Faulkner study starting Monday; Hamlet next Tuesday evening- Proust too!

Light in August cover “Faulkner tackles complex and universal human questions through mesmerising and unforgettable characters. The brilliance of this book emerges in the Salon study group, where you have the liberty to dive deeply into Faulkner’s work, question and discuss with others. Not many novels will stand up to 20 hours of discussion, but it felt we could have continued for another 20 hours. The Sound and the Fury was one of the most difficult books I have ever read, but through the Salon study it was also one of the most rewarding and impactful.”

This is how a recent Faulkner study was described by a participant. Our next study starts Monday afternoon — we will be reading Light in August. I hesitate from describing any great book with a few pithy statements– it is reductive and loses all the subtle craft of the writer’s art. This is an incredibly important book to read– even as it is a hard book to read: we have not finished talking about nor understanding how racism continues to daily impact all of our lives– nor do we understand how to eradicate racism from our social structures. Reading this book may not tell us how to do so– but my experience has taught me that reading and discussing a text that explores the wounds and tragedy of racism in good faith offers each reader an opportunity to examine their own understanding of the history and impact of race divisions, resulting in greater openness and recognition of the humanity of all. There is still time to register and start reading– we will consider the first three chapters in our meeting on Monday–reading approx. 55 pages per week.

Light in August by W. Faulkner  Seven-week daytime study starting April 18th “It is just dawn, daylight: that gray and lonely suspension filled with the peaceful and tentative waking of birds. The air, inbreathed, is like spring water. He breathes deep and slow, feeling with each breath himself diffuse in the natural grayness, becoming one with loneliness and quiet that has never known fury or despair….”

 

Hamlet Tuesday April 26th  Evening Intensive study:  Celebrating the 400 year anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, there are many events including the Complete Walk sponsored by The Globe– 10 minute presentations of all the plays: http://www.shakespearesglobe.com/theatre/whats-on/special-events/the-complete-walk . To really enjoy any of the plays, a careful study is essential to spend time with the language, trace the developing imagery and notice the irony, rhetoric and gorgeous presentation of the characters in lyric rhythms. This one-meeting study of one of Shakespeare’s greatest works will give participants useful tools for attending other Shakespeare plays with a deeper understanding.  There are spaces available– but sign up now to receive opening notes and preparation.

Hamlet Intensive April 26th— One meeting study of the extraordinary play in honour of Shakespeare’s 400 year anniversary

“What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form, in moving, how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?”

The Guermantes Way by Marcel Proust Wednesday early evenings 6-7:50 PM seven week study starting May 11th

A wonderful group has started the exploration of Proust’s In Search of Lost Time on Wednesday evenings. If you have read the first two volumes, you would be welcome to pick up the third with us. I was describing my recent discovery of Proust (after being a Joyce gal for much of the Salon history–seems you are one or the other–but I can never definitively choose) : Proust makes me think and read differently. I am more careful in my observations, more aware of competing impulses in human relationships, more able to negotiate sentences built like cathedrals with patience. And then there is the recognition of self-deception, the struggle between desire and intellect, the oppression of habit, the juice of jealousy–Proust draws it all.

Here is a more objective description of the third volume:

After the relative intimacy of the first two volumes of In Search of Lost TimeThe Guermantes Way opens up a vast, dazzling landscape of fashionable Parisian life in the late nineteenth century, as the narrator enters the brilliant, shallow world of the literary and aristocratic salons. Both a salute to and a devastating satire of a time, place, and culture, The Guermantes Way defines the great tradition of novels that follow the initiation of a young man into the ways of the world. This elegantly packaged new translation will introduce a new generation of American readers to the literary richness of Marcel Proust.  (quoted from GoodReads)

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