London Literary Salon July 1st 2012
Final summer Salon: The Awakening on July 11th 8-10 PM *DATE CHANGE*
Register now on the events page for this study; thanks to SJ, I have The Awakening as a PDF file—please email me for this.
This would be a wonderful study to sample the Salon experience–or if you are missing the regular Salons and need this intellectual energy before the summer adventures…
From The Awakening: Opening thoughts
Part of the strength of this beautiful little book is that we are asked to consider Edna Pontellier’s ultimate choice not as a question of absolutes but as a consideration of human desires in conflict with the world it inhabits. The world of Pontellier is not absolutely oppressive, Pontellier is not without freedom, her treatment of her children (and the impact of her choice on them) can cast her in a nasty light. Chopin offers a feminist consideration that honors the idea of feminism as a complex assessment of the interaction between an individual and their particular society. The Creole world that Pontellier lives in is dynamic and sensual; Edna has the sympathy of at least two of the characters close to her. So we must move beyond the simple equation of a woman who has no choices, who lives in an oppressive world, taking her life in response. The Awakening offers a more complicated and therefore more authentic portrayal.
The writing is exquisite; Chopin manages to create the tension of seduction and the aesthetic world of Creole life in her words. This is not an overwhelming read (like some of our recent studies); therefore those that participate in this Salon may take the time to savor the work. I recommend reading in conjunction The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, which is written right around the same time with some similar explorations- but offers a very different consideration of a woman in struggle with her world. Some have studied this previously; I think you will find as I have that there is never the same response to a strong work . Though our focus will be on The Awakening, Yellow Wallpaper may creep in.
Musings from attending GATZ
I had the rare and wonderful pleasure of sitting through Gatz last night at the Noel Coward theatre: a seven hour reading of the entire book, The Great Gatsby, that slides from a casual engagement with one man in an office and grows into a fully performed ensemble piece using every word form the book. I have studied and taught this book many times, but the performance gave me the work anew. There was a reflection towards the end of the performance about a scene echoing an El Greco painting that I was ready to bet money was not in the book—but it was. This brief image adds a deep note of wasted, ageless sorrow to Nick’s shaping of the story of Gatsby. His narrative works to allow him to understand himself and his response to ‘the foul dust that preyed upon him…’: the El Greco painting shapes the mood of the final reflections perfectly.
The Gatz experience clarified for me why I am such an advocate for reading—for re-reading, for discussing, for using precious time from our ‘one wild life’ to consider literature carefully. It is this: when we read a significant book, we first grasp the story (what happened, who was involved…) then we stop to think about why this happened, and then we get to the good stuff. By studying characters and their responses to the challenge of living, we have an objective platform for considering human capacity and behavior—and perhaps understanding ourselves more in the process. Listening to Nick last night, I realized I was still learning about his love of Gatsby and his struggle with Gatsby’s desperate and wondrous hope. The book has more to tell me about how we, or I, try to sync our experience of flawed selves with our dreams of what we might be, what we could be…made particular in the sharpness
of Fitzgerald’s vision which is a meeting of a particular moment, place and personalities.
It is the great mystery of human connection and relations that the study of literature has the potential to illuminate.
It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther…. And then one fine morning—So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
–The Great Gatsby, Chapter Nine
I am putting together the fall Salon schedule…one of the Paris Salonistas emailed me an article arguing for Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom as the ‘American analog to Ulysses so looks like that will be in the offerings along with Paradise Lost and….? Chaucer? Iliad? Suggestions welcomed…
See you in the pages…
