Dana perino recalls her experiences as White House Press secretary and her life thereafter, and Gernot Wagner looks at Climate Change and more. Visit booktv. Org. Booktv, 48 hours of nonfiction books and authors. Television for serious readers. First up this weekend on booktv geoff dyer talks about his experiences while living aboard the uss george h. W. Bush. [inaudible conversations] hi, everybody. My names clay smith. I am the Program Director of this festival so thank you for being here. Con fronting the confronting the drizzle or the mist or the rain or whatever we want to call it. Youre not here to hear from me, youre obviously here to listen to geoff dyer. Let me tell you a little bit about geoff and he and i will be in conversation for a while and then well open it up to questions from you all. Geoff dyer is the author of four novels two collections of essays and seven genredefying titles and they are but beautiful, the missing of the thome, out of sheer rage, yoga for people who cant be bothered to do it [laughter] the ongoing moment and xona, a book about the film stalker. He is the coeditor of what was true the photographs and notebooks of william getny. Hes a fellow with the Royal Society of literature and an honorary fellow of Corpus Christi college at oxford. A selection of his essays won the National Book critics circle award for criticism. Thats the official bio of geoff dyer. The more sort of informal and briefer one says that geoff is one of the most intriguing and wide ranging intellects writing today period. Hes written about world war i jazz, photography, d. H. Lawrence with razor sharp insight and wit. Hes a sol ideal revealing openminded writer are. When an editor asked him where of all the places on earth hed like to spend time to write about this lanky british individual chose an american Aircraft Carrier, and that is why we have his latest book another great day at sea life abrothered the uss george h. W. Bush. You all can meet geoff after the two of us talk here for a bit and get him to sign his books for you. We want you to remember that sales of books during this weekend actually benefit the festival and help insure that we can continue to produce this event in the future. So we hope youll meet geoff after the two of us talk here for a bit. So thanks for coming, geoff. Oh, thank you clay. Great to be here. Thank you all for coming. Is that really how this book got started, that you were asked where of anywhere on earth would you like to spend a little time in order to write about that place, and you said, oh an american Aircraft Carrier . Yeah. Well ill give you i can give you quite a thorough eczema nation of that. Explanation of that. As you know every College Everywhere has a writer in residence and you know, even some prisons have writers in residence. [laughter] i mean, in addition to the ones who are, you know [laughter] who happen to be writers. And there was once this rather strange gig as a man was writer in residence at Heathrow Airport for two week, and he wrote a short book about that experience. He enjoyed that so much that he set up this foundation called writers in residence, the idea of which was to put writers in residence in some interesting places. And in exchange for that, you would write a book about your experience. So, you know, im a professional writer which means i will do anything to get out of the house. [laughter] so is when he called and said was there somewhere id like to go i immediately liked the idea of it. And then as i thought of where i might like to go it became very quickly apparent to me it would be a real waste to go anywhere that that i might have access to in my normal life, you know . Be even a super luxurious sort of overthewater bungalow in that hitty which, of course, i liked that kind of stuff that here tee. But the thing is i could go there under my own steam and with a bit of ingenuity, i could probably arrange it for free as well. So, you know, there was no need, there was no point thinking of so very quickly, i mean the thought process narrowed down to somewhere really somewhere military really, somewhere that you couldnt get to in your own life. Britain doesnt have an Aircraft Carrier because were were still kind of bankrupt from fighting the second world war. And theres one being built i think. But in any case, i wouldnt have wanted to be on a british Aircraft Carrier. But i said to him if he could get me on an american Aircraft Carrier, i would do it. And time went by, about four months i think, maybe even less. He called back and said okay thats it, youre on. Youve got to just, you know, when are you free to fly to bahrain . And from bahrain we would fly onto the carrier. And then it was really striking to me how painless this process was because, you know im here in america on an 01 visa, and its a real headache getting a visa. Its incredibly time consuming, and you have to call in all sorts of favors from people to get to write letters for you whereas getting on this Aircraft Carrier, strangely, involved no effort at all. So when i did the first public event in london when the book came out i said was it really as easy as it seemed . He said, no, it was actually the most difficult thing hed ever been involved in. [laughter] and at one point he got a call from a really quite high ranking sort of Public Affairs person in the u. S. Navy who said, look ive discovered there are two geoff dyers both of whose names are spelled in exactly the same way. One seems to write these sort of layabout novels, the other is a perfectly respectable journalist with the financial times. Please tell me its the second one. [laughter] but, you know, he was educated as a philosopher which means hes able to fudge these issues of truth and falsehood. Anyway they ended up with me. [laughter] and thats thats how it, thats how it, thats how it came about. Yeah. So you this may be besides catch 22 the funniest book about the military that i have ever read. And one of the funny things about it is yourself. And you write quite honestly that you have a total inability to get used to things that you dont can really want to get used to. And when you showed up on the ship you had asked for a room of your own [laughter] well, its not only had i asked for a i mean, i was really adamant that i had to have a room of my own. And they wrote back and said he has to understand that sometimes there are sort of 400 people to adorn. Hes going to get quite sort of vip treatment by sharing with just five other officers. And i was able to write back no no, no for me, actually, id rather share with 400 than 5 because the more people are diluted, the better really. Its better to share with five than one other person, i think, in a room. I mean, obviously, there are many circumstances in which id be very happy to be in a room with someone on my own. This wasnt one of those circumstances where i wanted to, where i wanted to avail myself of those privileges. And so i wrote back and said, oh you know, i have to have a room of my own because ill be typing at night, and ill keep other people awake and they said, you know with planes coming in to land and taking off, you know, we wont be able to hear you. [laughter] so then i, you know, the next sort of thing, i said, oh, you know, my prostate is shot to hell i need to pee twice a night and ill wake people up. [laughter] and then it went on until eventually, you know, i sort of this was, you know, the thing is i really had to have my own room. I just felt i couldnt bear it. I mean, im an only child. I have no brothers or sisters. And as my wife is always saying in not entirely fond terms, you know im incapable of sharing. [laughter] so anyway i resigned myself to sharing this room and i was really dreading it. And then i should have added as well each writer in this series went to the institution that they were going to be in residence on with a photographer. So we land on the carrier, and they take me, you know, im thinking, okay theyre going to take me in the snapper. I refer to this distinguished photographer never by name, only as the snapper throughout the book something that he was not too happy about when he finally saw the proofs of it. Anyway, they took me to my own room, not only to my own room, i ended up in the Vice President ial suite. The thing is that basically i took on the might of the u. S. Navy and won. [laughter] and as, if you its always nice witnessing other peoples humiliation, isnt it . But if you look at some of the reviews on amazon youll see that this, my insisting on my getting my own room is the first of many things that antagonize some of the reviewers on the amazon site to the extent that one of the great ones it begins Something Like is it possible to loathe a person youve never met just on the basis of their writing . But the great thing is youre not buying the book on amazon youre buying it here, so we dont care what these incredibly antagonistic people say. [laughter] so you write very honestly in the book. I mean, you didnt like the food. It was never quiet. You felt like you never fit in. You write the Aircraft Carrier, quote smelled like a gram with 50,000 cars in it, each suffering a major fuel leak. And yet your writing about it is funny and witty, its kind, its even generous. So were you taking notes on the ship and writing, you know, at night, or did you sort of have the remove of some time and distance to sort of recast your thoughts . Well, a bit of both. You know, i certainly was taking notes all the time because it was one of the most intense experiences i was only on this ship for two weeks. Each day was jam packed, and id be seeing one incredible thing. And, you know, that would make quite an impression on me, and then that would be instantly overlain with another incredible thing. So yeah, i was taking notes all the time. Actually, it was rather wise of me to have insisted on my own room. Im used to slobbing around at home in my sort of pajamas, and im not used to spending the days with other people, and i was meeting a lot of people for the first time with all of the you know, it was really enjoyable but with all the demands that sort of made on me and noticing stuff. Every time i got a moment id come back to my stateroom, shut door with a huge sense of relief and start writing it up. It was essential to preserve what to preserve my impressions while the memories were sharp because, you know, every time i went back to the room id already been to sort of four amazing places. So is, yeah, it was really it was necessary to take those notes. But then, of course, i had many months to rewrite, to rewrite the whole thing properly when i was back. But, yeah, i really did and anyone who writes knows how important it is to make notes. Yeah. Well would you read a little bit from oh, yes. The book . Certainly. Do you know, it was funny because clay suggested i read a piece, and from its an interview with somebody on the ship. And its funny its one of the most satirical pieces in the book. I said god, i really dont want to read that bit. I dont want to come here and people will just think ive gone onto this incredible ship and ive just been making fun of it. So i thought id read you two other passages, the second of which will be another bit of sort of making fun at someone, but thats, i feel okay about that because the person that is being made fun of is myself. [laughter] but i thought it was probably best if i just describe to you so what happened, we flew from bahrain in this on this plane, and as we came in to land we missed the arresting wire to went round again. Then we landed successfully caught the arresting wire. Once we sort of checked in as it were then we were back where of course, i was really impatient to be, on the flight deck, you know, which is where all the action is as it were. And ill just, yeah, ill just describe my First Impressions of the flight deck. There was a lot to take in or not to be able to take in, like the size to have the flight deck. How big was it . Impossible to say. It was as big as it was. There was nothing to compare it with. Well, there were people and jets and tons of other equipment. But there was nothing bigger than it. Except the sea and sky which always serve to emphasize the lack of Everything Else. So in tangible physical terms the carrier was the world and as such, was all that was the case. I was not the first writer ever to set foot on an Aircraft Carrier. One of my principled successors has been hauled predecessors has been hauled up for fiddling his expenses. This time the editor had him banged to rights claiming taxi fares during the period when hed actually been onboard the carrier. [laughter] i know, said the journalist, but have you seen the size of these things . [laughter] id heard another story about two brothers working in different sections of the same character who didnt set eyes on each other during the seven months of their deployment. It didnt matter whether these stories were factually correct. Carriers are big, big as small towns, big enough to generate stories about how big they are. The flight deck is not only big, it is also overwhelmingly horizontal. Thats what the carrier has to be a pure and undisturbed length of horizontality. One remains that way whatever the sea pitches it. Pitches at it, excuse me. The teams in their colorcolded jerseys and float coats reminded me of a time id visited the Chicago Stock Exchange with the traders in their colorcoordinated blazers on the dealing floor, all gesturing and clamoring in repeated daily ritual that made perfect sense. The consequences of which were potentially catastrophic. Here, too the funks of each team the functions of each team were clearly differentiated according to a color cloald i did not yet understand except for the brown shirts. We were on one of the most technologically advanced places on earth but the guys in greasesmeared brown jerseys and float coats draped with heavy brown chains looked like they were ready to face the burning oil poured on them from walls of an impression national castle. The combination of medieval chains and Science Fiction didnt quite cover it though. There was also an element of the biker gang about them. All things considered, theirs was one of the toughest, roughest looks going. No wonder they stood there lounging with the grace of heavy gunslingers about to sway into a saloon. Every gesture was determined by having to move in this underwater weight of chain. I couldnt keep my eyes off them. They werent posing, but in this silent world everyone is looking at everyone else. Sorry, its silent because on the flight deck youre wearing these really really intense ear protectors. In this silent world everyone is looking at everyone else the whole time. All communication is visual. So youre conscious if youre a guy with a load of chains hanging round your shoulders like an ammo belt that youre the fulfillment of some kind of fantasy. Not a sexual one, more like a fantasy of evolution itself. And they werent swaggering there was just the grace that comes from having to minimize effort if a task is to be properly done, especially if a good part of that task involves standing around waiting with all that weight on your shoulders. The air was an ecological disaster. It was hot anyway and the heat reared up from the deck, dense with the fumes of jet fuel. Whenever a jet maneuvered towards the catapults or back to its parking slot or to the elevator, there was a wash of superheated wind like death valley with an oil gale blowing through it. Critics argue that the First World War and the invasion of iraq were all about americas insatiable need for oil. What did we need this oil for . Well to sustain our presence here to keep flying missions. The whole enterprise wreaked of oil. Planes were taking off. The fact that craniales insulated us from the ear and skysplitting noise emphasized the tremendous forces at work. There was an accuse sense of thousands of years of history and refinement the refinement of the urge to make war and the need for oil in order to do so converging here. I think well leave it at that for the moment, and ill read the other passage later on if we have a chance. Yeah, yeah. So you write about the size of the ship, but theres also, i think, you write that theres about 5000 people yeah. On that ship. It is a huge place, but you could never really get away from other people. Well, thats right. Yeah. Its this vast thing, and there are 5,000 people onboard, and i didnt realize that it was going to be as, you know, as crowded as a bombay slum is the phrase i use. [laughter] you know, i was naively thinking because it was so big i thought there might be Tennis Courts onboard. So i was expecting something of a cruise liner. And what it really reminded me of very much my dad, you know, when i was a 17yearold i used to borrow my dads car to go out, and he would never let me park it in his garage because that was always crammed so full of tools and paint tins that it was very, very difficult to maneuver the car in, and he never trusted me to do it. And it was very like. That every bit of space on this huge thing was used. And, you know underneath the flight deck, which is big and empty, of course theres the hangar deck where, you know, 66 planes are being store ised and repaired. So stored and repaired. So really that gives you a sense of all the stuff thats going on there. So, yeah, theres, theres its very, very crowded. Yeah. So did the navy put any conditions on you . I mean, one of the interesting chapters here is that you got to interview the, im sorry, i dont remember the exact term, but sort of the director of the brick. Oh, yeah. The prison on the ship. And there wasnt actually anyone in the prison at the time but did the navy say to you, you know, you cannot talk to this person or that department or no. They were absolutely i mean, at first when the snapper and i were told that we would always be escorted by this guy, i thought, oh, yeah, man, the pigs are trying to stop me from seeing stuff. But, in fact theres lots of it its very easy to have accidents because, you know, its an industrial environment as much as anything. The flight deck as the guy said the flight deck is the safest most dangerous place on earth. So, you know, you have to be very closely escorted when yo