We so appreciate feedback about the Salon experience! Thanks to Ethan for this…
Beloved Literary Salon June 2020
By Ethan Brooks
The silver lining in a sudden need to avoid unnecessary contact with other people is that there has been a collective realization of just how much can be accomplished while sitting at home. This means many have been pushed to conduct much more of their lives online – which can frustrate to no end – but in so doing, an accessibility inherent to the internet becomes a boon to those who must now cater to a world relegated to the web. The London Literary Salon is such an experience which, in transitioning to a virtual space, became available to many more, including myself. For that, I feel lucky. And any sense of intimacy lost through the computer screen was, I thought, more than made up for by the passion and care shown for Toni Morrison’s Beloved as we were guided through it – sentiments mirrored by all as we fell further into the novel – and the enthusiasm of my peers in sharing their own thoughts and feelings on the text. These expressions evoking always a sense of respect for the work as a whole and for the painful histories out of which it has been crafted. I think there should be no other way to approach this story, for while the themes that can be drawn from it may be manifold, the subject matters of racism and of slavery demand your attention, and the brutality and hatefulness of these things are felt, whether subtlety or viscerally, on each page of Beloved. The confrontation in reading this work is difficult – although made less so when among an inclusive group such as in the literary salon and with the exploration of this literature being facilitated by one with experience – and will not end with the story of Beloved; but it is a confrontation which is necessary, now more than ever, because it has been made excruciatingly clear, over and over, that the roots of racism and of white supremacy run deep in the U.S., and are painfully felt. In Beloved, it is this pain which is exposed, and in being better understood, it is assuaged. As a final word, this understanding gained through the text is achieved to a greater degree for being part of a group wherein thoughts and feelings towards the text are allowed to flow freely.
What is Hamlet about? Themes include the most precise questions of loyalty, revenge and allegiance, what it means to be human, the role of fate and self-will, the truth of madness- the essences of human experience. The language must stand up to the weight of these themes – we will closely examine the words and structures to decide if it does and if so, how. Hamlet as a character is utterly compelling: the sinuous dance of his mind, his outrage at human frailty, his exquisite language infused by his agony at a world too small and mean for his spirit inspires the reader.
“It has made me better loving you… it has made me wiser, and easier, and brighter. I used to want a great many things before, and to be angry that I did not have them. Theoretically, I was satisfied. I flattered myself that I had limited my wants. But I was subject to irritation; I used to have morbid sterile hateful fits of hunger, of desire. Now I really am satisfied, because I can’t think of anything better. It’s just as when one has been trying to spell out a book in the twilight, and suddenly the lamp comes in. I had been putting out my eyes over the book of life, and finding nothing to reward me for my pains; but now that I can read it properly I see that it’s a delightful story.”
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Art is organisation — a searching after order. The primal artistic act is God’s creating of the universe out of chaos — shaping formlessness into form. Therefore evaluate a poem by its unity, coherence and proper placement of emphasis: structure, form, pattern, symmetry (reflect) the human instinct for design.