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Boots.

Where would we be without boos?

Where would we be without good news in the bird?

It's a rhetorical question, sir.

But where would we be without boos? From KCRW and KCRW.com, I'm Michael Silverblatt, and welcome to Bookworm. Today my guest is Maggie Nelson. We're here to discuss her book,

The Organauts, and it's a very exciting book.

That question, where would we be without books that gets asked by my theme song, is one

that this book really, well, it's an example. I feel like I've learned so much about life now in this moment, reading this book.

So first of all, for the people who've forgotten or never knew, who are the Argonauts?

Well, I know little about the Argonauts, save the retelling of the story of the Argonauts through Roland Bart, who I take the title from.

The parable that he tells is that when the ship is finished with his voyage...

That's the Argo.

When the Argo is finished with his voyage, even if all the parts of the ship have been replaced

and via substitution, it's an entirely new boat, it still is nominated, the Argo.

And Rolombart compares that parable with the use of the word I love you, saying that every time the word I love you, the phrase is uttered to a new beloved love and language have to be made anew, you know.

And so.

Yeah, the Argo has captured the golden fleece and is on its way home, and it's a long journey interrupted by a lot of dragon slaying and the

...