Reflections on Their Eyes Were Watching God      by Alison Cable

The Dream Keeper, by Langston Hughes

Bring me all of your dreams,
You dreamers,
Bring me all of your
Heart melodies
That I may wrap them
In a blue cloud-cloth
Away from the too-rough fingers
Of the world.

I love this prayer-like poem.   It’s simple and painful, but it’s more than that.  A Black American Harlem Renaissance writer, Hughes knew all too well the “too-rough fingers” of the world, and this poem, like many of his others, exposes the raw fragility of dreams. The idea of wrapping dreams up in a “blue cloud-cloth”– the sky as a vast blanket that protects dreams from the realities that threaten them—is comforting and hopeful, and universal.

Last summer, Toby and I were discussing a salon on Catcher in the Rye, but then came the murder of George Floyd and the BLM protests and we reconsidered whose story we’d rather hear, and really listen to—Holden Caulfield or Janie Crawford?  Both coming of age tales, both quests for self-discovery, both written with skill and style, recognized as American classics.  But whose voice do we want to hear right now?  Need to hear.  Janie’s, of course.  Their Eyes Were Watching God was the clear choice, and the positive response from participants is a message in and of itself.  There was so much to explore, we’ll be running it again in November.  It’s in these choices that we can open ourselves up to examination and real change.

We ran a four-hour intensive, in which we looked carefully at the ways in which Zora Neale Hurston empowers Janie, by making her the teller of her own story and placing her within the classic quest structure as hero, unheard of for a mixed-race girl from Florida in the 1930’s.   We talked about how Hurston uses the vernacular to subvert the traditional linguistic hierarchy and by extension asserts that Black folk culture is valuable, worthy of “literary fiction” and our close attention (not always the assumption during the Harlem Renaissance).  It’s also just a beautiful story, and we delighted in the magic of her descriptions (‘Put me down easy, Janie, ah’m a cracked plate’).

We also talked about the nature imagery in the novel, and Hughes’ ‘cloud-cloth’ reminds me of Hurston’s recurring image of the horizon– from the evocative opening lines (‘Ships at a distance hold every man’s wish on board’) to the final lines, where Janie wraps herself in the horizon, having been there and back.

Toward the beginning of her coming-of-age journey, Janie aspires to fulfilment through love and self-expression, but her grandmother marries her off to a man who will treat her as a servant:

Nanny had taken the biggest thing God ever made, the horizon—for no matter how far a person can go the horizon is still way beyond you—and pinched it in to such a little bit of a thing that she could tie it about her granddaughter’s neck tight enough to choke her. (102)

But two husbands and a hurricane later, Janie has returned home from her quest to tell her story and share the prize with her community:

Here was peace.  She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net.  Pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulder.  So much of life in it’s meshes! She called in her soul to come and see. (221)

While this is not a book overtly about racism, it is a portrait of Black life in a racist society.  White readers like myself who attend to it closely are given an opportunity to take a step toward understanding the lived experience of racism.  Hurston celebrates the living rhythms of Black communities and cultural expressions, and portrays Black people within their own framework, not simply responding to white people nor the racism white communities perpetrate (e.g. through the use of the vernacular, the absence of white characters).  Zadie Smith sums it up better than I can: “It is about the discovery of self in and through another.  It suggests that even the dark and terrible banality of racism can recede to a vanishing point where you understand, and are understood by, another human being.”

“There is one peculiarity which real works of art possess in common. At each fresh reading one notices some change in them, as if the sap of life ran in their leaves, and with skies and plants they had the power to alter their shape and colour from season to season. To write down one’s impressions of Hamlet as one reads it year after year, would be virtually to record one’s own autobiography, for as we know more of life, so Shakespeare comments upon what we know.”   — Virginia Woolf

As the Salon season wraps up for August, I am celebrating the amazing discussions that I have witnessed—and, as Woolf comments above, the sap of life that renews my mind as I revisit these great writings. The current Invisible Man study, for example, continues to offer insights to a work I thought I knew inside out…and of course, this book illuminates the moment of change in awareness of systematic and daily racism that Black people and people of colour experience. We are living this now. The Hamlet study that I co-facilitated with the actor Jane Wymark—who KNOWS Ophelia from having played the role to Derek Jacoby’s Hamlet—offered participants a rare opportunity for one-on-one coaching with Jane towards a final presentation of a reading from the play. This was so appreciated that Jane and I are offering another Hamlet in September.

We have posted new studies—and there are more to come. I am thrilled to be working with such a talented group of facilitators—our styles and areas of expertise offer a diversity of approaches but the ethos of the Salon: an open, dynamic exploration of the literature—is the constant in the Salon approach. Basil Lawrence is offering a 10-week study on Nabokov’s Pale Fire. He says: “Pale Fire is a great work of 20th Century literature, and a deeply humane novel. It’s a personal text borne out of Nabokov’s own suffering: a meditation on love and loss; a contemplation of his physical and linguistic exile. Although the story’s humanity is often hidden by elaborate linguistic games, its tenderness is forever present.”

Alison Cable and I are offering a Salon-Intensive study on Zora Neale Hurston’s exquisite novel, Their Eyes were Watching God.  Mark continues to illuminate readers in the classical realm with a coming study on Herodotus and Women in Greek drama…Geoff Brown and I will be running a short study on Henry James (Daisy Miller, The Europeans)  with an eye towards more James studies in the future—including the weekend in Rye that has one space available. We also offering Absalom, Absalom!, Hamlet  and Ulysses—those studies are filling up! There are two spaces available for the Woolf retreat in St Ives studying her final work, The Years. Coming soon: Marcy Kahan will be announcing another study, and I am running a Middlemarch study starting mid-October…keep an eye on the website.

We all continue to adjust to the strangeness of this time: in the midst of a pandemic whose end is not knowable; ever-changing daily rhythms adjusting to the safety needs of ourselves and those around us—a loss of jobs, travel and the pleasures of community gatherings—and of course, the awful reality of suffering that the disease causes its victims and those who care for them. I hope the experience of the Salon continues to offer a respite from the anxiety and struggle of this time. By going global, we have opened up to folks all over the world and that has strengthened our audience in bringing diverse perspectives. If you would like to enrol in a Salon but are experiencing financial hardship, please email the facilitator—we can often offer a subsidized place. The Salon is committed to supporting its members.

Be Well– and We hope to see you in the pages…

Toby & the Salon facilitators

Reading to Widen Perspective

 The London Literary Salon has always been committed to using literature to combat prejudice. I have been leading discussions on literature by Black Americans for 30 years- and continue to find the study of the passionate writing by Toni Morrison, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin opens my mind, helps me peel back layers of inherited racism and celebrate Black literature. The coming studies on Invisible Man and A Mercy offer reflective space to understand the lived experience of racism and the roots of a white supremacy. As a white person, it has never been more important to listen and actively attempt to understand what it is to experience racism(though I know I will never truly understand) and use my learning of history and lived experience to energise this welcome battle against this most virulent oppression. There are many ways to dismantle racism-thanks to all who have participated in these discussions with honesty and humility.

Here is a participant reflecting on a recent study of Invisible Man:
“Thank you for guiding us through such a challenging and difficult book.   What an overwhelming time we are living in, full of a similar chaos to when the book was written, with those struggles just continuing – and brought into such stark relief by the current administration in the US.  To have racism (and misogyny) entrenched and promoted, at the very top of government, seems to me a truly terrible thing, and one that makes me feel powerless. So that’s where I am with this book – incredibly worthwhile but also harrowing…   I guess that is what great literature is for, to really make you think and feel and burn.”   R.T., 6.2020

Alison Cable and I are preparing a study of Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston for July 22nd.  For those planning on joining Ulysses in 2021, the coming  study of Hamlet will provide a good grounding– the brilliance of this play comes alive in our exploration– and speaks to our times as we watch a mind in battle with corruption.
In the coming weeks, we will be announcing the fall offerings. Let us know if there are studies you are interested in…

Be well.

—Toby and the Lit Salon facilitators

MEDIA RELEASE – 8 APRIL 2020 (for immediate release)

KEEP CALM, READ ULYSSES AND CARRY ON . . .
The impact of COVID-19, which initially threatened disaster, has resulted in one London business going global almost overnight. The Kentish Town-based London Literary Salon, originally established in Paris in 2004 before moving to London in 2008, gathers together small groups of readers to study and discuss outstanding works of fiction, philosophy, poetry and drama by writers ranging from James Joyce and Marcel Proust to Socrates and Homer. In normal times studies range from one-meeting intensives to six-month and two-year odysseys, all based in London, and brief travel retreats to locations around the UK and Europe.
Founder Toby Brothers, who has over 25 years of teaching experience in France, the USA and Japan as well as in the UK explains, “at first I thought that coronavirus spelled the end of the salon, with no prospect of gathering people together for weeks or months ahead. After the initial panic, I took a deep breath and realised I could try to make the studies available online and the virtual salon was born within days.”

The Salon uses the video conferencing app Zoom to link salon participants for sessions that, like the in-person meetings, typically last two to three hours with up to twelve people involved in the discussion. Although initially concerned that remote links would make it difficult to facilitate and respond to individuals, she says the virtual meetings are different but equally effective, with the bonus that they are now accessible to people from all over the world. “The sessions seem slightly more formal, but people are also less likely to talk over each other. We learn from sharing ideas and responses – I get new insights from every study – and the opportunity to include readers from anywhere opens up the experience to many more people. So far, we’ve had participants from the USA, New Zealand, Canada, Sweden, Germany and France as well as those of us here in London and the wider UK.”

Brothers insists that the only qualification for joining her studies is a curious and open mind, she promises that even the most daunting books – forthcoming studies include famously challenging reads such as Ulysses and The Essential Socrates – become more accessible when tackled as part of a supportive group. “Extraordinary times invite extraordinary responses, when asked ‘What did you do during the pandemic?’ some people want to answer ‘I read Ulysses’. We can help them to do that.”

For details of forthcoming courses and costs, see: https://www.litsalon.co.uk. For more information contact toby@litsalon.co.uk.

March 16, 2020

From Toby–

We are entering into a crisis that is unknowable. There are so many difficulties in this moment– it feels easy to get lost in the anxiety and uncertainty. My go-to coping mechanism is to DO SOMETHING– and not just hoard toilet paper (though I understand that strange temptation). I celebrate how local groups are reaching out to connect with the most vulnerable, I am finding the balance between social distancing and offering kindness in interactions. Meanwhile, I think it is important that we find ways to continue the rich and connecting work of the Salons.

For the current on-going studies (three Prousts and one Finnegans Wake): we will take it on-line this week. This is something I have always meant to do– and now is the perfect moment. This also opens up the possibilities for other on-line studies: once I have played with he technology this week, I will post some other studies that will be on-line at a reduced cost for those who would like a focused reading experience while at home in the coming weeks.

For the coming travelling studies: We are making decisions about these as we go forward. The coming Proust trip scheduled for mid-April, for example, will be re-scheduled for the fall. I will do everything possible to go forward with he trips as planned, but recognise that for everyone’s safety and peace of mind, several will need to be re-scheduled and that is going to present challenges for everyone. I really appreciate the patience and flexibility participants have shown thus far.

The middle-of-the-night thoughts are not about scheduling nor refunds, logistics –but about loss. Loss of loved ones, loss of friends, loss of certainty. In our last in-person meeting, one of the many wise souls I have come to know in the Salon community framed the time as a wrenching– and an opening. Perhaps we will get through this time with a different, healthier sense of ourselves and our connections to each other and the earth.

I hope for ease for all.

Courses coming with spaces remaining:
Beloved four weeks starting mid-April
The Years—Five-day intensive study in St Ives April (two spaces available)
Yoga and Literary Retreat in Umbria early June of Henry James: The Portrait of a Lady –one space available
A Mercy Two meetings; June 2020
The Iliad  One-week travel study on the island of Agistri in Greece September 2020

We are trying to squeeze in a few more studies in the coming months—I am inspired by a recent study of Toni Morrison’s A Mercy and am offering a short study of this powerful work in June. Having just finished a rich study of Jazz with Geoff Brown we realised how much is packed into these fluid pages—I need another look– aiming for a study in the autumn.
Coming in April, I am offering a Beloved four-week study—this is such a complex and powerful read, each tour through the loaded and lyric pages yields insights on racism, parenting, the claim of the ancestors, the hunger for beauty in an abject world…

After two sold-out trips to Greece to read Homer’s Odyssey, we’re very excited to announce a week-long study this September in Greece to explore the Iliad. This time, facilitator Mark Cwik will be your guide into Homer. Mark is just wrapping up our study here in London of the myths and legends of Troy, and will be bringing that rich background to this immersion into the world of the Iliad.

I am preparing my first study of Virginia Woolf’s final book, The Years. We are combining this with the essays she composed (gathered in the Leaska-edited volume The Pargiters)  to comment on the politics she was addressing through the fiction. This study, five days in beautiful St Ives, is a unique opportunity to delve into the on-going question of the ability of narrative art to act politically. Woolf also looks directly at the sexual suppression of her time and how this translates into broken relationships in intimate as well as social spaces.
The group currently moving through the layers of honeysuckle and nihilism in Sound and the Fury have found much to consider—and as with many studies, our work will extend beyond the final meeting with an after-math gathering. We will endure.

The current long-term studies in the Salon exemplify the connections and depth available when we spend time intensely  working through the web of ideas held in significant literature. These long-term studies also provide a safe space to consider afresh the hard parts of our lives. Great art reflects the contradictions of ourselves—and in our work together, we move beyond the limits of our own perspective and experience.
Our Finnegans Wake group has been meeting for two and half years—and we aren’t done yet. Each meeting covers about five pages of text—in that time we may travel from Paradise Lost references to Emily Dickinson, sexual exploits to toxic masculinity, cyclical history…and constantly opening ourselves to the work.
There are currently three Proust groups moving through In Search of Lost Time. The Thursday group travelled to Iliers/ Combray last spring; this year we will spend a weekend together in Paris that includes a visit to the Hôtel Littéraire Le Swann curated as a passionate tribute to the writer and his vision-—as well as a stay in ancient convent and visits to museums that expand our knowledge of Proust’s world and French history and art. The two Wednesday groups are deep into the Guermantes Ways—turning over ideas about constructed femininity and masculinity, the unshakeable nature of social power systems, the vulnerability of our constructed identity, love as performance art…. I hope to start a new Search in the autumn.

We are living in truly challenging times. I continue to find some salve in the beauty of the literature, the passionate response to the realm of ideas offered in the Salons—and the generosity Salonistas show in our work together.

—Toby

December 16th, 2019

After last week’s election…

In recent Salon discussions and in several social conversations, we have re-visited the question as to why we read writers who present perspectives that we now find deeply problematic. This could be in reference to Proust’s anti-Semitism, Woolf’s snobbery, Faulkner’s race-divided world, Joyce’s xenophobic Dublin. These discussions present the opportunity to distinguish between a writer presenting a point of view for critique and illumination versus a reflection of the writer’s own prejudice. The writers I have cited above purposefully present the worst views of their world to probe, overturn and dismantle—but their writing often takes us into the heart of these views—often views that they themselves have inhabited—to extricate the roots that are embedded in their culture.
Though we may look at these works as chronicling a past history, last week’s election suggests that we desperately need to consider openly our prejudices, our violently differing political perspectives and how we will foster greater understanding of each other moving forward.

The studies on offer in the coming months provide an opportunity to consider and discuss the roots of tribalism, the impact of a racist world on individual identity, the female reduced to male projection, the way the weight of traumatic history distorts an individual—and the way art holds up the bright and hard edges of human experience. I believe our engagement in the literature has the capacity to engender hope—hope that can translate into activism.
Coming in January and beyond:

• A short course on two stories from Joyce’s Dubliners (one space remaining)
• Troy: Myth, Legend and Inspiration—just a couple seats left in this special study keyed to the British Museums new exhibition
• The Sound and The Fury—five-week study of Faulkner’s brilliant early work
• Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison—an American epic examining the struggle to claim identity in a racialized society
• Jazz by Toni Morrison—examination of love, improvisation and choice that kills
• The Years by Virginia Woolf – five-day travel study in St Ives (just announced—five spaces remaining)
• Lolita by Nabokov—Marcy Kahan leads this provocative study (one space remaining)
• Portrait of a Lady—weekend study in Rye or week-long study in Umbria (with yoga!)

Look for the annual Ulysses study in 2021, leading to next year’s centenary of Joyce’s immense work…