WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.040 --> 00:00:15.460 A:middle L:90%
Thank you. Uh huh. Mhm. What did

2
00:00:15.460 --> 00:00:22.969 A:middle L:90%
you do to be put in? Today we are here for the Visible

3
00:00:22.969 --> 00:00:29.460 A:middle L:90%
Scholarship Initiative in March. Now we want to hear from

4
00:00:29.469 --> 00:00:34.149 A:middle L:90%
author Jeff Mann, Associate Professor of English and his latest

5
00:00:34.149 --> 00:00:39.710 A:middle L:90%
book, Purgatory that stand in your way. You want to

6
00:00:39.710 --> 00:00:42.380 A:middle L:90%
hear more about the stories behind the book, the

7
00:00:42.390 --> 00:00:47.329 A:middle L:90%
book itself and some of Professor Man's related work over

8
00:00:47.340 --> 00:00:55.189 A:middle L:90%
to. Mhm. Okay. Yeah, thank you

9
00:00:55.189 --> 00:00:56.560 A:middle L:90%
. I really appreciate it. The trend is up

10
00:00:56.570 --> 00:00:59.119 A:middle L:90%
a little bit. We've got noise that way and

11
00:00:59.119 --> 00:01:02.659 A:middle L:90%
noise that way, but create our little bubble of

12
00:01:03.039 --> 00:01:04.189 A:middle L:90%
discourse here. So yeah, thanks very much.

13
00:01:04.189 --> 00:01:08.010 A:middle L:90%
I appreciate the library hosting these events. Uh Leslie

14
00:01:08.170 --> 00:01:12.209 A:middle L:90%
also organizing them and apologize for dropping the ball for

15
00:01:12.209 --> 00:01:15.219 A:middle L:90%
about six weeks there. But we do think about

16
00:01:15.329 --> 00:01:19.250 A:middle L:90%
it and they got it fixed. When I talked

17
00:01:19.250 --> 00:01:21.840 A:middle L:90%
about these sessions. I think about the sessions,

18
00:01:21.840 --> 00:01:23.459 A:middle L:90%
I was making a connection in the ways that the

19
00:01:23.459 --> 00:01:29.640 A:middle L:90%
library isn't connecting base for scholarship in a research process

20
00:01:29.640 --> 00:01:30.420 A:middle L:90%
, but also the production, the outcomes, the

21
00:01:30.430 --> 00:01:34.379 A:middle L:90%
books not up here. I think that's believable the

22
00:01:34.379 --> 00:01:36.370 A:middle L:90%
whole reason for doing this. And we talked about

23
00:01:36.370 --> 00:01:38.219 A:middle L:90%
the library as a space in which we do our

24
00:01:38.219 --> 00:01:41.620 A:middle L:90%
scholarship. So whenever I think about that of course

25
00:01:41.620 --> 00:01:46.140 A:middle L:90%
think about libraries I've heard operation. Um and particularly

26
00:01:46.150 --> 00:01:49.260 A:middle L:90%
in this case the library which some of you have

27
00:01:49.260 --> 00:01:51.840 A:middle L:90%
probably been, I haven't been to it, it's

28
00:01:51.840 --> 00:01:53.319 A:middle L:90%
right behind you. You ever scenario shuts of the

29
00:01:53.319 --> 00:01:57.840 A:middle L:90%
U. S. Capitol from the mall side Library

30
00:01:57.840 --> 00:02:00.609 A:middle L:90%
Congresses building and back with the green dome which you

31
00:02:00.609 --> 00:02:01.799 A:middle L:90%
can actually come from the green donors over the recent

32
00:02:01.810 --> 00:02:04.890 A:middle L:90%
, quite spectacular. Uh And there are two ways

33
00:02:04.890 --> 00:02:06.920 A:middle L:90%
to get into the Library of Congress to get the

34
00:02:06.920 --> 00:02:08.259 A:middle L:90%
Library of Congress on the Metro. The fastest ways

35
00:02:08.259 --> 00:02:10.479 A:middle L:90%
to get off the C Street station, which takes

36
00:02:10.479 --> 00:02:14.840 A:middle L:90%
you right in the back entrance of Wonder Congress,

37
00:02:14.840 --> 00:02:16.280 A:middle L:90%
which is which is more it's efficient, but it's

38
00:02:16.280 --> 00:02:20.210 A:middle L:90%
boring. The other way to go on the metro

39
00:02:20.210 --> 00:02:23.009 A:middle L:90%
is to get off at the Navy Memorial or station

40
00:02:23.009 --> 00:02:24.590 A:middle L:90%
and actually walk up to Capitol Hill and get my

41
00:02:24.590 --> 00:02:27.650 A:middle L:90%
bread. Congress that way was sort of more inspiring

42
00:02:28.139 --> 00:02:30.270 A:middle L:90%
. Sorry, aesthetically pleasing. Um well, what

43
00:02:30.270 --> 00:02:32.000 A:middle L:90%
it does is it takes you right across the part

44
00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:36.240 A:middle L:90%
of the Supreme Court and often when I go to

45
00:02:36.240 --> 00:02:38.400 A:middle L:90%
live here, congressman go that way, it's relatively

46
00:02:38.400 --> 00:02:39.669 A:middle L:90%
early in the morning and so nothing is happening in

47
00:02:39.669 --> 00:02:43.129 A:middle L:90%
the Supreme Court, but there you are. You

48
00:02:43.129 --> 00:02:46.199 A:middle L:90%
see the whole vista in front of the building and

49
00:02:46.210 --> 00:02:49.060 A:middle L:90%
so on. And I guess this week in particular

50
00:02:49.439 --> 00:02:51.900 A:middle L:90%
, uh, seeing the images of the people coming

51
00:02:51.900 --> 00:02:55.110 A:middle L:90%
in Washington Supreme Court deliberations on both the Defense of

52
00:02:55.110 --> 00:02:59.409 A:middle L:90%
Marriage Act and also the legalization of the american California

53
00:02:59.409 --> 00:03:01.280 A:middle L:90%
, other places including he was very evocative for me

54
00:03:01.289 --> 00:03:04.330 A:middle L:90%
to see people camping out on their on the space

55
00:03:04.330 --> 00:03:07.259 A:middle L:90%
that I associate with point to live, because that's

56
00:03:07.259 --> 00:03:08.189 A:middle L:90%
the way I go to get there. So I'm

57
00:03:08.189 --> 00:03:12.500 A:middle L:90%
especially pleased this little week in which we are recognizing

58
00:03:12.509 --> 00:03:15.319 A:middle L:90%
just man scholars, but his novel, you know

59
00:03:15.319 --> 00:03:17.949 A:middle L:90%
, at the same time that the Supreme Court in

60
00:03:17.949 --> 00:03:22.060 A:middle L:90%
some ways astonishingly has finally come around to deal with

61
00:03:22.060 --> 00:03:23.120 A:middle L:90%
these issues. So I'm really pleased that we can

62
00:03:23.120 --> 00:03:25.830 A:middle L:90%
make this connection and at this point, alternative,

63
00:03:25.830 --> 00:03:37.580 A:middle L:90%
Jack, thank you. Yeah, no Science is

64
00:03:37.580 --> 00:03:39.120 A:middle L:90%
this loud enough because I couldn't hear it. All

65
00:03:39.120 --> 00:03:43.530 A:middle L:90%
right there. So, yeah, okay, All

66
00:03:43.530 --> 00:03:46.050 A:middle L:90%
right. I got up this morning and I had

67
00:03:46.050 --> 00:03:49.759 A:middle L:90%
some notes and then I thought a much better writer

68
00:03:50.340 --> 00:03:52.889 A:middle L:90%
then I am a speaker. So I wrote a

69
00:03:52.889 --> 00:03:55.620 A:middle L:90%
little talk, but hopefully it won't be too stiff

70
00:03:55.620 --> 00:04:00.610 A:middle L:90%
and boring. Yeah. And we'll take terribly long

71
00:04:00.610 --> 00:04:03.650 A:middle L:90%
. I promise. Um, the folks who invited

72
00:04:03.650 --> 00:04:05.830 A:middle L:90%
me to do this and I much appreciate this.

73
00:04:05.830 --> 00:04:09.360 A:middle L:90%
This is a real treat. I was saying earlier

74
00:04:09.360 --> 00:04:14.509 A:middle L:90%
that the posters are laminated and that impressed me quite

75
00:04:14.509 --> 00:04:15.759 A:middle L:90%
a bit actually. I got them in my mailbox

76
00:04:15.759 --> 00:04:17.449 A:middle L:90%
yesterday and I said, well, these are frame

77
00:04:17.449 --> 00:04:21.079 A:middle L:90%
a bill for my ego. So thank you for

78
00:04:21.079 --> 00:04:25.019 A:middle L:90%
the invitation. And the pretty posters, uh,

79
00:04:25.029 --> 00:04:26.920 A:middle L:90%
these folks also were kind enough to send me a

80
00:04:26.920 --> 00:04:30.829 A:middle L:90%
few talking points. So I'm going to just follow

81
00:04:30.829 --> 00:04:33.730 A:middle L:90%
those as most of, you know, we're in

82
00:04:33.730 --> 00:04:38.500 A:middle L:90%
the middle of the sesquicentennial. That's the word I'd

83
00:04:38.500 --> 00:04:44.149 A:middle L:90%
never heard before of the American Civil War 2011 2015

84
00:04:45.339 --> 00:04:48.360 A:middle L:90%
, 150 years. That sounds like a long time

85
00:04:49.240 --> 00:04:53.730 A:middle L:90%
. People, people often wonder why so many southerners

86
00:04:53.730 --> 00:04:57.620 A:middle L:90%
remain passionately interested in that conflict after so many years

87
00:04:58.639 --> 00:05:01.339 A:middle L:90%
. Shelby Foote, the great historian, says southerners

88
00:05:01.339 --> 00:05:04.199 A:middle L:90%
are very strange about that war. Talk about an

89
00:05:04.199 --> 00:05:09.259 A:middle L:90%
understatement. Mm. My partner john, for instance

90
00:05:09.269 --> 00:05:11.139 A:middle L:90%
, a yankee, that's the word, that the

91
00:05:11.139 --> 00:05:13.279 A:middle L:90%
wild word. I don't use too often anymore around

92
00:05:13.279 --> 00:05:17.300 A:middle L:90%
him. A yankee whose family hails from massachusetts is

93
00:05:17.300 --> 00:05:21.620 A:middle L:90%
indifferent to civil war history only his immense patience has

94
00:05:21.620 --> 00:05:25.759 A:middle L:90%
allowed me to drag him to a slew of battlefields

95
00:05:26.339 --> 00:05:30.620 A:middle L:90%
. Gettysburg, fredericksburg, Newmarket, malvern Hill and

96
00:05:30.620 --> 00:05:33.990 A:middle L:90%
Petersburg to name only a few few autumns ago,

97
00:05:33.990 --> 00:05:38.199 A:middle L:90%
even accompanied me to a battle reenactment in the freezing

98
00:05:38.199 --> 00:05:43.050 A:middle L:90%
october rain. It's cedar creek where wounded soldiers fell

99
00:05:43.050 --> 00:05:46.069 A:middle L:90%
in wet grass on cold earth and lay there as

100
00:05:46.069 --> 00:05:49.389 A:middle L:90%
the battle raged around them, probably contracting bad colds

101
00:05:49.389 --> 00:05:54.220 A:middle L:90%
and pneumonia in the process. I was worried about

102
00:05:54.230 --> 00:05:56.860 A:middle L:90%
them. Honestly. I grew up in the mountains

103
00:05:56.860 --> 00:06:00.259 A:middle L:90%
of Western Virginia, Covington and southern West Virginia Hinton

104
00:06:00.839 --> 00:06:04.120 A:middle L:90%
john spent most of his youth in Daytona beach florida

105
00:06:04.779 --> 00:06:06.860 A:middle L:90%
. The war doesn't haunt him the way it does

106
00:06:06.860 --> 00:06:13.970 A:middle L:90%
me. Probably because y'all one sometimes grouse, y'all

107
00:06:13.970 --> 00:06:17.029 A:middle L:90%
can afford to forget. I wonder sometimes what would

108
00:06:17.029 --> 00:06:20.509 A:middle L:90%
have happened if we'd met in another life on a

109
00:06:20.509 --> 00:06:24.990 A:middle L:90%
battlefield. A man from New England, A man

110
00:06:25.000 --> 00:06:28.670 A:middle L:90%
from Virginia, he's bigger, but I'm meaner.

111
00:06:29.870 --> 00:06:32.939 A:middle L:90%
I wonder who would have survived the war. Doesn't

112
00:06:32.939 --> 00:06:35.410 A:middle L:90%
feel that far away to me. Perhaps due to

113
00:06:35.410 --> 00:06:40.009 A:middle L:90%
my family history. My paternal grandmother, pauline,

114
00:06:40.009 --> 00:06:42.560 A:middle L:90%
feral man, white. She had lots of husbands

115
00:06:43.139 --> 00:06:45.959 A:middle L:90%
, nanny as I called her, whom I adored

116
00:06:46.639 --> 00:06:49.170 A:middle L:90%
. Well, her mother's father, Isaac Green Carden

117
00:06:49.170 --> 00:06:53.959 A:middle L:90%
was a confederate soldier in the civil war Nanny's son

118
00:06:53.970 --> 00:06:58.649 A:middle L:90%
. My father Perryman turned 92 this month. He's

119
00:06:58.649 --> 00:07:01.189 A:middle L:90%
often told me a story from his childhood Having lunch

120
00:07:01.189 --> 00:07:04.040 A:middle L:90%
with Isaac Green Carden. When the Old Gentleman was

121
00:07:04.040 --> 00:07:09.170 A:middle L:90%
approaching 90 years old, daddy remembers feeling anxiety.

122
00:07:09.170 --> 00:07:12.910 A:middle L:90%
Is his great grandfather reflected with palsy tried to ladle

123
00:07:12.910 --> 00:07:15.759 A:middle L:90%
out the soup and cut the pie with shaking hands

124
00:07:15.839 --> 00:07:18.160 A:middle L:90%
. Old age wasn't so bad, said the old

125
00:07:18.160 --> 00:07:23.459 A:middle L:90%
veteran except it had become hard to make water.

126
00:07:24.439 --> 00:07:26.649 A:middle L:90%
It took me a while to figure out what that

127
00:07:26.649 --> 00:07:33.000 A:middle L:90%
meant. I do now. Great Great Great Great

128
00:07:33.000 --> 00:07:36.500 A:middle L:90%
grandfather Carden is buried in our family cemetery near Forest

129
00:07:36.500 --> 00:07:40.040 A:middle L:90%
Hill. West Virginia. The very same place where

130
00:07:40.040 --> 00:07:42.660 A:middle L:90%
I'm 10 ma is just to be entered. Yeah

131
00:07:43.040 --> 00:07:45.410 A:middle L:90%
, few months ago I finally tracked down a regimental

132
00:07:45.410 --> 00:07:49.860 A:middle L:90%
history. Yeah. Show and tell hard to find

133
00:07:50.439 --> 00:07:55.019 A:middle L:90%
. That tells me where he fought. Lowry's bronze

134
00:07:55.019 --> 00:07:58.720 A:middle L:90%
and chapman's batteries of Virginia artillery. He's listed on

135
00:07:58.720 --> 00:08:01.790 A:middle L:90%
the roster. So are his two brothers John and

136
00:08:01.790 --> 00:08:05.019 A:middle L:90%
Alan. They all survived the war and returned home

137
00:08:05.029 --> 00:08:07.939 A:middle L:90%
, part of Monroe County that became Summers County a

138
00:08:07.939 --> 00:08:11.000 A:middle L:90%
few years after the war. In 1871. As

139
00:08:11.000 --> 00:08:16.300 A:middle L:90%
it card married three times outliving two wives. He

140
00:08:16.300 --> 00:08:18.120 A:middle L:90%
became a deputy sheriff of the county. And if

141
00:08:18.120 --> 00:08:20.930 A:middle L:90%
you go to the Summers County courthouse, you can

142
00:08:20.930 --> 00:08:24.319 A:middle L:90%
see him riveting eyes, long beard in photographs of

143
00:08:24.319 --> 00:08:28.959 A:middle L:90%
Civil War veterans reunions. I've discovered while reading this

144
00:08:28.959 --> 00:08:33.710 A:middle L:90%
book, but I've visited many of the battlefields whereas

145
00:08:33.710 --> 00:08:37.830 A:middle L:90%
it called Card and saw action scary Creek where there

146
00:08:37.830 --> 00:08:41.519 A:middle L:90%
is the scary free will baptist church. Believe it

147
00:08:41.519 --> 00:08:45.000 A:middle L:90%
or not, my response to that is, isn't

148
00:08:45.000 --> 00:08:50.320 A:middle L:90%
it always scary free will, uh, scary Creek

149
00:08:50.320 --> 00:08:52.769 A:middle L:90%
, Lewisburg, Lynchburg kearns town and the aforementioned cedar

150
00:08:52.769 --> 00:08:58.179 A:middle L:90%
creek with all the pneumonia patients and a thoroughly unexpected

151
00:08:58.179 --> 00:09:01.169 A:middle L:90%
surprise. When I drive route 11 north, which

152
00:09:01.169 --> 00:09:03.179 A:middle L:90%
used to be in Civil War times, the valley

153
00:09:03.179 --> 00:09:07.120 A:middle L:90%
turnpike from my president home in pulaski Virginia to Virginia

154
00:09:07.120 --> 00:09:11.480 A:middle L:90%
tech. I pass thorn spring road, look for

155
00:09:11.490 --> 00:09:18.190 A:middle L:90%
the cougar express cherished nails and the corner reflections.

156
00:09:18.190 --> 00:09:22.480 A:middle L:90%
Beauty salon, where it turns out Thorn Springs Road

157
00:09:22.480 --> 00:09:24.879 A:middle L:90%
, not the beauty salon. My ancestor wintered with

158
00:09:24.879 --> 00:09:28.549 A:middle L:90%
the other men of Lowry's battery in 1862 and 63

159
00:09:28.740 --> 00:09:31.889 A:middle L:90%
. At night. I sleep only a few miles

160
00:09:31.889 --> 00:09:33.740 A:middle L:90%
from where he slept that winter And I can hear

161
00:09:33.740 --> 00:09:37.480 A:middle L:90%
the sound of the passing train as he no doubt

162
00:09:37.480 --> 00:09:39.909 A:middle L:90%
did running along the tracks of the Virginia and Tennessee

163
00:09:39.909 --> 00:09:43.750 A:middle L:90%
railroad torn up by Union troops at Dublin Virginia in

164
00:09:43.750 --> 00:09:50.409 A:middle L:90%
May 1864 after the Battle of Cloyd's mountain. So

165
00:09:50.409 --> 00:09:52.559 A:middle L:90%
, the process of writing and editing the book,

166
00:09:52.340 --> 00:09:54.840 A:middle L:90%
It began as a short story in the summer of

167
00:09:54.850 --> 00:09:58.200 A:middle L:90%
2008, a call for submissions for an anthology of

168
00:09:58.200 --> 00:10:07.850 A:middle L:90%
gay military Erotica. Special forces raid. I thought

169
00:10:07.850 --> 00:10:09.549 A:middle L:90%
I might be interesting to do something very if you

170
00:10:09.549 --> 00:10:15.850 A:middle L:90%
had done before. Queer. The Civil War gripping

171
00:10:15.850 --> 00:10:18.090 A:middle L:90%
fiction is about conflict. So how about a love

172
00:10:18.090 --> 00:10:20.980 A:middle L:90%
affair between soldiers on opposite sides? That would be

173
00:10:20.980 --> 00:10:22.990 A:middle L:90%
bound to create a lot of drama. Like many

174
00:10:22.990 --> 00:10:26.259 A:middle L:90%
writing projects that took on a life of its own

175
00:10:26.639 --> 00:10:30.120 A:middle L:90%
became a novella. Then a huge novel that steve

176
00:10:30.120 --> 00:10:33.230 A:middle L:90%
Berman, the publisher of lengthy press encouraged me to

177
00:10:33.230 --> 00:10:35.299 A:middle L:90%
break up into a novel and a sequel. Big

178
00:10:35.299 --> 00:10:37.889 A:middle L:90%
books are hard to price competitively, he said.

179
00:10:37.889 --> 00:10:43.200 A:middle L:90%
And besides people love Sequels. If you drive north

180
00:10:43.200 --> 00:10:48.440 A:middle L:90%
on I-81 through the hordes of trucks just after you

181
00:10:48.440 --> 00:10:52.039 A:middle L:90%
drive over the James River near Buchanan and body to

182
00:10:52.049 --> 00:10:56.019 A:middle L:90%
County. Look to your left. That prominent mountain

183
00:10:56.019 --> 00:10:58.299 A:middle L:90%
has caught my many times and I decided to set

184
00:10:58.299 --> 00:11:01.799 A:middle L:90%
some of the novels action there. To my delight

185
00:11:01.809 --> 00:11:05.059 A:middle L:90%
. It turned out to be called purgatory mountain.

186
00:11:05.440 --> 00:11:09.320 A:middle L:90%
Yeah, I probably gasped with delight when I found

187
00:11:09.320 --> 00:11:11.700 A:middle L:90%
that out. So it became a presence in the

188
00:11:11.700 --> 00:11:18.419 A:middle L:90%
book and then it's titled unexpected discoveries during the process

189
00:11:18.419 --> 00:11:20.870 A:middle L:90%
of writing. First of all. And this wasn't

190
00:11:20.870 --> 00:11:24.889 A:middle L:90%
really surprised. There's almost no evidence of same sex

191
00:11:24.889 --> 00:11:26.480 A:middle L:90%
love. During the Civil War. I found a

192
00:11:26.480 --> 00:11:31.419 A:middle L:90%
handful of pages about improper and indecent sodomy and thomas

193
00:11:31.419 --> 00:11:35.480 A:middle L:90%
. Lowry's entertaining the story the soldiers wouldn't tell sex

194
00:11:35.480 --> 00:11:39.309 A:middle L:90%
in the civil war along with references to walt Whitman

195
00:11:39.309 --> 00:11:43.759 A:middle L:90%
and the conjectures about Abraham Lincoln's relationship with Joshua speed

196
00:11:45.539 --> 00:11:48.080 A:middle L:90%
. Apparently men love one another in ancient Greece and

197
00:11:48.080 --> 00:11:52.120 A:middle L:90%
ancient Rome And in other eras and certainly today,

198
00:11:52.139 --> 00:11:54.590 A:middle L:90%
but homosexuality seems not to have existed in the Union

199
00:11:54.590 --> 00:12:00.769 A:middle L:90%
or the Confederacy between 1861 and 1865. This lack

200
00:12:00.769 --> 00:12:03.629 A:middle L:90%
of information and needless to say only made me more

201
00:12:03.629 --> 00:12:05.269 A:middle L:90%
eager to imagine the lives of men loving men in

202
00:12:05.269 --> 00:12:09.049 A:middle L:90%
that point in history. Secondly, I learned something

203
00:12:09.049 --> 00:12:11.350 A:middle L:90%
I didn't know about the valley of Virginia. What

204
00:12:11.350 --> 00:12:15.549 A:middle L:90%
most of us think of as that truck infested 81

205
00:12:15.549 --> 00:12:20.480 A:middle L:90%
corridor purgatory is very violent in spots. Drew the

206
00:12:20.480 --> 00:12:22.159 A:middle L:90%
Yankee prisoner of war is beaten and humiliated with this

207
00:12:22.159 --> 00:12:26.960 A:middle L:90%
suspicious regularity. I thought that the hateful treatment of

208
00:12:26.960 --> 00:12:28.440 A:middle L:90%
an enemy would make sense after so many years of

209
00:12:28.440 --> 00:12:31.129 A:middle L:90%
loss, deprivation and war. But then I found

210
00:12:31.129 --> 00:12:35.519 A:middle L:90%
an even clearer motivation for the rubber rebel soldiers sadism

211
00:12:35.519 --> 00:12:39.309 A:middle L:90%
towards their captive. In my reading, I discovered

212
00:12:39.320 --> 00:12:43.080 A:middle L:90%
how much destruction union generals, David Hunter and Philip

213
00:12:43.080 --> 00:12:46.889 A:middle L:90%
Sheridan had wreaked in the valley of Virginia. What

214
00:12:46.889 --> 00:12:52.049 A:middle L:90%
folks called the breadbasket of the confederacy In the summer

215
00:12:52.049 --> 00:12:54.879 A:middle L:90%
and fall of 1860. For the year before my

216
00:12:54.879 --> 00:12:58.620 A:middle L:90%
novel opens houses and farms were burnt, livestock killed

217
00:12:58.629 --> 00:13:03.549 A:middle L:90%
. The Virginia Military Institute put to the torch that

218
00:13:03.549 --> 00:13:05.450 A:middle L:90%
seems sufficient motive to make a prisoner a literal literal

219
00:13:05.450 --> 00:13:09.899 A:middle L:90%
whipping post, ulysses? S Grant told Sheridan to

220
00:13:09.899 --> 00:13:13.450 A:middle L:90%
destroy the valley so completely that quote crows flying over

221
00:13:13.450 --> 00:13:16.440 A:middle L:90%
it for the balance of the season would have to

222
00:13:16.440 --> 00:13:20.909 A:middle L:90%
carry their provider unquote. And so Sheridan did I

223
00:13:20.919 --> 00:13:26.590 A:middle L:90%
did you get something like that broader research agenda?

224
00:13:26.600 --> 00:13:28.649 A:middle L:90%
I've been writing many poems about the Civil war.

225
00:13:28.649 --> 00:13:31.120 A:middle L:90%
Have over 100. Published 11. Uh, quite

226
00:13:31.120 --> 00:13:33.490 A:middle L:90%
a few of them based on travels allowed by the

227
00:13:33.490 --> 00:13:37.600 A:middle L:90%
Jerome Niles Deans Faculty Research Award, which was very

228
00:13:37.600 --> 00:13:41.980 A:middle L:90%
much appreciated. I've also published a novella called Camp

229
00:13:41.980 --> 00:13:46.669 A:middle L:90%
Allegheny, which is set at a camp between Pocahontas

230
00:13:46.669 --> 00:13:52.559 A:middle L:90%
county Virginia in highland county Virginia, Oklahoma's county west

231
00:13:52.559 --> 00:13:56.250 A:middle L:90%
Virginia, Roncalli Virginia in the summer of 1861 62

232
00:13:56.240 --> 00:13:58.350 A:middle L:90%
. And I'm hoping to write a novel about those

233
00:13:58.350 --> 00:14:03.000 A:middle L:90%
characters, these characters. This is the last month

234
00:14:03.000 --> 00:14:05.110 A:middle L:90%
of the war, so I can't really deal with

235
00:14:05.110 --> 00:14:07.220 A:middle L:90%
them much past the sequel. But the characters in

236
00:14:07.220 --> 00:14:09.629 A:middle L:90%
that novella, that's the beginning of the war,

237
00:14:09.629 --> 00:14:11.659 A:middle L:90%
so hopefully I'll be able to do something with them

238
00:14:11.240 --> 00:14:15.159 A:middle L:90%
. I have written the sequel to purgatory, I

239
00:14:15.159 --> 00:14:16.500 A:middle L:90%
figure I'll call it salvation because that's what you get

240
00:14:16.500 --> 00:14:22.419 A:middle L:90%
if you survive purgatory supposedly it details the hero's exploits

241
00:14:22.419 --> 00:14:24.419 A:middle L:90%
as they try to get to west Virginia through the

242
00:14:24.419 --> 00:14:28.419 A:middle L:90%
mountains though the first novel was almost devoid of female

243
00:14:28.419 --> 00:14:33.490 A:middle L:90%
characters, the notable exception being Miss Pearl, a

244
00:14:33.490 --> 00:14:39.450 A:middle L:90%
Lexington prostitute who smuggled contraband and comestibles inside a specially

245
00:14:39.450 --> 00:14:45.360 A:middle L:90%
constructed hoop skirt which is based on historic reality in

246
00:14:45.360 --> 00:14:48.519 A:middle L:90%
the sequel. There are several eccentric and entertaining female

247
00:14:48.519 --> 00:14:52.659 A:middle L:90%
characters including a gun toting black lesbian and a Shakespeare

248
00:14:52.659 --> 00:14:56.659 A:middle L:90%
quoting blue stocking, which is one of those great

249
00:14:56.669 --> 00:14:58.320 A:middle L:90%
19th century words for ladies who read too much,

250
00:14:58.320 --> 00:15:01.750 A:middle L:90%
like many of you. Right? Yes. Um

251
00:15:01.840 --> 00:15:05.320 A:middle L:90%
I also managed to work Isaac kardon my ancestor into

252
00:15:05.320 --> 00:15:09.259 A:middle L:90%
the sequel near the end. So there you go

253
00:15:09.710 --> 00:15:13.899 A:middle L:90%
. Do you have any questions? Surely a few

254
00:15:13.909 --> 00:15:18.259 A:middle L:90%
Or the cookies. Just so bewitching that Yes ma'am

255
00:15:18.940 --> 00:15:20.759 A:middle L:90%
I mean I know this hasn't been very part of

256
00:15:22.240 --> 00:15:26.789 A:middle L:90%
fun thing to do because you're a writer who's done

257
00:15:26.789 --> 00:15:33.870 A:middle L:90%
so much publishing come to expect surprises. Um One

258
00:15:33.870 --> 00:15:35.409 A:middle L:90%
of the, one of the most amusing things,

259
00:15:37.110 --> 00:15:39.870 A:middle L:90%
there is a character called Rufus who is the cook

260
00:15:39.870 --> 00:15:43.279 A:middle L:90%
of this little crew of confederates and he is foul

261
00:15:43.279 --> 00:15:48.309 A:middle L:90%
mouthed, I don't like myself outside of these contexts

262
00:15:48.039 --> 00:15:50.679 A:middle L:90%
And um I needed to do research to see just

263
00:15:50.690 --> 00:15:54.980 A:middle L:90%
what he would have said in 1865. Mhm And

264
00:15:54.980 --> 00:15:58.840 A:middle L:90%
I'm glad to say that I had a lot of

265
00:15:58.840 --> 00:16:03.460 A:middle L:90%
leeway so that was fun. Yeah a lot of

266
00:16:03.940 --> 00:16:07.320 A:middle L:90%
what? Right. Yeah. Actually managed to get

267
00:16:07.320 --> 00:16:11.700 A:middle L:90%
Rufus a happy ending. Uh I was determined to

268
00:16:11.700 --> 00:16:14.860 A:middle L:90%
give a happy ending to these two and I did

269
00:16:15.240 --> 00:16:19.269 A:middle L:90%
so after a while man, hey, I was

270
00:16:19.269 --> 00:16:23.009 A:middle L:90%
wondering since you've done so much trouble for these works

271
00:16:23.019 --> 00:16:29.779 A:middle L:90%
to make. Yeah. Right now. Right.

272
00:16:30.039 --> 00:16:37.230 A:middle L:90%
History. Oh ah No. But I have thought

273
00:16:37.230 --> 00:16:41.179 A:middle L:90%
about writing creative nonfiction. I write fiction creative nonfiction

274
00:16:41.179 --> 00:16:42.590 A:middle L:90%
and poetry. And I figure if I'm gonna do

275
00:16:42.590 --> 00:16:45.309 A:middle L:90%
this much research, I'm going to get as much

276
00:16:45.309 --> 00:16:47.450 A:middle L:90%
out of it as I can. I'm still reading

277
00:16:47.460 --> 00:16:51.120 A:middle L:90%
civil war history. I started in 2008 and you

278
00:16:51.129 --> 00:16:52.500 A:middle L:90%
if you ask me about contemporary poetry, I know

279
00:16:52.500 --> 00:16:55.509 A:middle L:90%
almost nothing about it. And I'm the M.

280
00:16:55.509 --> 00:16:56.960 A:middle L:90%
F. A. Director. I rely on my

281
00:16:56.960 --> 00:17:00.519 A:middle L:90%
colleagues. My colleagues know a lot more because I'm

282
00:17:00.519 --> 00:17:02.710 A:middle L:90%
selfish and I'm too busy reading Civil War history.

283
00:17:02.720 --> 00:17:07.069 A:middle L:90%
But I've written tons of poems, written fiction.

284
00:17:07.079 --> 00:17:08.289 A:middle L:90%
I think I'll probably write some that would be as

285
00:17:08.289 --> 00:17:12.059 A:middle L:90%
close as I would get creative nonfiction because I do

286
00:17:12.069 --> 00:17:15.819 A:middle L:90%
publish in that genre. Good question. Yeah.

287
00:17:15.829 --> 00:17:21.349 A:middle L:90%
The history was, did they have matches? What

288
00:17:21.349 --> 00:17:25.289 A:middle L:90%
did they eat? What was in those tents?

289
00:17:25.839 --> 00:17:30.069 A:middle L:90%
Um The very first book that I read was Tiffany

290
00:17:30.069 --> 00:17:32.859 A:middle L:90%
Trent. Ex colleague of mine bought me a little

291
00:17:32.859 --> 00:17:37.950 A:middle L:90%
book called something like southern corn bread and yankee coffee

292
00:17:38.440 --> 00:17:41.700 A:middle L:90%
. So I'm big into food and I was interesting

293
00:17:41.700 --> 00:17:47.109 A:middle L:90%
to read what they ate. And uh these boys

294
00:17:47.109 --> 00:17:48.720 A:middle L:90%
are starving. I'll tell you have some nasty stuff

295
00:17:48.730 --> 00:17:52.769 A:middle L:90%
. Um you'll meet anyone. Yeah, anybody else

296
00:17:53.440 --> 00:17:57.029 A:middle L:90%
? Hey, there are television shows that are accused

297
00:17:57.029 --> 00:18:00.170 A:middle L:90%
of having no characters of color. And so their

298
00:18:00.170 --> 00:18:03.819 A:middle L:90%
next season, they introduced people of color. I'm

299
00:18:03.829 --> 00:18:10.160 A:middle L:90%
doing that. Women. Yeah. Well my um

300
00:18:10.539 --> 00:18:14.250 A:middle L:90%
my in laws are biracial or my my in laws

301
00:18:14.250 --> 00:18:18.059 A:middle L:90%
are black and my nephew is biracial. And a

302
00:18:18.059 --> 00:18:21.049 A:middle L:90%
lesbian friend of mine has helped My sister raised my

303
00:18:21.049 --> 00:18:25.140 A:middle L:90%
nephew who's apparently so much like me that my partner

304
00:18:25.140 --> 00:18:26.930 A:middle L:90%
takes me to walmart and takes me through the toy

305
00:18:26.930 --> 00:18:30.299 A:middle L:90%
section. Because what I will like he will like

306
00:18:30.309 --> 00:18:36.170 A:middle L:90%
superheroes and dinosaurs. Uh so this character in the

307
00:18:36.170 --> 00:18:37.630 A:middle L:90%
second book is sort of a combination of lori and

308
00:18:37.640 --> 00:18:41.740 A:middle L:90%
feral. Yes. I have a barrel nephew.

309
00:18:41.750 --> 00:18:45.299 A:middle L:90%
It's an irish name. It's F. E.

310
00:18:45.299 --> 00:18:47.420 A:middle L:90%
R. E. L. L. Yes.

311
00:18:47.420 --> 00:18:49.789 A:middle L:90%
Yes. Right. Exactly. Women. What an

312
00:18:49.789 --> 00:18:53.849 A:middle L:90%
exciting. Right. Yeah. No, no.

313
00:18:53.849 --> 00:18:56.109 A:middle L:90%
I just thought it would be fun. I like

314
00:18:56.119 --> 00:19:00.680 A:middle L:90%
women. You know that a lot of you know

315
00:19:00.680 --> 00:19:08.220 A:middle L:90%
that someone else. Uh huh. Yeah. The

316
00:19:08.220 --> 00:19:15.559 A:middle L:90%
M. F. A. Application process. Yeah

317
00:19:17.740 --> 00:19:22.220 A:middle L:90%
. Once that's done um more poems probably. Yeah

318
00:19:22.230 --> 00:19:23.109 A:middle L:90%
. I've managed to get one short story written this

319
00:19:23.109 --> 00:19:29.710 A:middle L:90%
semester agreed joe esca it's his fault. We've been

320
00:19:29.710 --> 00:19:30.329 A:middle L:90%
buddies for 20 years and he asked me to be

321
00:19:30.329 --> 00:19:33.450 A:middle L:90%
the director. Yeah, So it's his fault,

322
00:19:33.940 --> 00:19:37.049 A:middle L:90%
Right? No, it's a good position. I'm

323
00:19:37.049 --> 00:19:38.180 A:middle L:90%
glad I'm not completely incompetent at it. And he's

324
00:19:38.180 --> 00:19:41.130 A:middle L:90%
one of the reasons I'm not, that's joe scalar

325
00:19:41.130 --> 00:19:44.670 A:middle L:90%
is my assistant who has saved my mm. Anyway

326
00:19:45.440 --> 00:19:51.680 A:middle L:90%
, name to talk about. Sure, yeah,

327
00:19:51.690 --> 00:19:52.960 A:middle L:90%
I'm actually teaching a grade class in it now.

328
00:19:53.339 --> 00:20:00.880 A:middle L:90%
Oh, a memoir. Personal essay, which for

329
00:20:00.880 --> 00:20:03.490 A:middle L:90%
instance, I have a somewhat controversial published personal essay

330
00:20:03.490 --> 00:20:07.339 A:middle L:90%
about my lust for tim McGraw, right? The

331
00:20:07.349 --> 00:20:11.700 A:middle L:90%
country music star. Um, so I'm dealing with

332
00:20:11.710 --> 00:20:15.380 A:middle L:90%
country music and stars and how they function that normal

333
00:20:15.380 --> 00:20:18.819 A:middle L:90%
people's lives, but from every personal point of view

334
00:20:18.819 --> 00:20:21.720 A:middle L:90%
. So that's a personal essay. Um, that's

335
00:20:21.720 --> 00:20:23.779 A:middle L:90%
what created on fiction is also literary journalism, which

336
00:20:23.779 --> 00:20:26.839 A:middle L:90%
is where you you're pretty much not a big part

337
00:20:26.839 --> 00:20:30.390 A:middle L:90%
of the writing yourself as a character, but you're

338
00:20:30.390 --> 00:20:33.619 A:middle L:90%
personally observing something out there in the world, the

339
00:20:33.619 --> 00:20:37.559 A:middle L:90%
way journalists do. It's just that creative nonfiction uses

340
00:20:37.579 --> 00:20:41.799 A:middle L:90%
poetry and fiction techniques like dialogue and imagery and seen

341
00:20:41.799 --> 00:20:45.339 A:middle L:90%
and setting and all that too. Kind of jazz

342
00:20:45.339 --> 00:20:48.420 A:middle L:90%
up talking about real life. So that's what creative

343
00:20:48.420 --> 00:20:52.529 A:middle L:90%
nonfiction is. Good question. Or literary nonfiction.

344
00:20:52.529 --> 00:20:56.460 A:middle L:90%
Some people call it supposedly it's the hot new genre

345
00:20:57.640 --> 00:21:10.410 A:middle L:90%
, anybody else. Yeah. Some people call it

346
00:21:10.410 --> 00:21:12.490 A:middle L:90%
a narrative nonfiction for sure. On the other hand

347
00:21:12.490 --> 00:21:15.420 A:middle L:90%
, there is some kinds of creative nonfiction called lyric

348
00:21:15.420 --> 00:21:18.059 A:middle L:90%
essays which are actually more like prose poems. They're

349
00:21:18.059 --> 00:21:23.799 A:middle L:90%
very, very concise, intense language. Uh so

350
00:21:23.799 --> 00:21:27.660 A:middle L:90%
it it created a fiction ranges I think, between

351
00:21:27.670 --> 00:21:32.529 A:middle L:90%
lengthy narrative pieces and little tight lyric pieces. Yeah

352
00:21:32.539 --> 00:21:40.250 A:middle L:90%
, someone else. Yes, sir. Well,

353
00:21:40.259 --> 00:21:45.450 A:middle L:90%
I'm primarily a poet except for anybody to buy anything

354
00:21:45.450 --> 00:21:52.769 A:middle L:90%
that I've published um is a surprise and it's for

355
00:21:52.769 --> 00:21:56.160 A:middle L:90%
a gay book from a relatively small LGBT independent press

356
00:21:56.160 --> 00:22:00.650 A:middle L:90%
. It's it's one of the best sellers which absolutely

357
00:22:00.650 --> 00:22:07.059 A:middle L:90%
stuns me. Um, I have gotten royalty checks

358
00:22:07.059 --> 00:22:11.079 A:middle L:90%
from publishers for poetry books. I kept one of

359
00:22:11.089 --> 00:22:15.529 A:middle L:90%
them because it's more useful as a conversation piece.

360
00:22:15.529 --> 00:22:18.769 A:middle L:90%
I think it was 56 cents. Uh, so

361
00:22:18.769 --> 00:22:22.299 A:middle L:90%
it's done well really? Uh oh, it's been

362
00:22:22.309 --> 00:22:25.490 A:middle L:90%
controversial. Some people have said it's too violent,

363
00:22:25.490 --> 00:22:26.660 A:middle L:90%
some people says it's too sexy and I expected all

364
00:22:26.660 --> 00:22:33.130 A:middle L:90%
that one person on amazon refers to it as vow

365
00:22:33.359 --> 00:22:37.309 A:middle L:90%
. And I was delighted at the extremity of that

366
00:22:37.309 --> 00:22:41.819 A:middle L:90%
adjective and have been joking about that ever since my

367
00:22:41.819 --> 00:22:45.529 A:middle L:90%
publisher, I'm a polite southerner. So as much

368
00:22:45.529 --> 00:22:48.069 A:middle L:90%
as I want to tear someone a new one,

369
00:22:48.069 --> 00:22:51.400 A:middle L:90%
I generally don't. But my publisher is not uh

370
00:22:51.410 --> 00:22:56.019 A:middle L:90%
restricted by those mores and he has occasionally savaged people

371
00:22:56.019 --> 00:22:57.279 A:middle L:90%
online, which gives me great pleasure. So,

372
00:22:57.289 --> 00:23:00.500 A:middle L:90%
uh, sit back and what it's like, the

373
00:23:00.500 --> 00:23:03.490 A:middle L:90%
romans and the christians and the lines. It's it's

374
00:23:03.500 --> 00:23:07.170 A:middle L:90%
quite entertaining. Uh anybody else? All right we're

375
00:23:07.170 --> 00:23:10.450 A:middle L:90%
done. Is it in our bookstore? I don't

376
00:23:10.450 --> 00:23:15.269 A:middle L:90%
know. Does anybody know? Yeah there are.

377
00:23:15.640 --> 00:23:18.410 A:middle L:90%
Yeah I think so. I just wondered if it

378
00:23:18.410 --> 00:23:22.380 A:middle L:90%
would be nice to be here. True that's unfortunately

379
00:23:22.380 --> 00:23:26.769 A:middle L:90%
there's no independent bookstores left so certainly no LGBT independent

380
00:23:26.769 --> 00:23:29.579 A:middle L:90%
bookstore. Well one or two go to philadelphia.

381
00:23:29.579 --> 00:23:32.140 A:middle L:90%
There's one left. One of those odd dinosaurs left

382
00:23:32.140 --> 00:23:36.190 A:middle L:90%
. Yes anybody else know? Okay well thank you

383
00:23:36.190 --> 00:23:37.720 A:middle L:90%
. I'm actually curious to see what books they have

384
00:23:37.720 --> 00:23:38.009 A:middle L:90%
up here. I haven't got a chance to look

385
00:23:38.009 --> 00:23:42.190 A:middle L:90%
at this display so uh but Robertson's books you see

386
00:23:42.190 --> 00:23:45.619 A:middle L:90%
that? Well that's that's wildly but there should be

387
00:23:45.619 --> 00:23:49.400 A:middle L:90%
a few up there. Dr Robertson's his books were

388
00:23:49.400 --> 00:23:52.809 A:middle L:90%
a great deal of used to me. All right

389
00:23:52.809 --> 00:23:55.240 A:middle L:90%
well thank you. I appreciate you all coming get

390
00:23:55.240 --> 00:23:59.269 A:middle L:90%
to the cookies. Thanks