Last Night

I was heading home from work when I saw that Anne Fadiman was speaking about the artwork of James Prosek. I didn't know that the writer taught at Yale and I couldn't believe that there wasn't more hype for her. The art of James Prosek intersects with the way humans categorize and make sense of species in the world. He likes to mix ideas, including my favorite piece, "Flying Fox" which showed a stuffed fox curled in a ball, sleeping, with crew wings. I thought it was gorgeous, although several others thought it was sick.

Anne Fadiman read from one of her essays about her passion for collecting animals and learning about them, but interesting challenged who chooses to name others and under whose paradigm do we follow the rules for such naming.

She is an exquisite writer. I can't believe I was in the same room with her, let alone in conversation.

A lot can go by in the world and we say, ho hum, another day, but this was not that way. Spur of the moment, I listened to very interesting people discuss their work. It was brilliant....and very obvious that they were cultivated in worlds very different from the educated worlds I've lived in. It was a great chance to see a panel discuss Prosek's work and follow Fadiman's essay. Neat.