Patrick Madden - Sublime Physick: essays

Patrick Madden

University of Nebraska Press | Lincoln and London

2016 by Patrick Madden

Cover image: Refiners Fire by Todd Stilson

Author photo courtesy of Brent Rowland

Acknowledgments for previously published material appear in , which constitutes an extension of the copyright page.

All rights reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Madden, Patrick, 1971

[Essays. Selections]

Sublime Physick: essays / Patrick Madden.

pages cm

ISBN 978-0-8032-3984-5 (hardback: alk. paper)

ISBN 978-0-8032-8544-6 (epub)

ISBN 978-0-8032-8545-3 (mobi)

ISBN 978-0-8032-8546-0 (pdf)

I. Title.

PS 3613. A 28355 A 6 2016

814'.6 dc23

2015021064

The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

For my children Patrick, Adriana, Sara, Daniela, Marcos, James con amor

Books are good enough in their own way, but they are a mighty bloodless substitute for life.

R OBERT L OUIS S TEVENSON , An Apology for Idlers

I begin by thanking my fellow essayists for their friendship, kindness, and support. The list of deserving friends is much longer than this, but the following people have made particular contributions to this book: Chris Arthur, Robert Atwan, William Bradley, Mary Cappello, Sari Carter, Steven Church, Douglas Crawford-Parker, Mike Danko, Michelle Disler, Brian Doyle, Lina Ferreira, Joshua Foster, Connie May Fowler, Joey Franklin, Ian Frazier, Eric Freeze, Eduardo Galeano, Doug Glover, David Grover, David Hamilton, Robin Hemley, Brian Hoover, Susan Howe, Judith Kitchen, Kim Dana Kupperman, Shannon Lakanen, Amy Leach, Eric LeMay, Phillip Lopate, Michael Martone, Desirae Matherly, Ryan McIlvain, Dinty Moore, Scott Morris, Jacob Paul, John Proctor, Elizabeth Rhondeau, Nick Ripatrazone, Amy Roper, Scott Russell Sanders, Amy Lee Scott, Nicole Sheets, Sue William Silverman, Michael Steinberg, Ned Stuckey-French, Joni Tevis, Mel Thorne, Stephen Tuttle, Robert Vivian, Xu Xi, Cless Young (again, many more!).

I extend a hearty thanks to my long-suffering teachers, John Bennion and David Lazar, who nurtured the writing, and Steve Altenderfer, who nurtured the science, and friends who nudged me along this path, Travis Hubble, Jim Richards, Steve Stewart, plus the friends of my formative years, Vincent Augelli, Chris Petitto, Sona Verma, Mark Walsh, Joe Ziolkowski, and so many others whose friendship has sustained and enriched me through my charmed life.

I also thank my colleagues at Brigham Young University, especially those whove shared my interest in essays and whove contributed to my writing with encouragement or conversations. My college and department have helped me in innumerable ways. And my students! I am truly blessed to have taught so many great people at BYU as well as at Vermont College, where, too, my colleagues and students are delightful.

The University of Nebraska Press staff is stocked with tremendous people, most notably Kristen Elias Rowley, whom I thank profusely for her fine work and patience. I thank again Ladette Randolph for seeing something worthwhile in my writing.

I cannot neglect to thank the fine people behind the Independent Publisher Book Awards, Foreword Reviews, PEN Center USA , Utah Humanities Council, AWP , and Association for Mormon Letters, who prized my first book. The J. William Fulbright Commission once again afforded me time to live and write in Uruguay, for which I am grateful, especially to Patricia Vargas. To all the reviewers who noticed and appreciated Quotidiana, thank you.

Ive integrated the work of many artists, musicians, writers, and creators into my essays, and I am grateful for their contributions, especially Sebastio Salgado, Paul Goresh, Graciela Cabrera, Skoticus, Andrew Fellows, Eduardo Galeano, Brent Rowland, Todd Stilson, and the BIPM . My brother Dan helped a lot with image manipulation and preparation. I consider pages 1244 to be an extension of these acknowledgments.

Many editors and literary journal staff, too, deserve and receive my gratitude for helping see some of these essays into print for the first time:

Spit, Fourth Genre 18, no. 1 (Spring 2015) [Laura Julier].

In Media Vita, Iowa Review 40, no. 3 (Winter 2010/11) [Russell Valentino].

Empathy as Travels with Eduardo, Pedestrian 1 (Summer 2010) [Christopher Spiker].

Misers Farthings, Ninth Letter online, August 1227, 2013 [Philip Graham].

Buying a Bass, Wabash Magazine, Fall 2011 [Steve Charles].

Moment, Momentous, Momentum, Fourth Genre 13, no. 2 (Fall 2011) [Marcia Aldrich].

Fixity, Southwest Review 97, no. 2 (Spring 2012) [Willard Spiegelman].

Who was it who said that every child equals a book not written? Certainly Ive heard it often, and I feel it to be true, though perhaps thats just an excuse for my plodding (not prolific) literary production. Still, with Joseph Addison, I feel to retort:

When I see my little troop before me, I rejoice in the additions which I have made to my species, to my country, and to my religion, in having produced such a number of reasonable creatures, citizens, and Christians. I am pleased to see my self thus perpetuated; and as there is no production comparable to that of a human creature, I am more proud of having been the occasion of [six] such glorious productions, than if I had built a hundred pyramids at my own expence, or published as many volumes of the finest wit and learning.