but you're not listening to radio lab shot from WNYC and NPR did you uh, did you introduce yourself? Yes Oh, uh, my name is Paul Oster What do you do? What do I do? I sit here and talk to people like you He's a Paul Oster He's one of the most prolific writers we have I do the best I can But I went to see him because Anytime you open a Paul Ostermark You notice that he is noticing that in the world There are lots of strange repeats He calls them rhymes Writing events What is a writing event?
Well, a writing event would be something for example The girlfriend I had when I was very young College freshman sophomore to the piano In a department And the F above middle C was broken With the only note that didn't work on the piano That summer we got together And we went out to Maine We went out in the wilds of Maine They're e-sports And we were walking through pretty much in a band in town And we walked into what looked like an old Elk's lodge or mousse lodge And we walked up through the piano That was sitting in the room And my girlfriend could play very well And she tested out the piano One key was broken F above middle C So that to me is a writing event Writing Yes, always Great But that doesn't impress you And I'm going to give you another one This is a true story by the one you're going to hear It's a while This is too weird Well, it is The room Just five pages in During the war Ems father And didn't know from the Nazis For several months in Paris Charlotte would have been Eventually he managed to escape A major room It's a small room On the top floor of Paris Apparently he managed to escape Made his way to America And began a new life Years passed More than 20 years Em had been born It was now going off to study in Paris Once there He spent several difficult weeks Looking for a place to live Just when he was about to give up And despair He found a small Charlotte would have been Immediately upon moving in And told him to go to the news Because later he received a reply He would address his wrote in his father That was the same building I could not enter in the war And then went on to describe the details of the room It turned out to be the same room His son lives in the room Wait a second So, the father Please the Nazis Stays in this room in Paris Leaves 20 years goodbye The son happens to be in Paris Needs a room He finds a little vines He's in the same room The same room And it's really happening It doesn't happen to fall It doesn't happen to fall Wow That is weird And when you make that I'm not sure Except it gets you a funny sense Sometimes in your life When something happens You're in the room Sometimes But you know it's interesting You see people There are people It seems to me to attract a bad one We've all known themselves And there are people who are accident Also, they're always breaking their toe Breaking their leg Let me get our producer Pat Walt Disney Maybe before you do that You should just mention that This is the real ad This is the real ad I'm John Abenron And our subject is fate We always seem to talk about It's funny We have to be in some time since I'm a show We talk about what it is But it's always in the case The real topic of conversation Is destiny is it there? If it is Can you beat it? We can be talking about flowers So we thought today we would attack it a little more playfully And Pat, our producer, kind of obsessed with something to do with fate And bad luck and we don't really know about it Had you one just rolled there? Yeah, just one second here You other narkens on, is that right?
Yeah, yeah I don't think you ever understand that idea No other one, I think I don't think they've got into the floor What's your point of saying? No, that is good Hate that freaking bird Yeah, exactly And who is this dude? This is Mike Berrier The older of the book called All the wood versions of our conversation Basically the guy you call If you have a big profound question about Looney Tunes Looney Tunes A few months ago, Looney Tunes I was wondering, like, you know, our former producer You would run her so good Because I'm at least in the queue That's your question? Yeah, before you answer, I just want to give you a little background on the cartoon All right, before.
It's 1949, you got the movies with your wife You go in and you can see it And when Looney starts, one of the very first things you see Is it cartoon? And in the 1450s, most of these cartoons were It was probably during the primary example Problem was this chase thing was a formula It was rigid and it got a lot of cartoonists kind of bored So one day this kind of famous cartoonist and chuckedones Sitting around with his body, Mike Maltese Just talking about what the novel combinations of characters Is it going to be chasing each other? Like, all the people that are more chasing a lures I don't know what you mean, but just because it is Eventually they decided to let's make a cartoon about And when this cartoon came out, it was huge What does it mean for a cartoon to be hit? Like in those days, cartoons usually only ran one time But this one was different But this one was almost completely unheard of We'd bring this back to Looney's question Why is Roadrunner so good?
Because I'm at least in the camp that it's way better Than Tom and Jerry It's actually all about The coyote He's a big sperm, a human animal And not just like in the facial expressions And he made a way to look at the camera a lot But actually, it kind of was about the pretty consistency That sounds like it. Meaning, take for example, this one really famous cartoon Like always, coyote, the guy playing He has made a painting of the road He's pulling the road to a tenement over a cat And he's like, oh, he's a big fan of the But he doesn't fall He's got a road around the window And the painting He's got a road around the window And the camera's like, it's a tenement The following road around the painting He runs through the painting And Paul He looks at the camera and he shrubs And he's like, why did the bird get through the painting? And that means He doesn't just go for him in different force He doesn't have a link in force It comes in point on the way It's going to help him to be in the community But that's interesting, the roadrunner isn't his real opponent at all It's the universe But we all know he's a real opponent But he's a real opponent And that's kind of what makes a coyote seem so human He's in that situation He's like, oh, it's like a really cool one Like the very laws of physics are against us Yeah, I think all of us will have to go with the problem Right, the universe is out to get me Yeah, I think it's not the other way And even though the universe is screwing you At least it's no-simile It's totally flattering, yeah And this makes sense it's why the cartoon works But on one hand, it confirms our parent-wiz And then the other, it's kind of plays toward anybody Slattering Is that what I mean? We used to flippings to flippings to go Is that what it is?
You want to see that way? I don't know I never liked this cartoon Because you never wins There's like, what's more flattering? You live in a world that actively screws you at every turn Um, I don't really know. I kinda thought.
I go with the void. No! No! When you finally ignored by the universe?
Yes! As opposed to being actively screwed. But yes, sure! You know what?
I went to ABC News and I did a story with different very well. The next week I was going to be in front of me. And the head of the place, we were not out with Paul Williams, who was office. And he was like, oh, that's an interesting broadcast.
And then he put his face right in front of my face. His nose almost touched my nose and said to me, I hated this, I hated that, but you wanted to be on the same. Instead of being sad, I'm upset. Inside my head, like, why are we kind of like him?
Wow! He knows my name. I'm sorry! But if we were not out with this, I said that to you every single day.
He didn't do it every single day. But in cartoon form, that's essentially what's happening. But you're just yelling about the reason I like all the characters. Because I admire the guy.
He has no evidence at all that anything good will ever happen to him. And yet he wakes up every day with hope. Maybe. But some people really are what we call losers.
And it's fascinating to understand why that person's always getting fired from his job or is unlocking a level of time. Or just can't seem to make it go of it. But not not at all, I'm not supposed to. Unlike Mr.
Coyote, you can't really be sure whether the script that's been written for you, if you're listening to it, there's one. Because it's going to get you deeper and deeper into due due. Or whether it's going to make you a star or what? Yeah.
When it's going to come along, you feel like you're getting a peek at the script, maybe? And then you think, well, hey, it's real. And if it is. What do you do?
Yeah. In fact, Paul got to one more story. Well, I mean, yeah. Yeah.
One of the reasons. Yeah. It's the last one in the red notebook. It is a very strange story.
My first novel was inspired by a wrong number. I was alone in my apartment in Brooklyn. One afternoon sitting at my desk trying to work on the telephone ring. If I'm not mistaken, it was a spring of 1980.
I picked up the receiver. And on the other end, as if he was talking to the Pinker-Din Agency, I told him no. He had the other one number. And then I went back to work in Brooklyn for God.
I thought about the call. The next afternoon at the telephone ring again, it turned out to be the same person asking the same question I had been asked the day before. Is this the Pinker-Din Agency? Again, I said, now again, I hung up.
This time, when I started thinking about what would have happened, I said, yes. What if I pretended to be a detective for the Pinker-Din Agency? What if I had actually taken on the case? To tell the truth, I felt that I had squandered a very opportunity.
If I meant ever called again, I told myself. I would at least talked a little bit and tried to find out what was going on. I'd made it for the telephone ring again, but the third call never came. After that, we all started turning in my head and a little bit a little bit and tired of all the possibilities opened up to me.
When I sat down to write a city of Alaska here later, the wrong number had been transformed into the crucial event of the book. The mistake that sets the whole story in motion. A man named Quinn receives a phone call from someone who wants to talk to Paul Luster, the private detective. Just as I did, Quinn tells the caller he has died the wrong number and happens again on the next night.
And again, Quinn hangs up. Unlike me, however, Quinn has given another chance. When the phone rings again on the third night, he plays along with the caller and takes on the case. Yes, he says, I'm Paul Luster.
At that moment, the madness begins. And not just for the character in the story, but for Paul Luster himself because when he wrote this book, the city of Alaska, the other came in. He's enormous success. And this is now, I'm writing in 1992 here, I finished the book 10 years ago.
And since then, I've gone on to occupy myself in other projects, other ideas of the books. Less than two months ago, however, I learned that books are never finished. That it is possible for stories that go on writing themselves without an author. I was learning my apartment in Brooklyn after my next year, sitting at my desk and trying to work on the telephone ring.
This was a different apartment for the one I had in 1980, a different apartment with a different telephone number. I picked up the receiver, and the man on the other end asked if you could speak to Mr. Quinn. Quinn remembered it was the name of the man in the story.
Who got called? He had a Spanish accent, and I did not recognize the voice. For a moment, I thought it might be one of my friends trying to pull my leg. Mr.
Quinn, I said, is this some kind of joke or what? No, it wasn't a joke. The man was in debt, and he had to talk to Mr. Quinn.
When I please put him on the line, just to make sure I asked him to spell out the name. The call is accent was quite thick, and I was hoping that he wanted to talk to Mr. Quinn, but no such luck. Q-U-I-N-N, the man answered.
I suddenly grew scared. For a moment or two, I couldn't get eight words out of my mouth. I'm sorry, I said it last. There's no Mr.
Quinn here. He's the author, one of my number. I was really happy. Everything else I've said down in this red notebook is a true story.
So really, really, the night night getting into the... Did you... I'm not going to say that when you could have said, well, this is Mr. Quinn.
You could have said that. I was shaking. I was not a full possession of myself. Huh, really disturb me.
And I think I'll have to settle down and you. That's a two minute. Yes, it's... It's...
An explicable. But interesting. Because... Paul Oster is the author of the red notebook, which is the front, the New York Village, which is the...
The University of course, which is the... The University of Wales. Also, man, the dark invisible Sunset parking. Look, look, look, look, look.
We'll be off. Thanks for listening. I'm Janet Moron. I'm Robert Groulich.
We'll see you later. I'm David. I'm Robert Groulich. I'm David Hocking.
I'm David Hocking. I'm a radio lab listener. Radio lab is supported in part by the Alfred P. It's not a foundation.
And help them public understanding of science and technology in the modern world. More information about Sloan at www.sloans.org. I'll be off to you again. Hey, listen, I did you.
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