IN the midst of Faulkner’s Sound and the Fury, Proust’s Sodom and Gomorrah and a study of The Odyssey– all these rich works result in a bit of mental cacophony…but then a Salonist offers a clarifying statement as this in reflection to this week in Faulkner: “I don’t recall what we concluded about time and death, but life is too short to worry about it…” In another Sound & Fury conversation, we connected the act of Cronus’ castration of his father to the fantasy Quentin has as an option out of his suicide– and mused on the struggle to castrate Time itself.
We do manage to go down deep in all of these works, thinking and discussing how to understand the self and human relationships in the loud world, how to find integrity in a world of monsters and angry gods, what does love look like in a society that has created an art of subversion and manipulation?
Coming Salon studies are in response to reader requests– but we are always open to other possibilities. I am researching a series on literature of transgression including Celine, Nabokov, Wilde, Genet….and am hoping to continue our Faulkner work with Absalom, Absalom! I am still hoping to schedule a Salon Intensive on Hamlet; and have had a few requests for a Midnight’s Children study–stay posted as I continue my own battle with time. Please let me know which studies are of interest to you and what works well for you in terms of schedule (afternoon vs evening).
