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Santa Fe Institute presents
The Indefinite Sublime - Tom McCarthy on Moby Dick, May 12, 2026 7:30 PM
Accessibility at the Lensic
- The mezzanine and balcony do not have elevator access.
- Removable seats for wheelchair access or bariatric seating are available in rows BB, A, B, and S in our Orchestra level.
- If you need seats removed for this access, please include that information in your order notes and call the box office at (505) 988-1234.
- Removable seats are marked with a wheelchair on the seat map.
- Seats with adjustable armrests for easier access are available in seats D101, D112, H101, H112, K1, and K2.
- Seats with extended legroom are in row O in the Orchestra and row K in the Balcony.
- The venue is equipped with a Telecoil Hearing Loop; if you have a t-coil enabled hearing device, you can activate it once you arrive. If you do not have a t-coil enabled hearing device, receivers are available for loan. Please ask an usher for assistance.
- Areas with limited telecoil reception will have a warning before purchasing your tickets.
- An accessible restroom is located in the lobby.
- Restrooms are located in the atrium attached to the Lensic; there are no concessions or restrooms located in the mezzanine.
- For more information, visit https://lensic.org/visit/accessibility
Tickets
- Access Digital Tickets by logging into https://wallet.lensic.org
- All sales are final. No refunds or exchanges.
- For information on service fees, visit https://lensic.org/visit/box-office-hours-and-ticket-policies/
Additional Options
Item details
Date
May 12, 2026 7:30 PM
Location
Lensic Performing Arts Center
Name
Santa Fe Institute presents
The Indefinite Sublime - Tom McCarthy on Moby Dick
Description
Tickets on sale: Tuesday, February 24, 2026 at 10am.
Herman Melville’s novel "Moby-Dick," published 175 years ago, is a parable of both man’s power and his impotence; of space’s cartographic conquest and the blind spot at the heart of every map; or, to couch it in scientific terms, of knowledge and its limits, or foundations, in the irredeemably unknowable.
In an exclusive event, Tom McCarthy will trace Moby-Dick’s own tides and meridians to unpack the ways in which Melville overhauls the language of the Enlightenment and breaks open the horizons of modernity. Drawing on twentieth-century visual art as well as classical and eighteenth-century philosophy, he will reveal a “grammar of the indefinite” at work in Melville’s prose, and suggest that Moby-Dick’s ultimate battleground might be that of culture, language, and writing — that is, of literature itself.
McCarthy’s novels have been translated into more than twenty languages and adapted for cinema, theatre, and radio. He is also the author of the study Tintin and the Secret of Literature, and of the essay collection Typewriters, Bombs, Jellyfish. His latest novel, The Making of Incarnation, was published in 2021.
Photo credit: Kate Joyce. Image: detail "Moby Dick." Gérard Dubois. Courtesy of the artist.
Accessibility at the Lensic
- The mezzanine and balcony do not have elevator access.
- Removable seats for wheelchair access or bariatric seating are available in rows BB, A, B, and S in our Orchestra level.
- If you need seats removed for this access, please include that information in your order notes and call the box office at (505) 988-1234.
- Removable seats are marked with a wheelchair on the seat map.
- Seats with adjustable armrests for easier access are available in seats D101, D112, H101, H112, K1, and K2.
- Seats with extended legroom are in row O in the Orchestra and row K in the Balcony.
- The venue is equipped with a Telecoil Hearing Loop; if you have a t-coil enabled hearing device, you can activate it once you arrive. If you do not have a t-coil enabled hearing device, receivers are available for loan. Please ask an usher for assistance.
- Areas with limited telecoil reception will have a warning before purchasing your tickets.
- An accessible restroom is located in the lobby.
- Restrooms are located in the atrium attached to the Lensic; there are no concessions or restrooms located in the mezzanine.
- For more information, visit https://lensic.org/visit/accessibility
Tickets
- Access Digital Tickets by logging into https://wallet.lensic.org
- All sales are final. No refunds or exchanges.
- For information on service fees, visit https://lensic.org/visit/box-office-hours-and-ticket-policies/