00:23:10,737 MARK: Was manic-depressiveness in the Melville lineage? 489 00:23:10,780 --> 00:23:12,521 It would seem so. 490 00:23:12,565 --> 00:23:16,133 His father certainly went through very heavy depressive phases. 491 00:23:16,177 --> 00:23:18,222 Brought him to his early death. 492 00:23:18,266 --> 00:23:21,835 His son, Malcolm, ultimately committed suicide, 493 00:23:21,878 --> 00:23:25,447 shooting himself in the head with his service revolver. 494 00:23:25,491 --> 00:23:26,970 -MARK: Oh, dear. -Yeah, not the... 495 00:23:27,014 --> 00:23:28,537 Not the action of a happy man. 496 00:23:29,364 --> 00:23:30,931 Does that still continue? 497 00:23:30,974 --> 00:23:35,805 Do your cousins still have, like, issues with up and down? 498 00:23:35,849 --> 00:23:39,809 I wasn't gonna bring up my mother, but now that you mention it. 499 00:23:39,853 --> 00:23:41,724 Um, you can see it. 500 00:23:41,768 --> 00:23:43,160 -Yeah? -Yeah. 501 00:23:43,204 --> 00:23:45,467 Yeah, they're a dark family. 502 00:23:45,511 --> 00:23:47,077 They're a very dark family. 503 00:23:48,557 --> 00:23:52,039 We should move on into the... Um, the guest parlor. 504 00:23:52,082 --> 00:23:53,388 The north parlor. 505 00:23:53,432 --> 00:23:54,650 Let's do that. 506 00:23:54,694 --> 00:23:55,695 Wonderful. 507 00:23:57,000 --> 00:23:59,002 BERGMAN: Thank you for that home's information. 508 00:23:59,046 --> 00:24:02,615 PETER: Yeah, it's an interesting way to... 509 00:24:02,658 --> 00:24:04,355 [WIND HOWLING] 510 00:24:04,399 --> 00:24:06,575 MAN: [SINGING] ♪ And we'll have one of those fine whales 511 00:24:06,619 --> 00:24:08,447 ♪ Hand boys over hand 512 00:24:08,490 --> 00:24:11,275 ♪ So be cheery, me lads! 513 00:24:11,319 --> 00:24:14,061 ♪ May your hearts never fail! 514 00:24:14,104 --> 00:24:20,676 ♪ While the bold harpooner is striking the whale! ♪ 515 00:24:20,720 --> 00:24:23,070 MARK: Do I need to do anything special to log in? 516 00:24:23,113 --> 00:24:26,290 Well, don't sign up now. Wait 'til later 517 00:24:26,334 --> 00:24:28,075 'cause it will just confuse everything. 518 00:24:28,118 --> 00:24:30,991 -Okay, okay and is... -That's too far ahead. 519 00:24:31,034 --> 00:24:32,949 MARK: We're gonna go grab something to eat and come back. 520 00:24:32,993 --> 00:24:35,386 -And then I think I'll... -WOMAN: Okay, well then decide to do it then. 521 00:24:35,430 --> 00:24:37,606 MARK: Okay, cool. RICARDO: As a teacher 522 00:24:37,650 --> 00:24:40,043 of language and literature and acting, 523 00:24:40,087 --> 00:24:42,698 you have to lift that language off the page, 524 00:24:42,742 --> 00:24:46,485 put it in the air, and put an electric charge into it. 525 00:24:46,528 --> 00:24:48,922 I had always kind of had that approach, 526 00:24:48,965 --> 00:24:52,665 but Moby-Dickgave me a chance to take it to another level. 527 00:24:52,708 --> 00:24:54,754 MARK: How late are you staying? 528 00:24:54,797 --> 00:24:56,320 -All night! -You're all night? 529 00:24:56,364 --> 00:24:58,018 [WOMEN LAUGH] 530 00:25:01,717 --> 00:25:03,502 MARK: All right, well, we'll be back. 531 00:25:03,545 --> 00:25:05,329 [UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING] 532 00:25:05,373 --> 00:25:07,331 [INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS] 533 00:25:11,161 --> 00:25:12,728 Good evening, everyone. 534 00:25:12,772 --> 00:25:14,600 My name is Ricardo Pitts-Wiley 535 00:25:14,643 --> 00:25:16,602 and in 2007, 536 00:25:16,645 --> 00:25:20,649 I took on a project of adapting Moby-Dick for the stage. 537 00:25:20,693 --> 00:25:22,172 ...stop my singing in this world, 538 00:25:22,216 --> 00:25:23,870 but to cut my throat! 539 00:25:23,913 --> 00:25:26,481 And in this matter of the whale be the front of thy face to me 540 00:25:26,525 --> 00:25:27,961 as the palm of this hand! 541 00:25:28,004 --> 00:25:31,704 There was an upper deck that was the Pequod. 542 00:25:31,747 --> 00:25:33,444 MARK: Ricardo, can I stop you right there? 543 00:25:33,488 --> 00:25:34,924 Can you address the camera? 544 00:25:34,968 --> 00:25:36,752 I absolutely can. 545 00:25:36,796 --> 00:25:38,667 -Okay, I'm so used to speaking. -[LAUGHTER] 546 00:25:38,711 --> 00:25:40,756 -WOMAN: Actor! -Yeah, an actor! 547 00:25:40,800 --> 00:25:43,106 -You know. All right. -[LAUGHTER] 548 00:25:43,150 --> 00:25:46,283 It was necessary to create two different environments. 549 00:25:46,327 --> 00:25:49,548 An environment that actually did Melville's work, 550 00:25:49,591 --> 00:25:50,853 which was on the upper deck. 551 00:25:50,897 --> 00:25:53,247 But then I had to create a parallel world, 552 00:25:53,290 --> 00:25:55,989 a young crew, a gang, 553 00:25:56,032 --> 00:25:57,991 on a vengeance quest of their own. 554 00:25:58,034 --> 00:26:00,515 -[TAMBOURINE PLAYING] -[ALL CHANTING] 555 00:26:00,559 --> 00:26:03,910 ♪ Amazing grace 556 00:26:03,953 --> 00:26:05,259 MAN: This is for my homies. 557 00:26:05,302 --> 00:26:10,525 ♪ How sweet the sound 558 00:26:10,569 --> 00:26:11,961 MAN: This is for my homies. 559 00:26:12,005 --> 00:26:15,443 [TAMBOURINE, CHANTING SLOWS] 560 00:26:19,403 --> 00:26:20,883 RICARDO: I didn't change much of Melville. 561 00:26:20,927 --> 00:26:23,233 Melville had written beautifully. 562 00:26:23,277 --> 00:26:26,367 So, just put the words in the character's mouths. 563 00:26:26,410 --> 00:26:27,455 MAN: Mm-hmm. 564 00:26:28,369 --> 00:26:30,197 But the young crew, we had to... 565 00:26:30,240 --> 00:26:33,896 I had to adjust the language to tell that story. 566 00:26:33,940 --> 00:26:38,684 But then I had to... They had to add their own flavor to it. 567 00:26:38,727 --> 00:26:41,034 After the read-through, Ricardo looks at us and he goes, 568 00:26:41,077 --> 00:26:43,950 "Young people, just to let y'all know, I'm old!" 569 00:26:43,993 --> 00:26:45,342 [ALL LAUGH] 570 00:26:45,386 --> 00:26:47,475 "If there's any of the language in here that's... 571 00:26:47,518 --> 00:26:49,956 "That's out of date or doesn't match, 572 00:26:49,999 --> 00:26:53,089 "you let me know, and we'll adjust it and fix it." 573 00:26:53,133 --> 00:26:54,917 And I joke on him, because it was one part 574 00:26:54,961 --> 00:26:56,266 where I told him he made us sound like... 575 00:26:56,310 --> 00:26:58,138 villains on Shaft,like... 576 00:26:58,181 --> 00:26:59,922 [LAUGHTER] 577 00:26:59,966 --> 00:27:03,665 I thought we was goin' to talk about jive turkeys and all this! 578 00:27:03,709 --> 00:27:04,884 So I joke on him 579 00:27:04,927 --> 00:27:06,668 and he tells a great story about... 580 00:27:06,712 --> 00:27:09,062 He'd get excited whenever one of them was like, 581 00:27:09,105 --> 00:27:11,151 "All right. You good on that one. You good on that one." 582 00:27:11,194 --> 00:27:13,066 -He's like, "Yes, I'm cool!" -[LAUGHTER] 583 00:27:15,155 --> 00:27:16,852 RUDY: You know what I admired about Ricardo? 584 00:27:16,896 --> 00:27:19,420 Was that his hands were strong when I dapped him up. 585 00:27:19,463 --> 00:27:22,075 Because it made me feel like, if something pops off, 586 00:27:22,118 --> 00:27:23,729 Ricardo could probably knock somebody out. 587 00:27:23,772 --> 00:27:25,121 That was what I admired about him! 588 00:27:25,165 --> 00:27:27,123 I was like, "Yo, his hands are mad strong!" 589 00:27:27,167 --> 00:27:28,429 Like, he was probably fighting. 590 00:27:28,472 --> 00:27:30,997 He's cool! He's cool! Like, he understands. 591 00:27:31,040 --> 00:27:33,086 You know what I mean? So it was like... 592 00:27:33,129 --> 00:27:35,566 Which is stupid, in retrospect, but that was... 593 00:27:35,610 --> 00:27:37,568 That was where my head was at that time. 594 00:27:37,612 --> 00:27:38,787 RICARDO: When I met Rudy, 595 00:27:38,831 --> 00:27:41,007 a teacher of his called the theater one day 596 00:27:41,050 --> 00:27:43,183 and said, "I've got this student. 597 00:27:43,226 --> 00:27:46,055 "I think he's got something, but he's not doing well in school. 598 00:27:46,099 --> 00:27:47,578 "Can you come talk to him?" 599 00:27:47,622 --> 00:27:49,145 RUDY: He was like... He gave me an assignment. 600 00:27:49,189 --> 00:27:52,453 He said, "Get a copy of Taming of the Shrew. 601 00:27:52,496 --> 00:27:55,586 "Read it. And when you're done, call me." 602 00:27:55,630 --> 00:27:58,459 RICARDO: See, this is when you know you've got something. 603 00:27:58,502 --> 00:28:00,635 About a week later, he called me and said, 604 00:28:00,679 --> 00:28:03,246 "Man, I'm struggling with this. 605 00:28:03,290 --> 00:28:04,813 "I'm only about halfway through it." 606 00:28:06,293 --> 00:28:08,077 But he called me. 607 00:28:08,121 --> 00:28:09,731 So I said, "Well, come on in. 608 00:28:09,775 --> 00:28:11,559 "You'll be my assistant director." 609 00:28:12,691 --> 00:28:14,257 No, I was the assistant stage manager. 610 00:28:14,301 --> 00:28:15,737 Assistant stage manager! 611 00:28:15,781 --> 00:28:17,652 -RUDY: Don't put me that high up! -Yeah. 612 00:28:17,696 --> 00:28:20,960 But he literally made up a job for me, 613 00:28:21,003 --> 00:28:24,093 so that I could just be there. He just wanted me there, 614 00:28:24,137 --> 00:28:26,139 and I remember the first reading, 615 00:28:26,182 --> 00:28:29,011 just sitting there and listening to everybody read through the script, 616 00:28:29,055 --> 00:28:32,188 and I remember something in the back of my mind 617 00:28:32,232 --> 00:28:35,931 just telling me, like, "Yo, Rudy, don't mess this up. 618 00:28:35,975 --> 00:28:39,108 "Something's here. I don't know what it is. 619 00:28:39,152 --> 00:28:41,720 "But there's something here. Don't mess it up." 620 00:28:41,763 --> 00:28:43,809 So every once in a while, an actor wouldn't be there, 621 00:28:43,852 --> 00:28:45,245 and he'd have to read his part. 622 00:28:45,288 --> 00:28:48,117 So I'm listening, I'm going, "He can read!" 623 00:28:49,031 --> 00:28:51,599 "The lights rise on Ishmael." 624 00:28:51,642 --> 00:28:53,775 RUDY: "So me and my crew, we call ourselves "The One." 625 00:28:54,689 --> 00:28:56,169 "We are young and tough, 626 00:28:56,212 --> 00:28:58,475 "well-organized and well-armed. 627 00:28:58,519 --> 00:28:59,912 "Everything was cool until Pip, 628 00:28:59,955 --> 00:29:01,087 "the crew leader's little brother, 629 00:29:01,130 --> 00:29:02,653 "decided to take some of our product 630 00:29:02,697 --> 00:29:04,177 "and sell it himself." 631 00:29:04,220 --> 00:29:07,006 I never followed, like, the punctuation rules. 632 00:29:07,049 --> 00:29:08,572 I would kinda read too fast 633 00:29:08,616 --> 00:29:10,183 'cause I just wanna get it over with. 634 00:29:10,226 --> 00:29:13,447 This will be a lesson for all future project directors. 635 00:29:13,490 --> 00:29:15,797 When you get too big to pick up the hammer, 636 00:29:15,841 --> 00:29:17,930 you're too small to work in the theatre. 637 00:29:17,973 --> 00:29:20,802 [LAUGHTER] 638 00:29:20,846 --> 00:29:23,109 "We try not to get too close to anybody but each other. 639 00:29:24,458 --> 00:29:25,938 "Which is all we have, most of the time." 640 00:29:27,200 --> 00:29:29,550 I always knew how to read the words. I just... 641 00:29:29,593 --> 00:29:33,119 It was comprehending the text that I always had a problem with. 642 00:29:33,162 --> 00:29:36,078 I have a responsibility as an actor. 643 00:29:36,122 --> 00:29:39,603 So I felt like it was my job to really understand it, 644 00:29:39,647 --> 00:29:40,735 word for word. 645 00:29:40,779 --> 00:29:42,781 [APPLAUSE] 646 00:30:02,278 --> 00:30:05,368 KRIS: The typeface seem a little small forMoby-Dick . 647 00:30:05,412 --> 00:30:07,849 MARK: What, you think because it'sMoby-Dick , it should be bigger? 648 00:30:07,893 --> 00:30:10,547 KRIS: I didn't think it all. I don't... 649 00:30:11,766 --> 00:30:14,856 I don't read, so I don't think. 650 00:30:14,900 --> 00:30:16,771 MARK: Well, I think you should read Moby-Dick. 651 00:30:16,815 --> 00:30:19,295 It's like all about the water. 652 00:30:19,339 --> 00:30:21,341 KRIS: But I know what I know about the water. 653 00:30:21,384 --> 00:30:24,692 I don't want another person's version of the water. 654 00:30:24,735 --> 00:30:28,043 I just want the idea, and I wanna walk away from it. 655 00:30:29,436 --> 00:30:32,569 I don't... I don't wanna get stuck in something. 656 00:30:34,310 --> 00:30:35,877 MARK: But you knew what all the good comic books were, 657 00:30:35,921 --> 00:30:37,792 -so at least you read those. -[LAUGHS] 658 00:30:40,490 --> 00:30:43,058 I didn't ever really read the comic books. 659 00:30:43,102 --> 00:30:45,234 [BOTH LAUGHING] 660 00:30:45,278 --> 00:30:47,584 We were never born to read, 661 00:30:47,628 --> 00:30:52,633 and that slender sentence holds an entire history within it. 662 00:30:52,676 --> 00:30:55,766 Um, the reality is that most people believe that 663 00:30:55,810 --> 00:30:59,292 reading is something that the brain has that unfolds 664 00:30:59,335 --> 00:31:01,076 just like language of vision. 665 00:31:01,772 --> 00:31:03,035 It is anything but true. 666 00:31:03,078 --> 00:31:05,341 Reading is an unnatural act. 667 00:31:05,385 --> 00:31:07,300 It's a gift for you. I bought it at Point Reyes Books... 668 00:31:07,343 --> 00:31:08,605 -Thank you -...in Point Reyes. 669 00:31:08,649 --> 00:31:10,216 Does it have a receipt in it? 670 00:31:10,259 --> 00:31:12,653 So no, the brain was never meant to read, 671 00:31:12,696 --> 00:31:15,917 and indeed, it is changing as we speak, 672 00:31:15,961 --> 00:31:19,399 the brain is, uh, this amazing organ 673 00:31:19,442 --> 00:31:23,142 that is capable of creating new circuits. 674 00:31:23,185 --> 00:31:27,276 So reading is basically a brand-new circuit for the brain. 675 00:31:27,320 --> 00:31:30,671 A little child has a very basic circuit 676 00:31:30,714 --> 00:31:33,021 and can decode words. 677 00:31:33,065 --> 00:31:35,937 But over time, the processes move 678 00:31:35,981 --> 00:31:38,940 from basically perceiving print 679 00:31:38,984 --> 00:31:43,945 to binding perception with cognition in ever more elaborate ways. 680 00:31:43,989 --> 00:31:49,342 And all these processes change what is read to what is thought. 681 00:31:49,385 --> 00:31:54,347 So really, the act of reading is the change from perception to cognition, 682 00:31:54,390 --> 00:31:57,698 and that changes the circuitry over time. 683 00:31:57,741 --> 00:31:59,352 It changes the reader itself. 684 00:31:59,395 --> 00:32:01,789 We literally change with reading. 685 00:32:06,837 --> 00:32:08,187 How did that make you feel? 686 00:32:11,581 --> 00:32:14,236 That I wanted a coffee. 687 00:32:14,280 --> 00:32:15,977 I was thinking about coffee the whole time 688 00:32:16,021 --> 00:32:17,152 [CHUCKLES] 689 00:32:17,979 --> 00:32:19,285 Okay, let's go get a coffee. 690 00:32:23,376 --> 00:32:25,856 KRIS: I can't read out loud. I never read out loud. 691 00:32:25,900 --> 00:32:28,207 -MARK: Well, do you usually read in your head? -KRIS: I don't... 692 00:32:28,250 --> 00:32:30,383 MARK: 'Cause when you read in your head, you weren't very cooperative, Kris. 693 00:32:30,426 --> 00:32:34,735 KRIS: 'Cause then when I read in my head, I don't read linear. 694 00:32:36,345 --> 00:32:37,346 I skim. 695 00:32:40,610 --> 00:32:42,264 MARK: What are you working on, Rory? 696 00:32:42,308 --> 00:32:44,658 Um, I'm drawing Popo's kitchen. 697 00:32:45,964 --> 00:32:47,748 CALEB: And who's Popo? 698 00:32:47,791 --> 00:32:52,187 Popo's my bear that goes to Take Flight with me and has dyslexia. 699 00:32:55,408 --> 00:32:57,801 CALEB: I love it. Can you put Popo somewhere in his house? 700 00:32:58,933 --> 00:33:00,456 RORY: Mm-hm. Hm. 701 00:33:01,805 --> 00:33:03,372 He can't really fit in there. 702 00:33:05,200 --> 00:33:07,898 So every time we sat down with anything letter-related, 703 00:33:07,942 --> 00:33:10,031 it was just like a whole new lesson every time. 704 00:33:10,075 --> 00:33:11,990 Every time. 705 00:33:12,033 --> 00:33:14,122 And so it was just the repetition of having to start over again from scratch 706 00:33:14,166 --> 00:33:16,168 was our first sign. 707 00:33:16,211 --> 00:33:19,606 And then as a teacher myself, and watching my other daughter learn to read, 708 00:33:19,649 --> 00:33:21,912 just kind of the natural signs that you see 709 00:33:21,956 --> 00:33:23,479 where they're trying to read what's in their environment 710 00:33:23,523 --> 00:33:25,133 and trying to sound out things, 711 00:33:25,177 --> 00:33:28,441 uh, Rory was really stuck with it at like, one level 712 00:33:28,484 --> 00:33:30,356 for a very, very, very long time. 713 00:33:30,399 --> 00:33:31,966 -Pass... -Pass... 714 00:33:32,010 --> 00:33:34,055 -...en... -Pass-en... 715 00:33:34,099 --> 00:33:36,797 -...ger. -Passenger 716 00:33:37,406 --> 00:33:41,236 "Hurrying down to 717 00:33:41,280 --> 00:33:44,544 "a tourist?" 718 00:33:46,024 --> 00:33:49,418 "Ch... Ikens..." 719 00:33:49,462 --> 00:33:51,333 GRANDMOTHER: "Church." RORY: "Church." 720 00:33:51,377 --> 00:33:53,074 GRANDMOTHER: Are you on the next page? 721 00:33:53,118 --> 00:33:55,685 Do you want to try one more page maybe by yourself? 722 00:33:55,729 --> 00:33:57,600 RORY: Okay. GRANDMOTHER: Okay. 723 00:33:57,644 --> 00:34:04,607 It looks all weird, and it's like the letters are like, doubling 724 00:34:04,651 --> 00:34:08,611 and they're like jumping and like, flipping over and stuff. 725 00:34:09,525 --> 00:34:12,224 And it gives me a headache, 726 00:34:12,267 --> 00:34:16,880 and there's like all these big words that are, like, confusing. 727 00:34:16,924 --> 00:34:19,883 And so, it's really annoying 728 00:34:19,927 --> 00:34:24,888 and hard when I try to read. 729 00:34:24,932 --> 00:34:29,980 One of the more amazing aspects of my work is to understand 730 00:34:30,024 --> 00:34:35,203 that our individuals with dyslexia have a different brain organization. 731 00:34:35,247 --> 00:34:40,121 One that's been with us for all the 50,000 years 732 00:34:40,165 --> 00:34:43,472 that we have been on this Earth as homo sapiens 733 00:34:43,516 --> 00:34:47,476 but one that organizes language differently. 734 00:34:47,520 --> 00:34:49,391 Especially written language. 735 00:34:49,435 --> 00:34:53,091 So when a dyslexic individual is reading, 736 00:34:53,134 --> 00:34:56,746 they are going to actually activate areas 737 00:34:56,790 --> 00:34:58,748 in the right hemisphere 738 00:34:58,792 --> 00:35:04,014 and hold on to them in a way that makes a kind of delay 739 00:35:04,058 --> 00:35:06,321 in how fast they process that word. 740 00:35:10,499 --> 00:35:13,154 KRIS: [READING] "If your caravan happened to be supplied 741 00:35:13,198 --> 00:35:15,722 "with a metaphysical professor. 742 00:35:15,765 --> 00:35:20,901 "Yes, as everyone knows, Meditation and water are wedded forever." 743 00:35:28,387 --> 00:35:31,781 "Meditation and water are wedded forever." 744 00:35:36,395 --> 00:35:40,703 KRIS: I love going to stores and seeing letters backwards. 745 00:35:40,747 --> 00:35:44,142 That makes it much more, you know, readable. 746 00:35:46,056 --> 00:35:48,668 But you're not... you're not dyslexic. 747 00:35:48,711 --> 00:35:50,322 -You never... -Oh, I am. 748 00:35:50,365 --> 00:35:51,888 -You are? -Oh, yeah. 749 00:35:51,932 --> 00:35:54,717 -Really? -Oh yeah, when I write... When I type my notes, 750 00:35:55,892 --> 00:35:58,243 if I just type without thinking, 751 00:35:59,983 --> 00:36:03,291 every other word will be backwards. 752 00:36:04,684 --> 00:36:06,599 -Oh. -It's really interesting. 753 00:36:06,642 --> 00:36:09,036 -Oh, so you are dyslexic. -Yeah. 754 00:36:11,560 --> 00:36:14,172 No one ever told me anything. 755 00:36:14,215 --> 00:36:17,740 They just bounced me from room to room. 756 00:36:17,784 --> 00:36:21,048 And now, everyone's concerned about, you know, labels and stuff. 757 00:36:21,091 --> 00:36:23,833 It's like, "Okay, if you want to call me dyslexic, call me..." you know... 758 00:36:23,877 --> 00:36:27,054 -[LAUGHS] -That's fine. That doesn't help me. 759 00:36:27,097 --> 00:36:29,796 Well, it could be different. I mean, I could probably find a backwards Moby-Dick 760 00:36:29,839 --> 00:36:33,321 -for dyslexics or something. -Uh... It's too late. 761 00:36:36,585 --> 00:36:40,676 The early circuit has to... has to form, 762 00:36:40,720 --> 00:36:42,200 you know, the connections, 763 00:36:42,243 --> 00:36:44,637 has to repurpose these neurons, 764 00:36:44,680 --> 00:36:48,293 and then, has to become so automatic and fluent 765 00:36:48,336 --> 00:36:53,994 by around third or fourth grade that the thinking stuff 766 00:36:54,037 --> 00:36:58,346 -really can become hinged. -Mm-hmm. 767 00:36:58,390 --> 00:37:04,831 And that becomes a new, thinking reader. Or not. 768 00:37:04,874 --> 00:37:08,965 And that's another story that you may or may not want for this 769 00:37:09,009 --> 00:37:13,274 but that fourth grade is what I call "the black hole of American education." 770 00:37:13,318 --> 00:37:18,845 If the kids aren't fluent enough by then, if the circuit's not automatic enough by then, 771 00:37:18,888 --> 00:37:21,630 the "deep reading" processes that are so important 772 00:37:21,674 --> 00:37:26,287 to complex, sophisticated thinking, they don't get hooked together. 773 00:37:27,636 --> 00:37:29,116 Okay, Rory, let's do Take Flight. 774 00:37:30,335 --> 00:37:31,553 Let's put this away. 775 00:37:34,077 --> 00:37:36,819 -"Wink," "pink," "pink." -"Think." 776 00:37:36,863 --> 00:37:40,170 -"Pink," "thunk," "pink." -"Pink." 777 00:37:40,214 --> 00:37:41,389 -"Pink." -Ready? 778 00:37:41,433 --> 00:37:42,477 -RORY: "Hunk." -"Hank." 779 00:37:42,521 --> 00:37:44,305 RORY: "Hank." "Sunk." 780 00:37:44,349 --> 00:37:45,915 -"Skunk." -RORY: "Skunk." 781 00:37:46,612 --> 00:37:47,700 -"Thunk." -"Trunk." 782 00:37:48,875 --> 00:37:50,442 It's all right. 783 00:37:50,485 --> 00:37:53,314 -"Trunk," "hunk" -"Hank." 784 00:37:53,358 --> 00:37:55,142 "Hank," "Think." 785 00:37:55,185 --> 00:37:56,361 -"Thank" -"Thank" 786 00:37:56,404 --> 00:37:58,276 [WAVES SPLASHING] 787 00:38:09,504 --> 00:38:13,291 SAMUEL: Across the book, you get characters looking in the water, 788 00:38:13,334 --> 00:38:15,423 and you are told what they see. 789 00:38:15,467 --> 00:38:17,556 That reveals something about the character. 790 00:38:17,599 --> 00:38:20,559 Sometimes looking in the water is a mirror back to them. 791 00:38:20,602 --> 00:38:24,345 Sometimes looking in the water is piercing to the depths. 792 00:38:24,389 --> 00:38:26,347 Strikingly, toward the end of the book 793 00:38:26,391 --> 00:38:27,783 and looking in the water 794 00:38:27,827 --> 00:38:31,700 is seeing Moby-Dick rise up to the surface. 795 00:38:31,744 --> 00:38:34,442 MARK :[ON PHONE] Well, we have to say hi to your daughter now. 796 00:38:34,486 --> 00:38:35,965 There's pie inside. 797 00:38:36,009 --> 00:38:37,402 PJ: [OVER PHONE] I mean she doesn't talk that much. 798 00:38:37,445 --> 00:38:40,187 She's only, you know, five-and-a-half months. 799 00:38:40,230 --> 00:38:43,103 Oh, does... does she gurgle? 800 00:38:43,146 --> 00:38:44,539 PJ: [OVER PHONE] She can make a some gurgles. 801 00:38:44,583 --> 00:38:48,369 She's kind of a little whiny right now, actually. 802 00:38:48,413 --> 00:38:50,197 Okay, well, put her on speakerphone. 803 00:38:55,855 --> 00:38:58,553 PJ: [OVER PHONE] All right, Annalise, say hi. 804 00:39:00,555 --> 00:39:01,687 Say hi! 805 00:39:02,427 --> 00:39:03,645 [BABY SQUEALING] 806 00:39:05,778 --> 00:39:07,997 -Oh! Hi. -Hi, Annalise. 807 00:39:09,172 --> 00:39:11,174 PJ: [OVER PHONE] Say something else. 808 00:39:11,218 --> 00:39:13,786 Does she know "hi" through a phone? Hi. 809 00:39:14,743 --> 00:39:15,875 PJ: [OVER PHONE] Hi! 810 00:39:15,918 --> 00:39:19,008 [LAUGHS] Hi, PJ. 811 00:39:19,052 --> 00:39:22,664 ALISSA : I mean, it just seems like the timing is right, and... 812 00:39:22,708 --> 00:39:25,493 Yes, it's a dramatic and drastic change. 813 00:39:25,537 --> 00:39:28,714 But I think we are a good partnership. 814 00:39:28,757 --> 00:39:31,194 And I'm looking forward to see what we can do together. 815 00:39:31,238 --> 00:39:35,329 It's like a new, like, experiment, adventure. 816 00:39:39,899 --> 00:39:41,379 PJ: [OVER PHONE] She loves books. 817 00:39:41,422 --> 00:39:45,165 She loves books? They got the pictures, they're hard. 818 00:39:45,208 --> 00:39:46,340 Reading is kind of... 819 00:39:47,863 --> 00:39:49,430 PJ: [OVER PHONE] But she likes... 820 00:39:49,474 --> 00:39:51,693 -Well, there's pie inside. -MARK: Oh, there is pie? 821 00:39:51,737 --> 00:39:53,565 -Yeah. There's pie, peach pie. -MARK: Oh. 822 00:39:56,785 --> 00:39:57,873 PJ: [OVER PHONE] She's really not... 823 00:39:57,917 --> 00:39:59,484 she's sometimes a little chattier. 824 00:40:02,617 --> 00:40:04,271 Luck of the draw with the baby. 825 00:40:05,403 --> 00:40:06,882 CALEB: Before you wanted to have a kid, 826 00:40:06,926 --> 00:40:08,928 were there certain things you wanted to do with your life? 827 00:40:08,971 --> 00:40:11,800 Um, sure. I mean, that's... 828 00:40:12,714 --> 00:40:14,455 Maybe it's because I've decided 829 00:40:14,499 --> 00:40:16,501 that you don't have to do all those things... 830 00:40:18,416 --> 00:40:22,028 Cause that's part of my problem, is that there are all these things I... 831 00:40:22,071 --> 00:40:25,161 I mean, even now, constantly decide I want to do. 832 00:40:25,205 --> 00:40:27,381 Or regret not having done. 833 00:40:27,425 --> 00:40:30,645 There are lots of things I regret not having done. 834 00:40:30,689 --> 00:40:34,040 And you just can't continue to regret 835 00:40:34,083 --> 00:40:37,086 the lives you could have had forever. 836 00:40:38,348 --> 00:40:39,828 And... [CRYING SOFTLY] 837 00:40:41,308 --> 00:40:46,269 yes, having a child puts a huge wrench in any... 838 00:40:47,183 --> 00:40:50,099 in some plans I may have had. 839 00:40:50,143 --> 00:40:54,495 But they are plans that I need to just let go because, 840 00:40:56,192 --> 00:40:57,890 they weren't going to happen. 841 00:40:58,978 --> 00:41:00,849 I haven't acted on them. 842 00:41:02,721 --> 00:41:04,505 And, 843 00:41:04,549 --> 00:41:06,725 it would be... It could be a way of letting go. 844 00:41:29,704 --> 00:41:32,881 When he moved here, he had written a book called, The Whale 845 00:41:32,925 --> 00:41:36,102 which was based on the adventure of the whaleship Essex 846 00:41:36,145 --> 00:41:39,148 which was capsized by a giant whale in the Pacific 847 00:41:39,192 --> 00:41:41,847 -when Melville was only one year old. -MAR: Mm-hmm. 848 00:41:41,890 --> 00:41:44,197 But after meeting Nathaniel Hawthorne, 849 00:41:44,240 --> 00:41:47,243 basically scuttled the book and rewrote it as Moby-Dick. 850 00:41:47,287 --> 00:41:48,418 [KNOCKING ON DOOR] 851 00:41:48,462 --> 00:41:50,769 Oh, now what, Augusta? 852 00:41:55,861 --> 00:41:57,906 Oh, you've come back. 853 00:41:58,603 --> 00:41:59,908 HAWTHORNE: Yes. 854 00:41:59,952 --> 00:42:02,563 Oh, my dear Hawthorne. 855 00:42:02,607 --> 00:42:05,784 I had pretty much made up my mind to be annihilated, 856 00:42:05,827 --> 00:42:09,570 but now, you're here. 857 00:42:09,614 --> 00:42:12,312 I've always appreciated your enthusiastic greetings, Herman. 858 00:42:12,355 --> 00:42:17,317 Oh it's you that titillates me till I'm a giddy schoolgirl! [CHUCKLES] 859 00:42:17,360 --> 00:42:19,362 Shall I carry your books as we stroll? 860 00:42:19,406 --> 00:42:22,278 HERMAN: Like that fated day we met in Berkshire. 861 00:42:22,322 --> 00:42:24,411 Oh that fated day that brought me here 862 00:42:24,454 --> 00:42:28,197 to live a stone's throw from you. And now, 863 00:42:28,241 --> 00:42:32,637 only old Mount Greylock stands between our two abodes. 864 00:42:32,680 --> 00:42:35,640 How I love to watch you come down that mountain. 865 00:42:35,683 --> 00:42:41,080 But, today your descent eluded me. 866 00:42:41,123 --> 00:42:45,040 And how I came day after day as you made for me one Moby-Dick. 867 00:42:46,651 --> 00:42:49,871 That's why we reside here in Berkshire. 868 00:42:49,915 --> 00:42:56,008 So we might write wicked books that need not be laced with rose petals. 869 00:42:56,051 --> 00:43:00,621 You are my lifeboat as I've walked the plank. 870 00:43:00,665 --> 00:43:03,102 Speak not another word until I... 871 00:43:03,929 --> 00:43:05,495 light your pipe. 872 00:43:05,539 --> 00:43:06,584 [INHALES] 873 00:43:07,976 --> 00:43:11,284 The physical affair between Herman and Nathaniel 874 00:43:11,327 --> 00:43:15,288 seems highly unlikely since Nathaniel hated to be touched. 875 00:43:15,331 --> 00:43:17,595 And you can have a psychological affair with someone 876 00:43:17,638 --> 00:43:20,206 but you can't touch them, you can't have a physical affair. 877 00:43:20,249 --> 00:43:24,732 -So there's rumors out there that Nathaniel and Herman had... -A love affair. 878 00:43:24,776 --> 00:43:26,342 -...a love affair? -Yeah. 879 00:43:26,386 --> 00:43:28,823 PETER: It's so eloquently put into words by Melville. 880 00:43:28,867 --> 00:43:31,086 You gotta say, "Well, who's kidding who?" 881 00:43:31,130 --> 00:43:33,523 But whether or not they actually had a physical relationship, 882 00:43:33,567 --> 00:43:35,525 I don't think anybody can verify it. 883 00:43:35,569 --> 00:43:36,788 But Hawthorne was gorgeous. 884 00:43:37,789 --> 00:43:40,487 He was when he was young. 885 00:43:40,530 --> 00:43:42,184 He was everything Melville wasn't in a way. 886 00:43:42,228 --> 00:43:44,186 But Melville was everything he wasn't. 887 00:43:44,230 --> 00:43:47,886 Right. They were two total opposites. 888 00:43:47,929 --> 00:43:50,149 -Which usually attract, right? -Often. 889 00:43:50,192 --> 00:43:51,541 Yeah. 890 00:43:51,585 --> 00:43:54,109 Monument Mountain where Melville... 891 00:43:54,153 --> 00:43:57,417 uh, first met Nathaniel Hawthorne and became friends with him. 892 00:43:57,460 --> 00:44:02,552 And when he met Nathaniel Hawthorne, they uh... they had a picnic, 893 00:44:02,596 --> 00:44:06,469 and Hawthorne convinced him to take Moby-Dick 894 00:44:06,513 --> 00:44:09,211 into like a very different direction than he ended up, 895 00:44:09,255 --> 00:44:10,517 uh, when that... when he... 896 00:44:10,560 --> 00:44:12,301 -[CORK POPS] -[SCREAMS] 897 00:44:12,345 --> 00:44:15,391 And then they all recited poetry. 898 00:44:16,262 --> 00:44:17,480 Hey. 899 00:44:17,524 --> 00:44:21,441 -Oh! To Herman Melville. -To Herman Melville. 900 00:44:35,281 --> 00:44:38,806 Took my last pill yes... Well, no. Yesterday, 901 00:44:38,850 --> 00:44:41,243 should have been the last day. 902 00:44:41,287 --> 00:44:46,161 But, I forgot. So, I'm off my pills. 903 00:44:56,781 --> 00:44:59,348 I'm not ready to be a father. I'm not ready to have a child. 904 00:45:01,089 --> 00:45:04,397 And financially, I'm not ready. 905 00:45:04,440 --> 00:45:06,007 Emotionally, I'm not ready. 906 00:45:06,616 --> 00:45:08,618 You're not ready. 907 00:45:08,662 --> 00:45:10,577 We're never going to be ready, Mark. 908 00:45:10,620 --> 00:45:12,535 I think you're kind of coming at it 909 00:45:12,579 --> 00:45:13,711 for the wrong reasons. 910 00:45:22,458 --> 00:45:25,635 I don't know what the right reasons are supposed to be, Mark. 911 00:45:25,679 --> 00:45:28,029 What do you think the right reasons are, then? 912 00:45:29,161 --> 00:45:31,076 I mean, isn't this enough? 913 00:45:31,119 --> 00:45:35,384 Like, can't we just be a couple for a little bit? 914 00:45:35,428 --> 00:45:39,040 We have been. I don't understand when the... 915 00:45:39,084 --> 00:45:41,347 MARK: You're a creative person, but you don't let yourself be creative 916 00:45:41,390 --> 00:45:43,044 because you're afraid, 917 00:45:43,088 --> 00:45:45,090 and that, like, the path of least resistance is making a baby 918 00:45:45,133 --> 00:45:48,441 which, you know, I think is every woman's right to do, but, like, 919 00:45:48,484 --> 00:45:50,051 if you have other things you can do, 920 00:45:50,095 --> 00:45:51,531 I think you should do them, too. 921 00:45:51,574 --> 00:45:54,708 You know, really shitty for you to like... I mean... 922 00:45:54,752 --> 00:45:56,666 [CRYING] You could try a little harder, Mark. 923 00:46:02,716 --> 00:46:05,153 [SNIFFING] I'm sorry that was so mean. 924 00:46:05,893 --> 00:46:07,721 [CRIES] 925 00:46:07,765 --> 00:46:09,679 No, that's okay. If you're feeling it. 926 00:46:12,378 --> 00:46:14,249 Look, I'm trying to tell you that you have the right 927 00:46:14,293 --> 00:46:15,903 to be impatient and angry with me. 928 00:46:18,079 --> 00:46:19,994 ALISSA: [CRYING] Really? Because I am. 929 00:46:20,038 --> 00:46:22,780 Because I am impatient, and I am angry with you. 930 00:46:24,303 --> 00:46:28,176 But I don't want... I don't want to get in the way 931 00:46:28,220 --> 00:46:29,787 [SNIFFLES] of what you need to do. 932 00:46:35,793 --> 00:46:36,881 I'm sorry. 933 00:46:42,756 --> 00:46:44,279 Are you missing a button? 934 00:46:44,323 --> 00:46:46,542 Yeah, but it's been missing since California. It's okay. 935 00:46:52,766 --> 00:46:54,812 [CHIPMUNK SQUEAKS] 936 00:46:57,075 --> 00:46:58,337 That was a chipmunk. 937 00:47:01,470 --> 00:47:02,732 ALISSA: Oh my gosh... 938 00:47:02,776 --> 00:47:04,647 -MARK: They're mating. -They're so cute. 939 00:47:24,711 --> 00:47:26,887 This bed is a Melville bed. 940 00:47:28,193 --> 00:47:32,327 It was purchased for us at an auction. 941 00:47:32,371 --> 00:47:35,678 There were always at least three, if not five people 942 00:47:35,722 --> 00:47:37,376 sleeping in this room. 943 00:47:37,419 --> 00:47:41,902 Herman and Lizzie, and at least two or three of their children. 944 00:47:41,946 --> 00:47:44,905 The children were always placed closer to the fireplace 945 00:47:44,949 --> 00:47:47,038 for the additional warmth. 946 00:47:47,081 --> 00:47:51,520 The difficulty of this room isn't having children in it. 947 00:47:51,564 --> 00:47:54,393 It's the door behind me. 948 00:47:54,436 --> 00:47:57,570 That door leads to three more bedrooms. 949 00:47:57,613 --> 00:48:02,357 Two of his sisters were ensconced in the outer ones 950 00:48:02,401 --> 00:48:06,492 and directly behind the head of the bed, was Herman's mother. 951 00:48:06,535 --> 00:48:08,581 -MARK: Oh. -Yeah. 952 00:48:08,624 --> 00:48:12,715 This is the only door into that suite of rooms. 953 00:48:12,759 --> 00:48:15,066 So anytime anybody came in or went out, 954 00:48:15,109 --> 00:48:18,069 they went by Herman in bed. 955 00:48:18,112 --> 00:48:21,159 There's talk that there must have been an outhouse at one point. 956 00:48:21,202 --> 00:48:25,163 But early on, everyone used chamber pots. 957 00:48:25,206 --> 00:48:27,861 You woke up, you did what you needed to do, 958 00:48:27,905 --> 00:48:31,256 and you carried your chamber pot through this room to take it outside. 959 00:48:32,866 --> 00:48:35,216 Could not have been pleasant. 960 00:48:35,260 --> 00:48:37,436 -MARK: [CHUCKLES SOFTLY] -PETER: Yeah, really. [LAUGHS] 961 00:48:37,479 --> 00:48:39,481 Herman and Lizzie managed to conceive 962 00:48:39,525 --> 00:48:41,962 and give birth to three more children in this room. 963 00:48:43,268 --> 00:48:46,401 They're a very unfortunate quartet, really. 964 00:48:46,445 --> 00:48:50,884 Malcolm, as I said, was subject to depressions and committed suicide. 965 00:48:50,928 --> 00:48:54,583 The baby of the family, Frances, known as Fanny 966 00:48:54,627 --> 00:48:59,371 is the only one who grew up, got married, had a family 967 00:48:59,414 --> 00:49:03,114 and provided us with descendants like Peter. 968 00:49:03,157 --> 00:49:05,681 Any questions about this room? 969 00:49:05,725 --> 00:49:07,901 The floorboards are original to the house. 970 00:49:08,989 --> 00:49:10,077 Nice. 971 00:49:23,525 --> 00:49:27,094 SAMUEL: [READING] "A certain significance lurks in all things." 972 00:49:27,138 --> 00:49:29,879 That seems to be a key sentence for the book. 973 00:49:29,923 --> 00:49:34,101 Uh, the book presents the world as suffused, 974 00:49:34,145 --> 00:49:36,060 as charged with meaning. 975 00:49:36,103 --> 00:49:38,714 Um, everywhere the narrator looks, 976 00:49:38,758 --> 00:49:43,545 He interprets, he manipulates, he speculates. 977 00:49:43,589 --> 00:49:45,808 It's one of the pleasures of the book. 978 00:49:45,852 --> 00:49:49,595 But to me the most interesting word in that sentence is "lurks." 979 00:49:49,638 --> 00:49:53,381 It's not "a certain significance is in all things" 980 00:49:53,425 --> 00:49:55,340 or "lies in all things"... 981 00:49:55,383 --> 00:49:59,083 The world "lurks" with significance. 982 00:49:59,126 --> 00:50:00,998 There's something unsettling. 983 00:50:01,041 --> 00:50:02,912 There's something unsteady. 984 00:50:02,956 --> 00:50:04,610 There's something ominous 985 00:50:04,653 --> 00:50:08,092 about the acts of interpretation that the book provokes. 986 00:50:12,226 --> 00:50:14,837 CALVIN: I got really frustrated because I didn't understand 987 00:50:14,881 --> 00:50:17,710 any of the references or allusions to the Bible. 988 00:50:20,104 --> 00:50:21,975 So I just started doing flips. 989 00:50:22,019 --> 00:50:24,238 And that's kind of like an escape. 990 00:50:24,282 --> 00:50:27,502 It gets my anger out, and it resets my mood. 991 00:50:29,113 --> 00:50:30,984 I don't know. I don't get angry too often, 992 00:50:31,028 --> 00:50:33,334 so it's like kind of a special occasion when I do. 993 00:50:33,378 --> 00:50:35,380 but not like the good kind of special. 994 00:50:35,423 --> 00:50:37,599 I was doing double front-flip, landed. 995 00:50:37,643 --> 00:50:40,515 And I was just repeating those over and over again. 996 00:50:51,222 --> 00:50:53,833 CALVIN'S MOTHER: He had fractured three of the vertebrae 997 00:50:53,876 --> 00:50:56,183 in the top part of his thoracic area 998 00:50:56,227 --> 00:50:59,317 and two other are very suspicious. 999 00:50:59,360 --> 00:51:00,579 So now he's in a neck brace, 1000 00:51:01,580 --> 00:51:04,017 [CHUCKLES] for six weeks, 1001 00:51:04,061 --> 00:51:08,456 and he'll be restricted from movement for almost three months. 1002 00:51:09,370 --> 00:51:11,024 That's not good. 1003 00:51:11,068 --> 00:51:12,417 MARK: Is he supposed to be wearing the neck brace right now? 1004 00:51:12,460 --> 00:51:13,548 Yes, he is. 1005 00:51:15,028 --> 00:51:16,508 JESSIE: I did Queequeg. 1006 00:51:16,551 --> 00:51:20,251 Um, he's from Kokovoko. He's twenty-five years old. 1007 00:51:20,294 --> 00:51:25,082 He's a sailor of Pequod, and he's also Starbuck's harpooner. 1008 00:51:25,125 --> 00:51:28,041 He likes to smoke, practice his religion. 1009 00:51:28,085 --> 00:51:32,132 Um, he likes to protect Ishmael, and he's learning how to read. 1010 00:51:32,176 --> 00:51:33,612 [APPLAUSE] 1011 00:51:33,655 --> 00:51:36,441 VICKI: You know what I realize we forgot to talk about? 1012 00:51:36,484 --> 00:51:41,010 We forgot to talk about white. The whiteness of the whale. 1013 00:51:41,054 --> 00:51:43,709 Pretend you live in Michigan. What's white? 1014 00:51:43,752 --> 00:51:45,145 CLASS: Snow. 1015 00:51:45,189 --> 00:51:48,105 Snow. Right? 1016 00:51:48,148 --> 00:51:50,368 Snow is associated with... 1017 00:51:50,411 --> 00:51:51,456 CLASS: Cold. 1018 00:51:51,499 --> 00:51:53,762 And cold is associated with... 1019 00:51:53,806 --> 00:51:55,155 CLASS: Death. 1020 00:51:55,199 --> 00:51:58,158 -And so white is symbolic of... -CLASS: Death. 1021 00:51:58,202 --> 00:51:59,507 [YAWNS] 1022 00:52:00,334 --> 00:52:02,989 White looks like it's what? 1023 00:52:03,032 --> 00:52:04,121 CLASS: White? 1024 00:52:05,513 --> 00:52:06,949 COOPER: The absence of color. 1025 00:52:06,993 --> 00:52:10,518 It looks like the absence of color. Right? 1026 00:52:11,606 --> 00:52:14,479 But on the spectrum, what's the... 1027 00:52:14,522 --> 00:52:16,089 Thank you, sweetheart. 1028 00:52:16,133 --> 00:52:21,790 White is made up of all of the colors. Right? 1029 00:52:21,834 --> 00:52:25,751 It looks like no color. It's actually all color. 1030 00:52:26,795 --> 00:52:28,580 -Yeah? -[CLASS MURMUR IN AGREEMENT] 1031 00:52:28,623 --> 00:52:30,059 So it's everything. 1032 00:52:31,191 --> 00:52:32,932 -Yes? -COOPER: Weird. 1033 00:52:33,498 --> 00:52:35,239 It's everything. 1034 00:52:35,282 --> 00:52:38,459 And so, sweetie pies, you know what that means? 1035 00:52:39,678 --> 00:52:42,942 White is everything, right? 1036 00:52:42,985 --> 00:52:44,509 So it's nothing. 1037 00:52:47,468 --> 00:52:49,296 Point to everything for me. 1038 00:52:51,516 --> 00:52:52,647 You got it? 1039 00:52:52,691 --> 00:52:54,519 [SPOOKY ANGELIC MUSIC PLAYING] 1040 00:53:01,265 --> 00:53:04,311 -Daggoo's from where? -GIRL: Africa. 1041 00:53:04,355 --> 00:53:06,792 VICKI: [INDISTINCT] Tashtego's from... 1042 00:53:11,188 --> 00:53:13,190 COOPER: Look, you act like I've read this. 1043 00:53:13,233 --> 00:53:16,149 No, you've read... [LAUGHS] 1044 00:53:16,193 --> 00:53:19,326 Yeah, I do try to act like you've read this. Okay. So... 1045 00:53:19,370 --> 00:53:22,503 COOPER: Maybe it's just that nothing in this book truly interests me. 1046 00:53:22,547 --> 00:53:25,550 Like, I don't care about whaling. I mean, it's just... 1047 00:53:25,593 --> 00:53:27,029 VICKI: You don't care about whales? 1048 00:53:27,073 --> 00:53:28,857 I said I don't care about whaling. 1049 00:53:28,901 --> 00:53:30,642 They just like, go out to sea and it kinda, 1050 00:53:30,685 --> 00:53:32,731 like, there's no plot! Like there's no, like... 1051 00:53:32,774 --> 00:53:35,908 VICKI: Do you agree with him that there's too much descriptive stuff? 1052 00:53:36,778 --> 00:53:38,215 Kat. 1053 00:53:38,258 --> 00:53:40,129 KAT: It seems like we're reading way too much into things 1054 00:53:40,173 --> 00:53:43,176 more than I normally would. 1055 00:53:43,220 --> 00:53:47,093 We had the mutiny in class, and they were like, 1056 00:53:47,136 --> 00:53:49,400 "I just don't get this book!" "It doesn't speak to me!" 1057 00:53:49,443 --> 00:53:52,664 "It's so much harder than everything I've ever had to read". 1058 00:53:52,707 --> 00:53:58,409 There is always that "Why are you making us do this?" day. 1059 00:53:58,452 --> 00:54:02,151 -It's about revenge. -VICKI: Is it about revenge? 1060 00:54:02,195 --> 00:54:05,154 -Yes, partially. -VICKI: Partially, a little bit. 1061 00:54:05,198 --> 00:54:07,896 It's about a lot of things that I don't want to think about. 1062 00:54:07,940 --> 00:54:11,248 Too much sauce. Maybe if it was like, hey, read a chapter... 1063 00:54:11,291 --> 00:54:14,512 Actually I don't think it's the sauce that it's too much of, though. 1064 00:54:14,555 --> 00:54:17,906 -It is, actually there's a lot. -It's the stuff that you have to chew up. 1065 00:54:17,950 --> 00:54:20,126 It overloads your system. 1066 00:54:20,169 --> 00:54:22,998 Imagine a chicken nugget and dipping it in Chick-fil-A sauce 1067 00:54:23,042 --> 00:54:25,653 and then dipping it again and again. It's too much. 1068 00:54:25,697 --> 00:54:27,176 Guys, Cade's turn. 1069 00:54:27,220 --> 00:54:28,613 CADE: It's like what Cooper said. 1070 00:54:28,656 --> 00:54:30,310 You're just like, dipping a chicken nugget all over, 1071 00:54:30,354 --> 00:54:32,921 over and over again. And then you drop it in your Coke. 1072 00:54:32,965 --> 00:54:37,796 VICKI: They are not at all shy about telling me 1073 00:54:37,839 --> 00:54:41,669 what they think and telling me when 1074 00:54:41,713 --> 00:54:44,237 they don't think what I'm doing is what they need. 1075 00:54:44,281 --> 00:54:47,240 COOPER: The sauce is all the, like, repetitive, 1076 00:54:47,284 --> 00:54:52,463 transcendentalism, overstating, restating, dip again, 1077 00:54:52,506 --> 00:54:56,293 and then you dip again and then your chicken nugget becomes soggy, right? 1078 00:54:56,336 --> 00:54:58,904 -VICKI: [LAUGHS] -And it's just overfilled with sauce 1079 00:54:58,947 --> 00:55:00,688 and sauce and sauce... 1080 00:55:00,732 --> 00:55:03,212 and then you lose the chicken nugget, and it becomes all sauce! 1081 00:55:03,256 --> 00:55:05,084 Isn't that the point of the book? 1082 00:55:05,127 --> 00:55:07,173 Isn't that, like, what he's trying to get across 1083 00:55:07,216 --> 00:55:09,958 'cause he makes everything, like, confusing and descriptive, 1084 00:55:10,002 --> 00:55:11,743 and like, "Oh I don't want to read this 1085 00:55:11,786 --> 00:55:13,397 "because this is too much". 1086 00:55:13,440 --> 00:55:17,618 But doesn't he do that to like, develop the idea that, like, 1087 00:55:17,662 --> 00:55:22,493 finding your own free will and whatever, is, like, hard? 1088 00:55:22,536 --> 00:55:26,018 And like, confusing? Like doesn't it all... 1089 00:55:26,061 --> 00:55:29,195 Isn't there a point to how descriptive 1090 00:55:29,238 --> 00:55:30,849 and confusing he is? 1091 00:55:32,285 --> 00:55:34,983 [APPLAUSE] 1092 00:55:35,027 --> 00:55:37,725 [CLASS CHATTERING] 1093 00:55:39,988 --> 00:55:42,295 Okay. So sweetie pies... 1094 00:55:42,339 --> 00:55:44,341 [JESSIE CHUCKLES] 1095 00:55:47,126 --> 00:55:48,606 [SCHOOL BELL BUZZES] 1096 00:55:48,649 --> 00:55:50,738 I'll stand up here and you grab your papers as you go. 1097 00:55:54,394 --> 00:55:55,917 MARK: Cooper's comment about "too much sauce" 1098 00:55:55,961 --> 00:55:57,963 sounded a lot like the original critics of the novel. 1099 00:55:58,006 --> 00:56:00,052 [LAUGHS] 1100 00:56:01,488 --> 00:56:05,274 Cooper's smarter than he knows. [LAUGHS] 1101 00:56:05,318 --> 00:56:07,668 So I've got to figure out what I can do to make it 1102 00:56:08,669 --> 00:56:10,410 less saucy for them. 1103 00:56:10,454 --> 00:56:15,067 When the book came out, it got such poor notices. 1104 00:56:15,110 --> 00:56:18,462 It's filled with other stories, other tales. 1105 00:56:18,505 --> 00:56:21,595 Things that distract you from what's going on in the plot. 1106 00:56:21,639 --> 00:56:24,859 Melville's book went through that lack of appreciation 1107 00:56:24,903 --> 00:56:27,949 because you never find what's anticipated or expected. 1108 00:56:27,993 --> 00:56:29,647 It's always different. 1109 00:56:29,690 --> 00:56:32,389 I love that about all of his work. 1110 00:56:32,432 --> 00:56:37,698 It's as much about the reader as it is about Melville's creative mind. 1111 00:56:37,742 --> 00:56:43,356 Only true genius enjoys the privilege of misunderstanding. 1112 00:56:43,400 --> 00:56:44,618 [CHUCKLES] 1113 00:56:46,490 --> 00:56:48,535 Is that something you really believe? 1114 00:56:50,015 --> 00:56:52,670 Or is that just something we like to tell ourselves? 1115 00:56:52,713 --> 00:56:54,802 Oh, my dear Hawthorne. 1116 00:56:54,846 --> 00:56:59,024 I cannot write novels for the general public. 1117 00:56:59,067 --> 00:57:03,811 For the general public relies on general generalities. 1118 00:57:03,855 --> 00:57:07,293 So what if they can't stomach my Moby-Dick? 1119 00:57:07,336 --> 00:57:10,383 Their blasphemy is my poetry. 1120 00:57:10,427 --> 00:57:11,558 MARK: We should head up to the... 1121 00:57:11,602 --> 00:57:13,081 Yeah. We should head up to the study. 1122 00:57:24,528 --> 00:57:26,138 Come on into Melville's study. 1123 00:57:27,487 --> 00:57:28,923 Wow. 1124 00:57:28,967 --> 00:57:31,970 So this was the room that Melville chose for himself 1125 00:57:32,013 --> 00:57:33,188 as a work room. 1126 00:57:33,232 --> 00:57:35,800 He loved sitting here at the window 1127 00:57:35,843 --> 00:57:40,108 with its view of the field and Mount Greylock in the distance. 1128 00:57:40,152 --> 00:57:44,330 Greylock was a mountain of total fascination for Melville. 1129 00:57:44,373 --> 00:57:47,159 He looked at it through his study window 1130 00:57:47,202 --> 00:57:52,120 and used its shape as part of his inspiration for the whale, Moby-Dick. 1131 00:57:52,164 --> 00:57:54,949 He could look at Mount Greylock and see the dashing lights 1132 00:57:54,993 --> 00:57:57,648 that he assumed were fairies dancing on the hillside. 1133 00:57:57,691 --> 00:57:59,519 [CHUCKLES] 1134 00:57:59,563 --> 00:58:02,914 BERGMAN: He wanted to be as close to that fairy window as he could get, 1135 00:58:02,957 --> 00:58:06,961 and the vision of it that helped keep him going. 1136 00:58:10,051 --> 00:58:13,272 Reading Herman Melville and I know you've experienced it too. 1137 00:58:13,315 --> 00:58:15,666 You feel like he's in you in some way. 1138 00:58:15,709 --> 00:58:20,540 And you, probably more than I because of a genetic link. 1139 00:58:20,584 --> 00:58:22,847 BERGMAN: More than either of us. More than anyone. [LAUGHS] 1140 00:58:22,890 --> 00:58:25,545 In a way, but once you see what's going on, 1141 00:58:25,589 --> 00:58:27,939 you realize that it's deeper than blood. 1142 00:58:29,244 --> 00:58:31,812 -It's deeper than DNA. -BERGMAN: Oh, definitely. 1143 00:58:31,856 --> 00:58:34,511 Because there's something more true than 1144 00:58:34,554 --> 00:58:36,251 just the DNA would allow. 1145 00:58:36,295 --> 00:58:38,253 But the DNA comes with the curse at least, 1146 00:58:38,297 --> 00:58:39,864 so you have that to deal with. 1147 00:58:39,907 --> 00:58:41,256 Yeah. 1148 00:58:41,300 --> 00:58:42,606 I don't feel cursed by this. 1149 00:58:42,649 --> 00:58:44,956 My father died when I was nine years old. 1150 00:58:50,831 --> 00:58:54,226 [TEARFULLY] When I was 12, my favorite brother died. 1151 00:58:54,269 --> 00:58:56,968 Left my mother alone to take care of the three remaining kids 1152 00:58:57,011 --> 00:58:59,144 who were young teenagers. 1153 00:58:59,187 --> 00:59:01,581 And she had no basic income, really, 1154 00:59:01,625 --> 00:59:04,541 except to go to her mother and beg for money. 1155 00:59:04,584 --> 00:59:06,586 [SERENE MUSIC PLAYING] 1156 00:59:20,774 --> 00:59:24,212 So I grew up without my father, without my favorite brother... 1157 00:59:26,519 --> 00:59:27,564 No role model. 1158 00:59:30,654 --> 00:59:31,829 Who am I? 1159 00:59:34,745 --> 00:59:37,486 [ANGELIC MUSIC PLAYING] 1160 00:59:42,274 --> 00:59:43,449 Who am I? 1161 00:59:44,537 --> 00:59:46,060 Doesn't that question damn me? 1162 00:59:47,801 --> 00:59:49,542 But I'm the author that's gonna write the book 1163 00:59:49,586 --> 00:59:52,197 that allows the inner soul to surface. 1164 00:59:53,328 --> 00:59:55,156 Breach the surface like a whale. 1165 00:59:59,291 --> 01:00:00,509 I'm Herman Melville. 1166 01:00:02,337 --> 01:00:04,775 Conveyor of the beauty and the madness of life. 1167 01:00:07,604 --> 01:00:08,605 So, pumpkins, 1168 01:00:10,041 --> 01:00:12,217 I did not say anything because I was angry. 1169 01:00:13,610 --> 01:00:16,613 There's two things that happen when I get angry. 1170 01:00:17,744 --> 01:00:22,053 One of them is I speak injudiciously. 1171 01:00:22,096 --> 01:00:25,273 -That means that I skewer people. -[ALL LAUGH] 1172 01:00:25,317 --> 01:00:29,626 And I tend to do that with my Dallas accent. 1173 01:00:31,018 --> 01:00:32,803 [INDISTINCT CHATTER] 1174 01:00:35,153 --> 01:00:37,851 [IN A SOUTHERN ACCENT] I would suggest you not talk right now. 1175 01:00:37,895 --> 01:00:40,114 GIRL: Oh, my goodness. Okay. 1176 01:00:40,158 --> 01:00:44,336 [IN NORMAL ACCENT] So, if this is not the book of your dreams, 1177 01:00:47,861 --> 01:00:49,123 I really don't give a shit. 1178 01:00:50,472 --> 01:00:53,084 If it doesn't speak to you, 1179 01:00:54,259 --> 01:00:57,349 I think it's probably a lack of effort. 1180 01:00:57,392 --> 01:00:58,829 Damn, she roasted you right there. 1181 01:00:59,699 --> 01:01:01,135 [INDISTINCT CHATTER] 1182 01:01:01,179 --> 01:01:03,442 COOPER: Ms. Hebert, when I was talking about sauce, 1183 01:01:03,485 --> 01:01:06,358 I wasn't trying to make us not read the book. 1184 01:01:06,401 --> 01:01:07,968 I was just simply expressing my opinion. 1185 01:01:08,012 --> 01:01:09,970 I know, baby. I know. 1186 01:01:10,014 --> 01:01:15,672 But see, at the end... And that's why I let you talk. 1187 01:01:15,715 --> 01:01:17,804 -Do you want to read that one, Jonas? -JONAS: Oh, I'm sorry. 1188 01:01:17,848 --> 01:01:19,763 Never mind. I got it. 1189 01:01:19,806 --> 01:01:24,681 "To trail the genealogies of these high mortal miseries 1190 01:01:24,724 --> 01:01:28,510 "carries us at last among the sourceless primogenitures of the Gods." 1191 01:01:32,558 --> 01:01:35,039 So if we follow all of this angst 1192 01:01:35,082 --> 01:01:38,607 and all of this pain and all of this woe 1193 01:01:38,651 --> 01:01:40,479 and all of this misery 1194 01:01:40,522 --> 01:01:43,438 back to where it started, 1195 01:01:43,482 --> 01:01:45,310 it's gonna take us back to God. 1196 01:01:45,353 --> 01:01:46,528 [TRAMPOLINE THUMPS] 1197 01:01:49,662 --> 01:01:52,752 -In other words, Ahab thinks... -[STUDENT COUGHS] 1198 01:01:52,796 --> 01:01:55,842 ...that people are miserable 1199 01:01:55,886 --> 01:02:00,107 because we are made in God's image and... 1200 01:02:00,151 --> 01:02:02,414 -ALL: God's miserable. -...God's miserable 1201 01:02:05,722 --> 01:02:07,549 [THUNDER RUMBLING AND RAIN PATTERING] 1202 01:02:14,295 --> 01:02:17,995 VICKI: "I own thy speechless placeless power." 1203 01:02:18,038 --> 01:02:22,782 "But to the last gasp of my earthquake life 1204 01:02:22,826 --> 01:02:26,177 "will dispute its unconditional, 1205 01:02:26,220 --> 01:02:28,919 "unintegral mastery in me." 1206 01:02:29,833 --> 01:02:31,269 Unintegral definition. 1207 01:02:32,487 --> 01:02:33,619 [THUNDER RUMBLING] 1208 01:02:35,099 --> 01:02:36,622 [AUTOMATED VOICE] As an adjective it means, 1209 01:02:36,665 --> 01:02:38,798 "necessary to make a whole complete. 1210 01:02:38,842 --> 01:02:40,800 "Essential or fundamental." 1211 01:02:40,844 --> 01:02:45,283 -Do you want to... -Okay, so that's "integral." Unintegral... 1212 01:02:45,326 --> 01:02:50,070 So it's not necessary to make complete. There's... 1213 01:02:52,507 --> 01:02:53,508 [THUNDER RUMBLING] 1214 01:02:59,123 --> 01:03:03,301 ...prophets... [MUTTERS INDISTINCTLY] Ahab... 1215 01:03:03,344 --> 01:03:04,781 and Goddess of rain... 1216 01:03:14,965 --> 01:03:19,056 CADE: Ahab, he has this internal conflict and this just struggle. 1217 01:03:19,099 --> 01:03:21,754 And sometimes he's able to make it go away. 1218 01:03:21,798 --> 01:03:23,930 But just the next day, it comes back. 1219 01:03:23,974 --> 01:03:25,758 You know, I feel like everyone kind of has that. 1220 01:03:25,802 --> 01:03:27,716 You know, some days, like, you're on top of the world. 1221 01:03:27,760 --> 01:03:30,632 But there's that one thing that kind just really brings you down. 1222 01:03:30,676 --> 01:03:32,156 And some days you can bat it away, 1223 01:03:32,199 --> 01:03:33,635 but other days it's kind of 1224 01:03:34,375 --> 01:03:35,812 more prominent. 1225 01:03:35,855 --> 01:03:38,336 And kind of, you know, characterizes you. 1226 01:03:38,989 --> 01:03:40,207 And then... 1227 01:03:40,251 --> 01:03:42,427 MARK: Does it bring any experiences to mind? 1228 01:03:42,470 --> 01:03:45,560 Uh, I mean, not... 1229 01:03:46,300 --> 01:03:47,649 Not really, I guess. 1230 01:03:47,693 --> 01:03:50,957 But whenever I was younger, my uncle died and... 1231 01:03:51,001 --> 01:03:53,568 I had trouble coping with that. And that kind of... 1232 01:03:53,612 --> 01:03:55,788 You know, some days I'd be able to, you know, go, 1233 01:03:55,832 --> 01:03:59,966 do whatever, be a regular kindergarten, first grader. 1234 01:04:00,010 --> 01:04:02,273 And then other days, I would be 1235 01:04:02,316 --> 01:04:04,188 like nothing could make my day better. 1236 01:04:04,231 --> 01:04:07,452 I was just... I was a sad sack on some days. 1237 01:04:07,495 --> 01:04:10,194 And I think that I'm not really 1238 01:04:10,237 --> 01:04:12,022 affected as heavily as I would be, 1239 01:04:12,065 --> 01:04:14,851 whenever I was younger. And I feel that, kind of Ahab, 1240 01:04:14,894 --> 01:04:16,983 he's heavily affected, obviously. 1241 01:04:18,419 --> 01:04:22,119 I think one of the most exciting aspects, 1242 01:04:22,162 --> 01:04:24,904 whether we're a child or an adult, 1243 01:04:24,948 --> 01:04:29,604 is when we become so immersed in the reading act 1244 01:04:29,648 --> 01:04:31,171 that we pass over. 1245 01:04:31,215 --> 01:04:34,566 We pass out of our own consciousness 1246 01:04:34,609 --> 01:04:37,699 and we enter the consciousness of other. 1247 01:04:37,743 --> 01:04:42,095 Of other time, of another culture, another religion. 1248 01:04:42,139 --> 01:04:44,402 We develop in that process, 1249 01:04:45,316 --> 01:04:47,666 a capacity to leave ourselves. 1250 01:04:47,709 --> 01:04:50,538 [READING TO HIMSELF] 1251 01:04:50,582 --> 01:04:54,847 VICKI: Reading is far more intimate than any other media. 1252 01:04:54,891 --> 01:04:59,460 It's as close as we can get to sharing a mind 1253 01:05:00,984 --> 01:05:04,596 as there is any other experience on the planet. 1254 01:05:04,639 --> 01:05:08,121 "His vast mild head, overhung by a canopy of vapor, 1255 01:05:08,165 --> 01:05:11,864 engendered by his incommunicable contemplations in that vapor, 1256 01:05:11,908 --> 01:05:13,474 as you sometimes will see it, 1257 01:05:13,518 --> 01:05:15,085 glorified by a rainbow. 1258 01:05:15,128 --> 01:05:16,695 as if heaven itself had put its..." 1259 01:05:16,738 --> 01:05:18,436 MARK: So when you readMoby Dick, 1260 01:05:18,479 --> 01:05:21,526 -you're sharing in Herman's mind... -I share Melville's mind. 1261 01:05:23,180 --> 01:05:24,790 "For do you see, 1262 01:05:26,052 --> 01:05:28,881 "rainbows do not visit the clear air..." 1263 01:05:28,925 --> 01:05:31,188 "Rainbows do not visit the clear air..." 1264 01:05:31,231 --> 01:05:34,278 "They only irradiate vapor." 1265 01:05:34,321 --> 01:05:38,369 "And so, through all the thick mists and dim doubts of my mind, 1266 01:05:38,412 --> 01:05:40,719 "divine intuitions now and then shoot 1267 01:05:40,762 --> 01:05:42,982 enkindling my fog with a heavenly ray." 1268 01:05:47,204 --> 01:05:48,335 [SIGHS] 1269 01:05:56,039 --> 01:05:57,954 KRIS: I've never wanted to be changed. 1270 01:05:59,694 --> 01:06:02,088 And I've never wanted to be influenced. 1271 01:06:05,483 --> 01:06:07,659 Is this what you say on all your first dates? 1272 01:06:07,702 --> 01:06:09,008 -KRIS: Oh! -[LAUGHS] 1273 01:06:09,052 --> 01:06:11,793 -KRIS: First and last. -[BOTH LAUGHING] 1274 01:06:15,275 --> 01:06:16,885 MARK: "I don't want to be changed, 1275 01:06:16,929 --> 01:06:18,757 -"and I don't want to be influenced!" -KRIS: That's right. 1276 01:06:18,800 --> 01:06:20,237 MARK: [SARCASTICALLY] That probably goes over really well. 1277 01:06:20,280 --> 01:06:22,152 KRIS: Oh, that, yeah. That's why I'm single. 1278 01:06:22,848 --> 01:06:23,936 I thought... See? 1279 01:06:25,720 --> 01:06:29,028 'Cause you can't get past page five of Moby Dick? 1280 01:06:29,072 --> 01:06:32,249 KRIS: There's no compromise. For me. 1281 01:06:37,167 --> 01:06:38,907 And so, 1282 01:06:38,951 --> 01:06:41,040 going through this journey 1283 01:06:41,084 --> 01:06:44,087 is accepting a relationship. 1284 01:06:44,130 --> 01:06:45,610 Yeah, with Herman. 1285 01:06:45,653 --> 01:06:48,656 I... Yeah, I'm not dating him. 1286 01:06:48,700 --> 01:06:52,312 'Cause you really like your perspective on the world, 1287 01:06:52,356 --> 01:06:55,489 and you want to keep it, kind of like, fixed, right? 1288 01:06:55,533 --> 01:06:56,708 Like you don't want it to change? 1289 01:06:58,710 --> 01:07:02,061 Or maybe you feel like you're done changing? [LAUGHS] 1290 01:07:02,931 --> 01:07:04,194 I'm not changed. 1291 01:07:06,500 --> 01:07:08,589 No, no. What do you mean, "not changed?" 1292 01:07:08,633 --> 01:07:13,420 I'm the same me, who was in school. 1293 01:07:17,772 --> 01:07:18,904 In high school? 1294 01:07:18,947 --> 01:07:20,036 -Oh, yeah. -You're the same you? 1295 01:07:20,079 --> 01:07:21,080 Oh. Oh, yeah. 1296 01:07:22,603 --> 01:07:23,604 What does that mean? 1297 01:07:26,520 --> 01:07:27,782 I don't know what it means. 1298 01:07:27,826 --> 01:07:29,654 [RAIN FALLING] 1299 01:07:29,697 --> 01:07:31,351 It's raining. [LAUGHS] 1300 01:07:32,570 --> 01:07:34,224 MARK: It's like we're in the... 1301 01:07:34,267 --> 01:07:36,139 -We're in the moment. -KRIS: Why do we have to have it real? 1302 01:07:36,182 --> 01:07:38,663 -Why do I have to really get wet? -[MARK LAUGHS] 1303 01:07:39,446 --> 01:07:41,318 It's this annoying spit! 1304 01:07:41,361 --> 01:07:44,277 MARK: [LAUGHS] It's like the spray from the ocean. It's like the... 1305 01:07:44,321 --> 01:07:46,323 [WIND WHOOSHING] 1306 01:07:51,154 --> 01:07:52,981 MARK: "There is your law of precedence 1307 01:07:53,025 --> 01:07:54,896 "There is your utility of traditions. 1308 01:07:54,940 --> 01:07:58,770 "There's a story of your obstinate survival of old beliefs, 1309 01:07:58,813 --> 01:08:00,511 "never bottomed on the Earth." 1310 01:08:00,554 --> 01:08:02,861 [READING CONTINUES INDISTINCTLY] 1311 01:08:13,176 --> 01:08:15,613 -MARK: Alissa, are you asleep? -No. 1312 01:08:18,268 --> 01:08:20,792 -Are you comfy? -Yes. 1313 01:08:22,924 --> 01:08:24,709 What was the last read you had like? 1314 01:08:24,752 --> 01:08:27,015 [LAUGHS] Right. The last "read" I had? 1315 01:08:28,843 --> 01:08:29,844 Yeah. 1316 01:08:32,499 --> 01:08:35,502 ALISSA: Hmm. When did I last read? 1317 01:08:35,546 --> 01:08:37,069 Well, I just read aloud. 1318 01:08:37,113 --> 01:08:39,376 -You mean before that, though. -MARK: No, that's it! 1319 01:08:39,419 --> 01:08:42,205 Oh. [LAUGHS] 1320 01:08:42,248 --> 01:08:45,773 -What was the question? -[BOTH LAUGH] 1321 01:08:45,817 --> 01:08:48,341 Because it's in the middle of the night, and I'm tired. 1322 01:08:49,734 --> 01:08:51,649 It's like 3:00. 1323 01:08:51,692 --> 01:08:53,955 MARK: How do you read a book by sleeping? 1324 01:08:53,999 --> 01:08:56,306 [LAUGHS] You don't. 1325 01:08:57,655 --> 01:08:59,831 Sleeping is the opposite of reading. 1326 01:09:01,049 --> 01:09:03,226 MARK: "Sleeping is the opposite of reading." 1327 01:09:03,269 --> 01:09:05,402 -I think we're onto something there. -[BOTH LAUGH] 1328 01:09:07,230 --> 01:09:10,494 Actually, I wouldn't say they are the opposite. 1329 01:09:10,537 --> 01:09:14,889 I would tend to think that there would be aspects of reading 1330 01:09:14,933 --> 01:09:17,979 that elicit some of the kind of imagery, 1331 01:09:18,023 --> 01:09:19,242 some of the kind of... 1332 01:09:20,199 --> 01:09:21,940 Not wild associations, 1333 01:09:21,983 --> 01:09:23,855 but disparate associations 1334 01:09:23,898 --> 01:09:25,857 that reading can sometimes activate. 1335 01:09:28,033 --> 01:09:30,209 So I wouldn't put them as an opposite, 1336 01:09:30,253 --> 01:09:35,171 but where they are different is that sleep does not analyze. 1337 01:09:36,041 --> 01:09:37,434 After sleep, 1338 01:09:37,477 --> 01:09:40,872 we can take those reflective powers and... 1339 01:09:42,003 --> 01:09:47,226 fashion insight, fashion novel thought... 1340 01:09:47,270 --> 01:09:50,142 -that came out of dream. -[BABY COOS ON PHONE] 1341 01:09:50,186 --> 01:09:51,665 I'm crying again. 1342 01:09:52,840 --> 01:09:54,494 [SNIFFLES] Mark? 1343 01:09:58,150 --> 01:09:59,586 [SEAGULLS SQUAWKING] 1344 01:10:04,417 --> 01:10:06,506 [MOZART'S PIANO CONCERTO PLAYING] 1345 01:10:08,943 --> 01:10:11,990 CLEARY: Yeah, they call that the banking model of education. 1346 01:10:12,033 --> 01:10:15,472 Like, you deposit meaning into their heads, 1347 01:10:15,515 --> 01:10:17,691 it fills them up with meaning. 1348 01:10:17,735 --> 01:10:18,779 But the problem with that is, 1349 01:10:20,085 --> 01:10:22,435 how we find meaning, 1350 01:10:22,479 --> 01:10:26,047 is often constructed, not... not received. 1351 01:10:26,091 --> 01:10:28,572 The meaning that's found by the student is theirs. 1352 01:10:28,615 --> 01:10:30,922 You see, they have to possess it and make it theirs, 1353 01:10:30,965 --> 01:10:33,316 instead of just something that's served up. 1354 01:10:34,012 --> 01:10:35,840 Somebody says, "Well, 1355 01:10:35,883 --> 01:10:37,929 "you know, if you just remember this, 1356 01:10:37,972 --> 01:10:39,974 "you're gonna be so wise." 1357 01:10:41,976 --> 01:10:46,198 Being wise means that you're engaged in the interpretation of wisdom. 1358 01:10:46,242 --> 01:10:48,983 Wisdom isn't a thing. Right? 1359 01:10:49,027 --> 01:10:52,204 Wow! This is a really beautiful part of the river, right here. 1360 01:10:52,248 --> 01:10:53,553 Look at the water. Wow. 1361 01:10:54,728 --> 01:10:55,816 Beautiful. 1362 01:10:57,514 --> 01:10:59,124 We're gonna have some waves here. 1363 01:11:01,474 --> 01:11:03,737 [MOTORBOAT WHIRRING] 1364 01:11:08,394 --> 01:11:11,441 Just for safety's sake, Mark, we're just going to go into them, okay? 1365 01:11:19,449 --> 01:11:22,756 So it isn't just about yourself and your own thoughts, but, 1366 01:11:25,150 --> 01:11:27,892 sort of the kind of wild joy that comes with learning 1367 01:11:27,935 --> 01:11:32,375 more about yourself and the world by, um... 1368 01:11:32,418 --> 01:11:34,942 What is that off to the left there, Mark? Is that a ledge? 1369 01:11:34,986 --> 01:11:36,335 That looks like a ledge, doesn't it? 1370 01:11:36,379 --> 01:11:37,815 MARK: To Socrates, 1371 01:11:37,858 --> 01:11:41,209 -education was all about virtue. Right? -Yeah. 1372 01:11:41,253 --> 01:11:43,908 MARK: The whole purpose of gaining wisdom 1373 01:11:43,951 --> 01:11:46,867 was for the Gods to view you more kindly. 1374 01:11:46,911 --> 01:11:49,261 And if you were someone who was wise, 1375 01:11:49,305 --> 01:11:51,959 that wisdom doesn't belong to you. You had to give it back, 1376 01:11:52,003 --> 01:11:54,135 so that the Gods don't see you as someone who's 1377 01:11:54,179 --> 01:11:55,485 greedy with wisdom, right? 1378 01:11:55,528 --> 01:11:57,269 Um, Mark you see off to the left here? 1379 01:11:57,313 --> 01:11:59,358 You can't see it from here. There's a huge ledge 1380 01:11:59,402 --> 01:12:01,142 off to the left there. We gotta get all the way to the right. 1381 01:12:01,186 --> 01:12:02,230 MARK: Okay. 1382 01:12:02,274 --> 01:12:04,842 The reality is that Socrates 1383 01:12:04,885 --> 01:12:06,626 had some very interesting, 1384 01:12:06,670 --> 01:12:09,499 and I believe still legitimate concerns. 1385 01:12:09,542 --> 01:12:12,850 He felt that language is alive. 1386 01:12:12,893 --> 01:12:15,809 And that it's the exchange. It's the dialogue. 1387 01:12:15,853 --> 01:12:18,421 That, "I answer you, you answer me." 1388 01:12:18,464 --> 01:12:20,771 He felt that words, 1389 01:12:20,814 --> 01:12:23,382 these inert things, could not talk back. 1390 01:12:23,426 --> 01:12:26,385 He said, "These kinds of words are dead. 1391 01:12:26,429 --> 01:12:28,431 "They cannot talk back." 1392 01:12:32,783 --> 01:12:34,393 How can we speak about language 1393 01:12:34,437 --> 01:12:36,308 in a way that will make the Gods happy? 1394 01:12:38,484 --> 01:12:39,572 I don't know. 1395 01:12:42,140 --> 01:12:43,359 There's an old story. 1396 01:12:44,360 --> 01:12:46,100 How true it is I'm not sure. 1397 01:12:47,319 --> 01:12:49,582 In the Egyptian city of Naucratis, 1398 01:12:51,105 --> 01:12:52,368 there's an ancient God. 1399 01:12:53,673 --> 01:12:56,328 His name is Thoth. [ECHOES] 1400 01:12:56,372 --> 01:12:58,112 He was the inventor of many arts, 1401 01:12:58,156 --> 01:13:01,725 arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, dice. 1402 01:13:01,768 --> 01:13:04,031 But his greatest invention was the use of letters. 1403 01:13:04,771 --> 01:13:06,860 [BELL DINGS] 1404 01:13:06,904 --> 01:13:09,602 One day, Thoth came and showed his inventions off to the King of Egypt. 1405 01:13:09,646 --> 01:13:12,997 They discussed each one, but when it came to letters... 1406 01:13:13,040 --> 01:13:14,738 Oh, ingenious Thoth. 1407 01:13:16,261 --> 01:13:19,482 I am worried about this discovery of yours. 1408 01:13:19,525 --> 01:13:21,440 By externalizing memories, 1409 01:13:21,484 --> 01:13:25,618 you will create a forgetfulness in the learners' souls. 1410 01:13:25,662 --> 01:13:28,926 You're not offering truth, but the appearance of truth. 1411 01:13:28,969 --> 01:13:32,059 The people that follow this method 1412 01:13:32,103 --> 01:13:36,673 will be hearers of many things, but will have learned nothing. 1413 01:13:36,716 --> 01:13:39,893 They will be tiresome company, 1414 01:13:39,937 --> 01:13:43,506 having the show of wisdom, without the reality. 1415 01:13:43,549 --> 01:13:46,509 MARYANNE: He said, "It's not a recipe for memory. 1416 01:13:46,552 --> 01:13:48,467 "It's a recipe for forgetting, 1417 01:13:48,511 --> 01:13:50,164 "because you will depend on this" 1418 01:13:50,208 --> 01:13:53,603 Reading this radical technology, to him 1419 01:13:53,646 --> 01:13:57,171 would give people an illusion of knowledge 1420 01:13:57,215 --> 01:13:59,391 that they did not possess. 1421 01:13:59,435 --> 01:14:01,524 And, in our words today, 1422 01:14:01,567 --> 01:14:04,831 they wouldn't know what they didn't know. 1423 01:14:04,875 --> 01:14:10,358 Socrates is one of the best sources of questions... 1424 01:14:10,402 --> 01:14:12,622 Is that a rock? Yeah it is. Gee whiz. 1425 01:14:12,665 --> 01:14:17,888 ...to us in a similarly radical transition. 1426 01:14:17,931 --> 01:14:22,066 His was the transition from oral-language culture 1427 01:14:22,109 --> 01:14:23,937 to a literacy-based culture. 1428 01:14:25,330 --> 01:14:28,464 And ours is a literacy-based culture 1429 01:14:28,507 --> 01:14:33,120 to a digital culture with similar issues 1430 01:14:33,164 --> 01:14:37,560 about memory and delusions of knowledge. 1431 01:14:41,259 --> 01:14:43,522 [INDISTINCT CHATTER] 1432 01:14:50,921 --> 01:14:52,009 [RATTLING] 1433 01:14:52,052 --> 01:14:53,358 [INDISTINCT CHATTER] 1434 01:14:53,401 --> 01:14:54,838 GIRL: I'd put it in for another, like, 30 seconds. 1435 01:14:54,881 --> 01:14:57,014 Yeah, you may not know 1436 01:14:57,057 --> 01:14:59,886 what you want to do yet. That is okay. 1437 01:14:59,930 --> 01:15:01,845 Don't create stress on yourself. 1438 01:15:01,888 --> 01:15:03,542 Life is stressful enough 1439 01:15:03,586 --> 01:15:05,544 without the stuff we manufacture 1440 01:15:05,588 --> 01:15:09,069 that we don't really need to worry about yet. Okay? 1441 01:15:10,593 --> 01:15:11,637 [BRACELETS JINGLING] 1442 01:15:14,031 --> 01:15:16,903 So this is, backwards from how it was before. 1443 01:15:16,947 --> 01:15:21,604 Yeah, it's set up differently today. 1444 01:15:21,647 --> 01:15:25,433 -So I used to be... My desk was over here. -Yes. 1445 01:15:25,477 --> 01:15:29,089 But it was facing this way, and so... 1446 01:15:29,133 --> 01:15:31,962 And you used to teach from... Yeah, you used to teach over there. 1447 01:15:32,005 --> 01:15:35,531 Yes, because the school was set up with 1448 01:15:35,574 --> 01:15:37,968 -the "green boards," as they used to call them... -Mm-hmm. 1449 01:15:38,011 --> 01:15:41,798 ...on this side of the room as opposed to the other side. 1450 01:15:42,973 --> 01:15:44,409 It was an older desk, 1451 01:15:44,452 --> 01:15:46,280 but it had drawers on both sides, 1452 01:15:46,324 --> 01:15:47,978 which I always needed. 1453 01:15:48,021 --> 01:15:51,808 Plus, I always liked to stash extra books on these. 1454 01:15:51,851 --> 01:15:55,202 -Like here, there's space to put books... -Uh-huh. 1455 01:15:55,246 --> 01:15:58,162 Which I never have enough of. Okay? 1456 01:15:59,337 --> 01:16:00,730 But I had to retire when I did. 1457 01:16:00,773 --> 01:16:03,036 My husband said, "Janet, if you don't..." 1458 01:16:03,559 --> 01:16:05,038 He said... 1459 01:16:05,082 --> 01:16:07,258 "I don't know how much longer you're gonna live." 1460 01:16:07,301 --> 01:16:09,826 He said... he said, "You really have to, 1461 01:16:09,869 --> 01:16:11,741 -"you know, hang it up." Yeah. -Yeah. 1462 01:16:11,784 --> 01:16:15,353 I kind of felt bad because I still thought I had some time. 1463 01:16:15,396 --> 01:16:17,007 And I actually felt... 1464 01:16:17,050 --> 01:16:19,575 [STUTTERS] I wasn't necessarily getting better all the time, 1465 01:16:19,618 --> 01:16:22,142 -but I was hoping I was getting better. -Yeah. 1466 01:16:22,186 --> 01:16:25,885 -Uh, maybe not more efficient, but more knowledgeable. -Right. 1467 01:16:25,929 --> 01:16:28,453 And more knowledgeable about people. 1468 01:16:28,496 --> 01:16:30,586 -And that... that's big. -Yeah. 1469 01:16:30,629 --> 01:16:32,892 Becoming more knowledgeable about people 1470 01:16:32,936 --> 01:16:34,328 and what makes them tick. 1471 01:16:36,679 --> 01:16:38,289 MARK: One of the things that I remembered, 1472 01:16:38,332 --> 01:16:41,074 when I was driving away from your house last time, was, 1473 01:16:41,118 --> 01:16:43,120 I came in with that small stack of papers. 1474 01:16:43,163 --> 01:16:44,425 Remember this part? 1475 01:16:44,469 --> 01:16:46,906 And you came in with some papers 1476 01:16:46,950 --> 01:16:49,300 that you wanted to get credit for. 1477 01:16:49,343 --> 01:16:51,694 -MARK: The essays on, uh... -That was... That was at the very end of the year. 1478 01:16:51,737 --> 01:16:54,348 -The very end of the year. -I was cleaning up my room. Yes. 1479 01:16:54,392 --> 01:16:57,700 -MARK: Yeah, you were cleaning up this room and... -Yes. Yes. 1480 01:16:57,743 --> 01:16:59,527 and I remembered what you said to me. 1481 01:16:59,571 --> 01:17:01,791 Um. That it was too little, too late. 1482 01:17:01,834 --> 01:17:03,619 Did I really say that? 1483 01:17:04,620 --> 01:17:07,318 Oh, my goodness. 1484 01:17:07,361 --> 01:17:09,929 That was terrible, and I didn't try to mollify it at all. 1485 01:17:09,973 --> 01:17:11,757 No, you were mad at me, but... 1486 01:17:11,801 --> 01:17:13,367 No I wasn't. I wasn't. No. 1487 01:17:13,411 --> 01:17:17,023 Because I... It was very disheartening to have to... 1488 01:17:18,851 --> 01:17:21,027 [SIGHS] 1489 01:17:21,071 --> 01:17:22,507 MARK: It stuck there, but I didn't remember it consciously until I was driving. 1490 01:17:22,550 --> 01:17:24,683 Oh, I'm really sorry I put it that way. 1491 01:17:24,727 --> 01:17:27,555 I really am. I am. I am. 1492 01:17:28,556 --> 01:17:29,645 But you know what? 1493 01:17:29,688 --> 01:17:31,429 I-I probably also felt that 1494 01:17:31,472 --> 01:17:34,432 you have to like, just say, 1495 01:17:34,475 --> 01:17:35,912 -"That's it." -"That's it." Yeah. 1496 01:17:35,955 --> 01:17:39,263 You know? It's like, there are times in life, 1497 01:17:39,306 --> 01:17:41,613 when it is too late to do something. 1498 01:17:41,657 --> 01:17:42,788 I suppose. 1499 01:17:46,444 --> 01:17:49,490 So, we're going to have an essay on The Candles? 1500 01:17:49,534 --> 01:17:52,058 Mm-hmm. Over just those paragraphs. 1501 01:17:54,713 --> 01:17:56,715 Ain't it crazy? 1502 01:17:56,759 --> 01:17:58,586 It's gonna be all right. I promise. 1503 01:18:01,198 --> 01:18:02,678 MARK: It seems like, every lunch, 1504 01:18:02,721 --> 01:18:04,157 there's someone coming at you 1505 01:18:04,201 --> 01:18:07,334 for some sort of life advice or career advice. 1506 01:18:07,378 --> 01:18:08,771 Why do they come to you? 1507 01:18:08,814 --> 01:18:10,773 I'm old. [LAUGHS] 1508 01:18:11,599 --> 01:18:12,905 And I care about them. 1509 01:18:14,037 --> 01:18:18,215 They know that I will listen to them, 1510 01:18:18,258 --> 01:18:20,739 let them talk themselves into understanding 1511 01:18:20,783 --> 01:18:23,350 what they want for themselves. 1512 01:18:24,003 --> 01:18:25,048 For their lives. 1513 01:18:27,615 --> 01:18:31,619 It's... It's part of my job. 1514 01:18:32,185 --> 01:18:33,883 I'm a teacher. 1515 01:18:33,926 --> 01:18:37,103 [INDISTINCT CONVERSATION] 1516 01:18:37,147 --> 01:18:39,323 And letting them know that they're cared about. 1517 01:18:41,542 --> 01:18:47,157 And that there are things in their lives 1518 01:18:47,200 --> 01:18:49,420 that I know that are a whole lot more important 1519 01:18:49,463 --> 01:18:52,336 than anything that I bring to them. 1520 01:18:53,598 --> 01:18:56,383 [WHISPERING] That works very well. Excellent. 1521 01:18:58,559 --> 01:19:00,736 [STUDENTS WHISPERING QUESTIONS] 1522 01:19:02,999 --> 01:19:05,436 I think you're just panicking, okay? 1523 01:19:05,479 --> 01:19:06,742 So you should breathe. 1524 01:19:08,787 --> 01:19:10,049 [BREATHING DEEPLY] 1525 01:19:13,009 --> 01:19:14,706 [INDISTINCT WHISPERING] 1526 01:19:19,102 --> 01:19:21,060 I want them to be happy with who they are. 1527 01:19:25,021 --> 01:19:28,764 But I want them to be smart about the world 1528 01:19:28,807 --> 01:19:30,940 so they don't get eaten alive. 1529 01:19:31,679 --> 01:19:33,377 Or horribly disappointed. 1530 01:19:34,770 --> 01:19:37,642 [INHALES] Why is Moby-Dick so important to that? 1531 01:19:37,685 --> 01:19:40,079 [SERENE INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING] 1532 01:19:40,123 --> 01:19:44,954 MAN: "'The ship! A hearse! The second hearse!' 1533 01:19:44,997 --> 01:19:46,825 "cried Ahab from the boat. 1534 01:19:46,869 --> 01:19:50,176 "'Its wood could only be American.'" 1535 01:19:50,220 --> 01:19:51,699 They've been chasing Moby for three days 1536 01:19:51,743 --> 01:19:54,746 because Ahab's a crazy man. And they're tired. 1537 01:19:54,790 --> 01:19:56,574 HALEY: L-A-A-K-E. 1538 01:19:56,617 --> 01:19:58,141 -You don't know how to spell my last name? -HALEY: I'm making sure! 1539 01:19:58,184 --> 01:19:59,403 I double checked his name. 1540 01:19:59,446 --> 01:20:01,361 Wow, Haley. 1541 01:20:01,405 --> 01:20:03,755 She's supposed to be my best friend. What is this? 1542 01:20:05,409 --> 01:20:07,106 VICKI: You see, you survived! 1543 01:20:07,150 --> 01:20:09,108 JESSIE: I survived. 1544 01:20:09,152 --> 01:20:11,415 -VICKI: How are you doing? -Better. 1545 01:20:12,851 --> 01:20:14,287 I'm not saying I don't like it. 1546 01:20:14,331 --> 01:20:16,855 I'm just saying that I'm better at math. 1547 01:20:16,899 --> 01:20:18,335 "Towards thee I roll, 1548 01:20:18,378 --> 01:20:20,859 "thou all-destroying but unconquering whale, 1549 01:20:20,903 --> 01:20:22,818 "to the last I grapple with thee 1550 01:20:22,861 --> 01:20:24,907 "from hell's heart I stab at thee..." 1551 01:20:24,950 --> 01:20:28,649 MAN: "A sullen white surf beat against its deep sides, 1552 01:20:28,693 --> 01:20:30,695 "then all collapsed. 1553 01:20:30,738 --> 01:20:33,306 "And the great shroud of the sea rolled on 1554 01:20:33,350 --> 01:20:36,570 "as it rolled 5,000 years ago." 1555 01:20:41,532 --> 01:20:43,186 I mean, it's glorious writing. 1556 01:20:43,795 --> 01:20:44,883 It really is. 1557 01:20:46,798 --> 01:20:51,498 VICKI: Ishmael survives on Queequeg's coffin. 1558 01:20:52,543 --> 01:20:57,069 He is picked up by The Rachel. 1559 01:20:59,463 --> 01:21:02,858 So you have that symbolic 1560 01:21:02,901 --> 01:21:06,687 "mother of the Jewish people" ship 1561 01:21:07,950 --> 01:21:09,255 picking up 1562 01:21:10,953 --> 01:21:14,957 Abraham's discarded son, 1563 01:21:16,567 --> 01:21:20,876 so that the family is reunited. 1564 01:21:24,749 --> 01:21:26,707 And it always makes me wonder, 1565 01:21:26,751 --> 01:21:29,841 is Melville just trying to say that, 1566 01:21:31,190 --> 01:21:34,367 maybe all of these great big things, 1567 01:21:34,411 --> 01:21:37,980 that we notice happening 1568 01:21:38,023 --> 01:21:42,071 are happening so the little connections can be made? 1569 01:21:47,424 --> 01:21:49,948 I mostly think of Herman and Lizzie as 1570 01:21:49,992 --> 01:21:52,255 -you and Elizabeth Doss... -[ALISSA CHUCKLES] 1571 01:21:52,298 --> 01:21:53,560 ...being in bed together. 1572 01:21:55,432 --> 01:21:57,477 ALISSA: Well that's... that's a little weird. 1573 01:21:59,784 --> 01:22:02,569 MARK: It's a little weird, yeah. That was a weird scene. 1574 01:22:04,876 --> 01:22:06,834 He really wrote himself into this book. 1575 01:22:13,232 --> 01:22:15,234 So I don't really feel like he's actually 1576 01:22:17,236 --> 01:22:18,411 in the ground. 1577 01:22:20,413 --> 01:22:23,677 Even though he sure is. 1578 01:22:33,165 --> 01:22:35,646 -Hi! -JANET: Oh, don't you look nice. 1579 01:22:35,689 --> 01:22:37,343 I look the same I did before. 1580 01:22:37,387 --> 01:22:39,650 -Okay. Well, I like that look, Mark. -Hi, nice to see you! 1581 01:22:39,693 --> 01:22:40,781 [LAUGHS] Nice to see you too. 1582 01:22:40,825 --> 01:22:41,869 -Hi, Tom. -TOM: Hi. 1583 01:22:41,913 --> 01:22:44,568 -We finally meet! Yay! -[ALL LAUGH] 1584 01:22:44,611 --> 01:22:46,439 -JANET: Hi, I'm Janet! -ALISSA: Hi. 1585 01:22:46,483 --> 01:22:48,006 -JANET: Hi, Alex, right? -ALISSA: Alissa. 1586 01:22:48,050 --> 01:22:49,486 Alissa. Okay, all right. 1587 01:22:49,529 --> 01:22:50,966 Yeah, so this is my wife, Alissa. 1588 01:22:51,009 --> 01:22:52,663 This is my mom, Marta. You've met her before, probably. 1589 01:22:52,706 --> 01:22:54,012 MARTA: No, we tried to meet. 1590 01:22:54,056 --> 01:22:57,015 She tried to meet me through mail and e-mails. 1591 01:22:57,059 --> 01:22:59,670 -Yeah but I stopped it up until now. -[ALL LAUGH] 1592 01:22:59,713 --> 01:23:01,672 JANET: Yeah, and this is my husband, Tom. MARTA: Hi, Tom. 1593 01:23:01,715 --> 01:23:03,152 -ALISSA: Hi. -TOM: Hi. 1594 01:23:03,195 --> 01:23:04,675 JANET: [ON TV] And then, 1595 01:23:04,718 --> 01:23:08,026 I decided that I needed the Norton Critical Edition, 1596 01:23:08,070 --> 01:23:11,725 because this has like... like, loads of stuff in it. 1597 01:23:11,769 --> 01:23:13,510 All kinds of stuff. 1598 01:23:13,553 --> 01:23:14,902 MARK: [ON TV] You've gotta have the letters to Hawthorne, 1599 01:23:14,946 --> 01:23:16,121 That's... that's pretty important. 1600 01:23:16,165 --> 01:23:18,471 JANET: [ON TV] Yeah, yeah. 1601 01:23:18,515 --> 01:23:22,475 You didn't make me feel bad. I just did. 1602 01:23:22,519 --> 01:23:24,608 ALISSA: [ON TV] You know, really shitty for you to like, 1603 01:23:24,651 --> 01:23:29,395 I mean...[CRYING] You could try a little harder, Mark.[SNIFFLES] 1604 01:23:29,439 --> 01:23:30,875 SAMUEL: [ON TV] Across the book, 1605 01:23:30,918 --> 01:23:33,617 you get characters looking in the water, 1606 01:23:33,660 --> 01:23:35,532 and you are told what they see. 1607 01:23:35,575 --> 01:23:39,144 JANET: ...continue to regret the lives you could have had..." 1608 01:23:39,188 --> 01:23:41,451 SAMUEL: That reveals something about the character. 1609 01:23:41,494 --> 01:23:44,149 Sometimes looking into the water is a mirror back to them. 1610 01:23:44,193 --> 01:23:45,324 MARK: "Too little, too late." 1611 01:23:45,368 --> 01:23:46,934 JANET: Did I really say that? 1612 01:23:46,978 --> 01:23:49,285 Oh, I'm really sorry I put it that way. 1613 01:23:49,328 --> 01:23:51,113 I really am. I am. 1614 01:23:51,156 --> 01:23:53,071 BERGMAN: [ON TV] Strikingly, toward the end of the book, 1615 01:23:53,115 --> 01:23:54,420 looking in the water, 1616 01:23:54,464 --> 01:23:58,250 is seeing Moby Dick rise up to the surface. 1617 01:23:58,294 --> 01:24:00,296 JANET: Thereare times in life 1618 01:24:00,339 --> 01:24:02,559 when itis too late to do something. 1619 01:24:04,387 --> 01:24:07,085 So, Happy Father's Day, everybody! 1620 01:24:07,129 --> 01:24:08,782 [ALL LAUGHING] 1621 01:24:08,826 --> 01:24:10,958 TOM: And future fathers! KRIS: We'll throw you in there, too! 1622 01:24:11,002 --> 01:24:13,874 It's fish, because of Moby-Dick. 1623 01:24:13,918 --> 01:24:17,443 -[ALL LAUGHING] -How appropriate. 1624 01:24:17,487 --> 01:24:20,272 -RENATA: So aren't we supposed to be criticizing the movie? -[TABLEWARE CLINKING] 1625 01:24:20,316 --> 01:24:23,101 MARK: Yeah, what were the... What were the themes of the film? 1626 01:24:23,145 --> 01:24:24,972 -KRIS: Too many. -[ALL CHUCKLE] 1627 01:24:25,016 --> 01:24:26,235 -First it's you... -MARK: Mm-hmm. 1628 01:24:26,278 --> 01:24:27,801 KRIS: ...your relationship with your wife, 1629 01:24:27,845 --> 01:24:30,891 -and then relationship with your past. -MARK: Mm-hmm. 1630 01:24:30,935 --> 01:24:33,851 And more? Your relationship to Herman Melville. 1631 01:24:34,547 --> 01:24:35,722 That's too many. 1632 01:24:35,766 --> 01:24:37,724 -MARK: Too many relationships? -Yeah. 1633 01:24:39,117 --> 01:24:40,510 I mean, there's more than that. 1634 01:24:40,553 --> 01:24:43,034 You know, there's more the inner city you. 1635 01:24:43,078 --> 01:24:46,559 "What if I grew up where I had to worry about getting killed when I went to school?" 1636 01:24:46,603 --> 01:24:50,737 So there's so many themes. Like, you know... 1637 01:24:50,781 --> 01:24:53,218 MARTA: But documentaries are different. It's not a movie. 1638 01:24:54,219 --> 01:24:55,394 KRIS: You said it in the beginning. 1639 01:24:55,438 --> 01:24:58,136 "This is the book report that I never gave." 1640 01:24:58,180 --> 01:25:00,225 And that did not feel at all like a book report. 1641 01:25:00,269 --> 01:25:03,228 That felt like um, a search for the self. 1642 01:25:03,272 --> 01:25:06,536 You said the right thing to him, junior year. That was good. 1643 01:25:06,579 --> 01:25:08,712 There are times in life, 1644 01:25:08,755 --> 01:25:10,714 when it is too late to do something. 1645 01:25:10,757 --> 01:25:12,411 And then you have the Stanford professor 1646 01:25:12,455 --> 01:25:14,021 saying the same thing I'm saying... 1647 01:25:14,065 --> 01:25:16,198 The kids just get pushed along... 1648 01:25:17,242 --> 01:25:18,504 KRIS: It's too late for me. 1649 01:25:18,548 --> 01:25:19,897 I was programmed differently, 1650 01:25:19,940 --> 01:25:22,726 and you're still trying to make me learn a way 1651 01:25:22,769 --> 01:25:24,684 that some people know how to learn. 1652 01:25:24,728 --> 01:25:26,991 But yet I've never fit in that groove, 1653 01:25:27,034 --> 01:25:29,211 and you're forcing me back into that groove 1654 01:25:29,254 --> 01:25:32,997 that has scarred me away from that. 1655 01:25:33,040 --> 01:25:35,782 You know? And you're doing now that to yourself. 1656 01:25:35,826 --> 01:25:38,263 You're trying to go back into your past, like, 1657 01:25:38,307 --> 01:25:41,266 "Hey what happened to me that year in high school 1658 01:25:41,310 --> 01:25:42,746 "that I totally blacked out 1659 01:25:42,789 --> 01:25:44,400 "and did not participate in something 1660 01:25:44,443 --> 01:25:46,576 "that now I find fascinating?" 1661 01:25:46,619 --> 01:25:49,492 JANET: I thought the remark of the young woman in the teacher's class... 1662 01:25:49,535 --> 01:25:52,190 -MARTA: Yeah. The blonde girl. -JANET: Yeah, the blonde girl, who said... 1663 01:25:52,234 --> 01:25:55,106 Finding, like, your own free will, and whatever, 1664 01:25:55,150 --> 01:25:58,631 is, like hard, and like confusing? 1665 01:25:58,675 --> 01:26:00,981 That life is confusing and, you know, 1666 01:26:01,025 --> 01:26:03,549 finding meaning is like a super-big challenge 1667 01:26:03,593 --> 01:26:05,464 and so, the act of reading the book 1668 01:26:05,508 --> 01:26:08,380 is almost like the journey through life 1669 01:26:08,424 --> 01:26:11,035 -and attempting to find meaning. -But you don't have... 1670 01:26:11,078 --> 01:26:12,906 -KRIS: You don't need two hours of that! -Yeah. 1671 01:26:12,950 --> 01:26:14,952 [UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING]