Parisian Literary Salon

“Epiphany is an unveiling of reality. What in Greek was called epiphaneia meant the appearance, the arrival, of a divinity among mortals or its recognition under a familiar shape of man or woman. Epiphany thus interrupts the everyday flow of time and enters as one privileged moment when we intuitively grasp a deeper, more essential reality hidden in things or persons. A poem-epiphany tells about one moment-event and this imposes a certain form.

A polytheistic antiquity saw epiphanies at every step, for streams and woods were inhabited by dryads and nymphs, while the commanding gods looked and behaved like humans, were endowed with speech, could, though with difficulty, be distinguished from mortals, and often walked the earth. Not rarely, they would visit households and were recognized by hosts. The Book of Genesis tells about a visit paid by God to Abraham, in the guise of three travelers. Later on, the epiphany as appearance, the arrival of Christ, occupies an important place in the New Testament.”

—-from A Book of Luminous Things by Czeslaw Milosz

The last three years of Salons have been rich with large and small unveilings. Sometimes it seems the insights come so thick and fast in the moment of the Salon that even as I am gasping and taking in a new idea, a new understanding of the prose before me or the humanity around me, we have galloped on to some new place- another passage, a connected meditation.

The current active Salon group- at this time, over 40 people with some 20 more interested and working towards finding time in their lives and work to participate-is an energetic and diverse community of thinkers, artists, adventurers and people seeped in the world of words. What a blessing it has been for me to work with all of these folks- and see how each inspires others.

So now is the right moment for a brief Salon break. I feel I must sift through the notes and ideas prompted by our many conversations and make some record of our work thus far. This also seems a ripe time to do research towards new works- and see what direction we want to move in….

Here are my requests then as we move forward:

• Let me know your thoughts and ideas and reflections on the Salon- what works for you, doesn’t work for you- even if you have not done a Salon but would like to in the future, what are looking for in a Salon? What would facilitate your participation?
• WORKS to STUDY : Yes, I have a list of requests from many of you (the Bible as Literature, more literature from India, post-modern works, Thackeray, V. Woolf, Beowolf, Dante, Chaucer) but more is always useful….

In the meantime, I will keep you posted as to various Salon projects….I am hoping later in January to host an evening of Art presentations…there are many in the Salon who are developing their own mode of inspiration & communication- I would love to have an evening when we can share some writing and visual or dramatic art for feedback and ideas…let me know if you are interested. One of the Salon members runs a writing workshop and we are thinking about how to perhaps integrate this into the Salon program.

The next series of Salons is scheduled to start the first week of March (week starting March 5^th) so mark your calendars and let me know what you would like to study. That series will be, by necessity, a five week series.

Keep the ideas flowing in these watery days of winter- and I send wishes of light and lightness to all in this New Year-

Toby Brothers

Director, Alesian Literary Salon