WEBVTT FILE 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]