Come, said my soul,
Such verses for my Body let us write, (for we are one,)
That should I after return,
Or, long, long hence, in other spheres,
There to some group of mates the chants resuming,
(Tallying Earth’s soil, trees, winds, tumultuous waves,)
Ever with pleas’d smile I may keep on,
Ever and ever yet the verses owning—as, first, I here and now
Signing for Soul and Body, set to them my name,
–Walt Whitman
I don’t know; why not a bit of Walt Whitman to set a new tone–to keep me from apologising and explaining how life interrupts, how much I have missed our work together, how I hope to go on with the Paris Salons and how I hope each of you is facing forward and strong into this New Year of possibilities… I will let Walt say it for me. He does this so well.
There are two studies on offer for the weekend of Feb. 22-23: Between the Acts by Virginia Woolf -Saturday Feb 22nd 5:30-10 PM The Magic Mountain–first third Sunday Feb 23rd 3-8 PM * I am hoping to offer the following sections of Magic Mountain on dates convenient to participants; but if you start the study and can not make the next instalment, I will work to keep you in the read with extensive notes and resources. I may offer each third more than once if necessary.
The next Salon weekends are currently scheduled for: April 11th-13th weekend May 16th-18th weekend
Possible Works to study: Fridays Short Story special, The Oresteia, Invisible Man, Magic Mountain, Middlemarch…
By far the most thrilling reading experiences of my life have centred in Kentish Town, in a cosy sitting room in the home of Toby Brothers, the gifted director of the London Literary Salons. Each of the books we read was rich and challenging, but the thrill came from the distinctive style that Toby has evolved for guiding readers through a given text.
Deeply engaged with and knowledgable about literature, Toby is highly developed as an agile guide, a careful instructor, and perhaps most important, a sensitive and infinitely patient facilitator to the small group of ‘students’ in her charge. She can unite participants of wildly varying levels of education, experience and interests, and help each to bring him or herself to bear upon the study of great works of literature. The thrill comes from the sense of discovery, adventure, and sheer good fun we get from our mutual exploration of a given writer.
A lifelong bookworm, I knew there were some works I just wouldn’t get the full meat of on my own – ranging from a slim and perhaps deceptively straightforward-seeming book like ‘Wide Sargasso Sea’ to novels like ‘Invisible Man’ with its deep racial themes, to Shakespeare’s plays, up the granddaddy of all English-major holy grails, Ulysses, by James Joyce. Toby and the London Literary Salon have been invaluable to fully tucking into these and many more. For each, I came away with meat andpotatoes — a careful read bolstered by a side plate of critical insight and nuance unobtrusively provided by Toby.
But even better was the unexpected and satisfying savour of the personal and often marvellous insights that Toby draws out of fellow salon participants.
Incidentally, many friendships have bloomed during salon studies and their associated adventures, such as travelling to Dublin for the annual, often raucous celebration of Ulysses and its creator.
The American novelist John Williams, author deplored the notion that literature is something to be picked apart, as if it were a puzzle – to be studied rather than experienced. ‘My God, to read without joy is stupid,’ he said. The London Literary Salon will help readers to experience great books with joy.
It is time to dive in: the Salon’s signature study of Ulysses starts next Thursday the 30th of January…and though this is a serious commitment, all those who have completed this study have described this as a formative and broadening experience–check the comments to hear from participants directly. I know how reading Ulysses widens your understanding of language, history and human experience: I also know that we have a great deal of fun as the book reveals the absurdity of human relationships– even as the writing celebrates our struggle to love. I also know the ideal way to face the complexity of the book is with group of curious minds…there is a core of readers ready to dive in; we need three more participants to launch.
Here is a writer from the Prospero blog in the Economist arguing for the importance of engaging this work–and recognising the pure pleasure of the read:
“THERE are two kinds of people. Those that have read “Ulysses” and those that haven’t,” my best friend stated plumply one day, dropping the surprisingly compact 783-page paperback on the table with a thud. This was meant in a silly, snobbish kind of way, but he was right. Given the flood of ecstatic imagination between the covers of James Joyce’s novel, its more patient readers are marked for life by having read it.
Today, June 16th, is Bloomsday, the day in which all of the action of “Ulysses” takes place in the spinning clockwork of Dublin in 1904. Joyce’s devoted fans can be seen celebrating it every year. While Bloomsday events outside of Dublin tend to be nerdy affairs in Edwardian dress, I do recommend a good public reading if you can find one. (I do not, on the other hand, recommend the Bloomsday Irish breakfast of kidneys and gizzards, which is positively Cronenberg-esque.)
Perhaps that breakfast is a good metaphor; some people, not happy with saying “Ulysses” is not to their taste, must pronounce it loathsome. It was banned in America until 1934 because of its “pornographic” nature, a comical artefact of the country’s prudishness. And its position atop the western canon’s modernist heap has made it an all-too-tempting target for critics. I’ll never forget one of my old bosses damning “Ulysses” as the phallogocentric truncheon of paternal oppression, whatever that means. (He felt Gertrude Stein was the real talent.)
Just last year, Slate published a humourless piece in which Ron Rosenbaum fulminated about the book’s shortcomings, or rather its overcomings: “’Ulysses’ is an overwrought, overwritten epic of gratingly obvious, self-congratulatory, show-off erudition that, with its overstuffed symbolism and leaden attempts at humor, is bearable only by terminal graduate students who demand we validate the time they’ve wasted reading it.” Ouch. This is the kind of wet-blanket misinformation that you will have to ignore if you want to have any fun. And “Ulysses” is fun—maybe the best book you take to the beach this summer.
It is true that full-time literature students are in the best position to read “Ulysses”: it’s our job, with tons of time and a support staff standing by. I had the luxury of a “Ulysses” seminar with ten other undergrads, a professor with a Joyce tattoo on his back, and a pub with Beamish on tap. That’s the ideal, but you really don’t need all that. The beer is important, but all you really need is a clean, well-lit room of one’s own, a copy of “Ulysses”, Don Gifford’s “Ulysses Annotated”, Harry Blamires’s “The New Bloomsday Book” for chapter summaries, Joseph Campbell for some colour commentary, and some spare time.
Many readers will recoil: “I have to read three other books to read this one book? Zounds!” Trust me: you’ll be glad you did. Joyce is allusive and experimental, and the helping books do indeed help the reader mine for historical and literary meanings that reward often. But even a reader who forgoes annotated help can enjoy Joyce’s virtuosity. Few novelists have the ability to make the English language do whatever he wants, to make it do cartwheels and sing arias. Even when Joyce goes down (yet another) digressive rabbit hole, you love being along for the ride.
The second complaint with “Ulysses”, or smart books in general, is that they are too long or too dense, or both, and we simply don’t have the time to “waste”. The fear that we are becoming too distracted for big books has consumed the last decade. But what does digital have to do with novels, aside from making them more accessible? Ulysses, more than any novel, was made for the digital age. In the past decade, various projects have already begun to hyperlink the book with nifty annotations and commentary in an entertaining format to make it even easier to enjoy—in bite-sized portions—Joyce’s feast of words.
Are we really too busy for one of history’s great psychological novels? Many of those who scoff at the idea of reading Ulysses will tell you in the next breath of finishing the 4,000-odd pages of George R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” (ie, the Game of Thrones books), or consuming all four seasons of “Breaking Bad” in a meth-fuelled weekend. Let’s not kid ourselves: we have the time. Find some room in your summer reading for “Ulysses” or those other loose, baggy monsters it spawned, like “Gravity’s Rainbow” or “Infinite Jest”. “Ulysses” is perhaps the most written about book ever after the Bible, which should tell you something. It’s definitely a better read. Sláinte!
There is a wonderful group coming together for this study– if you have ever wanted to tackle this work with a gathering of dynamic minds and loads of resources to make your read pleasurable, NOW is the time. Go to the events page and register using the paypal button–email me litsalon@gmail.com if you have any questions….
Leopolds Cat designed by Salon participant Psiche Hughes
“Think you’re escaping and run into yourself. Longest way round is the shortest way home.”
― James Joyce, Ulysses
“In respect of the recurrent emergence of the theme of sex in the minds of [Joyce’s] characters, it must always be remembered that his locale was Celtic and his season spring.”
― John Munro Woolsey, United States v. One Book Called “Ulysses”
“A man [Joyce] whose earliest stories appeared next to the manure prices in the Irish Homestead knew that columns of prose, like columns of shit, could both recultivate the earth.”
― Declan Kiberd, Ulysses And Us: The Art Of Everyday Living
“You should approach Joyce’s Ulysses as the illiterate Baptist preacher approaches the Old Testament: with faith.” William Faulkner
• “The Wasteland” by T.S. Eliot (One-meeting Intensive-£35) meets 26.01.14 TWO SPACES REMAINING
• Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (One meeting Intensive-£45) 02.02.14 FOUR SPACES REMAINING
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, Thomas mann’s Magic MountainAbsalom, Absalom! and short stories: details to come.
The Kentishtowner asked if I would attempt to explain: So what exactly is a literary salon?
Misplaced your love of literature somewhere along the line? Rediscover it this year with a “spa for the mind”
– See more at: http://www.kentishtowner.co.uk/2014/01/06/exactly-literary-salon/#comments
The comments are the best part…thanks London and Paris Salon folks for getting it said….
Teaching and learning should be an opportunity for great generosity – not an intellectual pissing contest.
With that in mind, what then is a literary “salon”? The answer is actually quite simple: it’s an informal study of a particular work of literature, either as a single intensive session or longer weekly series of meetings. Some even describe the experience as “a spa for the mind”. But mostly it’s where we laugh, express our frustrations, query meaning and purpose, and discover great depth in the language and vision of the writer.
My London Literary Salon actually started in Paris, back in 2004, where my partner and I had moved rather abruptly from California. I found myself at a loose end: after working as a mentor teacher and counsellor and unable to find a job teaching in the French system, I was meeting other English-speaking adults who, while loving la vie Parisien, were looking for further intellectual stimulation.
After a particularly heady party, the idea of the salon burst forward. I ran my first study in our apartment with a group of eight women on Beloved by Toni Morrison, a wrenching, complex book with a multi-level narrative. At the end of our five-week study, everyone said, “What’s next?” And so the salon began.
We moved here in 2008. Now based on Falkland Road in Kentish Town, I hope the salon brings to the surface the deepest questions about who we are — and without offering answers, help us understand life’s mysteries. What, for example, does it mean to be human, in different times or different skin, various genders and a spectrum of struggles?
Relaxed: inside the salon
I believe — with the passion of a southern minister that is part of my inheritance — that the best learning is not hierarchical but shared discovery. But a teacher or facilitator can only guide; in a room full of learners you have a vast array of experiences and world views, all of which can enrich the learning experience. This is the basis of the salon: adults that join may be highly educated or not, but all have ideas and insights that expand our study.
We can also discuss issues that are harder to bring up in casual conversation. Take racism and identity, for example: Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man gives us an (apparently) objective platform to get inside the skin of one who is positioned as other – and glimpse how the world looks from there.
Then there is the writing: to grapple with the linguistic pyrotechnics of James Joyce — to enter into his exploration of the body, mind and street-life, to sit in awe of his allusions, musicality and thematic developments – is to expand the possibilities of the written word. To do this with a group of other curious readers who are also struggling allows each to enrich their own understanding many fold.
As facilitator I offer historical context, a biography of the writer, literary criticism, and other areas that the literature engages: the workhouses and debtors prisons of Dickens’ time, for example, or breakdown of Southern aristocracy in Faulkner’s world. The fees are for the physical and metaphorical space provided, the background and discussion notes and the atmosphere of flexibility combined with clear purpose and direction. It is also my responsibility to ensure a balance in the discussion and I do redirect when necessary. I try to keep the salons affordable to encourage a diverse group of participants.
But most of all? I celebrate the variety of participants who choose the Salon: I have seen friendships and relationships grow, and people come to a greater understanding of themselves and others. Reading literature does not need to be an isolating experience: through the salon and other local, grassroots book clubs (MeetUp, for example), there are authentic communities forming from the energy we have for the pure exploration of ideas — and how that connects us deeply.
Why I Wake Early
by Mary Oliver
Hello, sun in my face.
Hello, you who make the morning
and spread it over the fields
and into the faces of the tulips
and the nodding morning glories,
and into the windows of, even, the
miserable and crotchety–
best preacher that ever was,
dear star, that just happens
to be where you are in the universe
to keep us from ever-darkness,
to ease us with warm touching,
to hold us in the great hands of light–
good morning, good morning, good morning.
Watch, now, how I start the day
in happiness, in kindness.
• 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.
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!
Are there any drinks?