Parisian Literary Salon

Parisian Literary Salon Fall 2009 Salons in London
First a poem:
You Finish It: I Can’t

The world is somewhere, visibly round,
perfectly lighted, firm, free in space,

but why men die like kings or
sick animals, why tears stand
in living faces, why one forgets

the color of the eyes of the dead–

by Daniel Berrigan

I hear in this short poem the naked howl of loss- and the reminder that one’s greatness in death doesn’t matter…I think this might help us understand Hamlet’s mind set at the start of the play. Prepare for a murder, incest, a naked grab for power, madness, deceit, manipulation and the angst of an adolescent…or maybe a 30 year old. Are you ready for Hamlet???

Hamlet Salon- Details
London, September 2009
Wednesday afternoon Salon: 1-3 PM
Wednesday evening Salon: 7:45-9:45 PM
First meeting is Wednesday, September 9th. Salons will continue for six weeks, price is 75 pounds including copy costs. To register send me an email for registration details using the ‘Contact me’ section on the website. Registration is open until there are 9 participants. I will send out an update on availability at the end of July. As soon as I have received your registration, I will send out opening notes, readings and some funny pieces playing with the words of the play. Then the fun begins…

Hamlet Salon Opening thoughts

How does one introduce a play that is already drunk on its own superlatives? For this Salon, I propose we come to study Hamlet afresh, not worrying about whether we see it as Shakespeare’s greatest play ever or whether we stand breathless at the language…but finding within the play that that has so riveted audiences and readers for centuries. I welcome to this Salon those who have never read or seen the play along with those who have memorized entire soliloquies- we will need both perspectives to carefully negotiate our way through the ‘constantly shifting register not only of action but of language’ (Frank Kermode, Shakespeare’s Language, 2000).
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. As I seek to describe the text, I am aware that the terms approximate that of a wisdom tradition. Harold Bloom, one of the twentieth centuries’ most highly regarded and prolific literary critics, puts Shakespeare even more emphatically in the role of deity:
“Shakespeare is my model and my mortal god…Hamlet is part of Shakespeare’s revenge upon revenge tragedy, and is of no genre. Of all poems, it is the most unlimited. As a meditation upon human fragility in confrontation with death, it competes only with the world’s scriptures.” (Harold Bloom, Hamlet, Poem Unlimited, 2003)
As with any other Salon dealing with a dramatic work, we will perform large parts of the text and view various filmed adaptations to compare our own vision of the play with that of Olivier, Brannaugh, Zeffirelli…

Beloved Salon Proposal
The other Salon option for this series is Toni Morrison’s Beloved. This book started the Salon, and when I have not dipped back in for awhile I get to missing the book- the lyricism, the haunting- the power of it. Please read the description on the website and let me know if you are interested- there are several options for meeting times.

The Short Story series has been really pleasurable- demanding less of us in terms of time to prepare, but offering ideas around blues and be-bop, madness and women, perception, subjectivity, cultural imperialism, perception of the other and the illumination of life from death. The first Pub Poetry study happened at the Torriano Pub on June 28th: a game and eclectic group plunged in to weigh the meaning of the ‘Love Song of Alfred Prufrock’. Most had never heard of the Salon before they wandered downstairs to join in the fun. Many thanks to all who gamely offered their insights and energy. There will be more!

See you in the pages…
Toby