Ulysses, Wasteland date change, Frankenstein: Register now!!

Upcoming Salons in London—Jan-February

Ulysses by James Joyce (20 week study-£300)
 starts 23.01.14
Black Voices in American Literature (12 week study through City Lit-£98)
 starts 14.01.14
“The Wasteland” by T.S. Eliot (One-meeting Intensive-£35)
 meets 26.01.14 NOTE DATE CHANGE
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (One meeting Intensive-£45) 02.02.14
To register for any of the studies above, please follow the link to the events page on the website or email the Salon: gift your mind a workout for the New Year!

Salons in London coming in later Spring: Moby Dick, Middlemarch, Absalom, Absalom! and The Odyssey… Salons in Paris (February 22nd, April and May weekends) include Betweeb the Acts, more Moby Dick, Sebald’s The Emigrants, Absalom, Absalom! and short stories: details to come.

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Reading Makes Us Smarter

Now we even have a study that says so:
NEUROSCIENTSTS FIND THAT READING STORIES CAN LEAD TO BIOLOGICAL CHANGES IN THE BRAIN.
Bibliophiles are right–a book can change your life. Immersing yourself in a fictional story can lead to changes in brain function for up to five days, according to a recent study published in Brain Connectivity.

Over the holidays, it was my happy privilege to attend an all-day Middlemarch marathon-10 AM-10 PM- at the Orange Tree Theatre –mind-altering. I left wanting to strive forward with purpose, wanting to re-read George Eliot, wanting to clean up all the messy corners of my life, wanting an ironic narrator to keep me honest (though in a pinch, the husband will do). Hearing Eliot’s text spoken aloud made me newly aware of how lyrically she zings into human absurdity, revealing our best and worst inclinations all woven together:

And certainly, the mistakes that we male and female mortals make when we have our own way might fairly raise some wonder that we are so fond of it.

We mortals, men and women, devour many a disappointment between breakfast and dinner-time; keep back the tears and look a little pale about the lips, and in answer to inquiries say, “Oh, nothing!” Pride helps; and pride is not a bad thing when it only urges us to hide our hurts— not to hurt others.”

“If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel’s heart beat, and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence.”
― George Eliot, Middlemarch
So yes, I hope to offer a Middlemarch Salon in the late Spring…stay tuned!

Daniel Deronda

George Eliot’s Daniel Deronda

Daniel Deronda

Daniel Deronda, published in 1876, is George Eliot’s final—and most controversial novel. Eliot had spent much of her life exploring the connections and separations between cultures and faiths. Her interest in Judaism and the Jewish people of England is played out in this work as she advocates for a Jewish homeland and offers characters that give voice to Jewish philosophy and history. Her portrayals of Jewish characters is controversial: early English critics felt the work would be improved with the Jewish sections cut completely (FR Leavis) while Jewish scholars called for the gentile sections to be removed. It seems only Eliot had the vision and the investment (and faith?) to find a way to weave late Victorian British culture with the Jewish English community. Eliot’s characters advocate for a Jewish state that disregards the reality that the homeland was already home to the Palestinians.

As Paul Owen writes in an article in the Guardian on the continuing relevance of Daniel Deronda:

“For those today who find Zionism difficult to understand, Eliot\’s depiction of its origins is evocative and powerful. Mordecai both describes and embodies the wandering Jew, forever an alien in a foreign land, never at home, “a people who kept and enlarged their spiritual store at the very time when they were hunted with a hatred so fierce as the forest fires that chase the wild beast from his covert”. But neither Eliot nor Mordecai acknowledge that Palestine was already populated; as such Mordecai\’s optimistic vision of a future Israel as “a new Judea, poised between East and West – a covenant of reconciliation – a halting-place of enmities, a neutral ground for the East” cannot help but read as grimly ironic today.”

The struggle between nations and tribes, between the perception of ‘us’ and ‘them’ continues to cause bloodshed and agony. The Salon seeks to provide a space that considers the history and social stage of these questions in a particular world and time setting. Our discussions inspire reflections on how we are in the world today—how individual identities overlap with national identity—how this impacts and challenges us and how we might overcome the limiting aspects of our humanity. A writer like George Eliot, who weaves romance and realism, social critique and human redemption, may offer illumination in our chaotic times.

SALON DETAILS

  • Eight week study
  • Recommended edition: Daniel Deronda, by George Eliot, Oxford World Classics (2014), Graham Handley, editor; introduced by K.M. Newton. ISBN-13: 978-0199682867
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