Parisian Literary Salon

We are in the thick of the read in London with Ulysses and in Paris with The Brothers Karamazov. Watching the Olympics reminds me of the effort it takes to scale these works, to wrestle the words into ideas and themes that make sense in one’s own world view-and not without occasional and spectacular spills. Okay, we don’t get carved musculature-but you should see our minds after five chapters of Joyce!
Coming up in London:
• FRIDAY MAY 14th DATE CHANGE 6-10 PM A Portrait of a Lady by Henry James room for two more participants

I can’t believe it has taken me this long to discover Henry James- but there you are, some things are just worth waiting for…we had a wonderful Salon study of this work in Paris in November with considerations of gender roles, the negotiated space between self and other, the corruption or freedom offered by privilege, the challenge of looking at nationalities in generalizations (and the tempting ease to do so), the ways in which humans reveal themselves…these Salon intensives fill me with wonder: the meeting of the gathered minds and the provoking text is a powerful thing.
Ralph Waldo Emerson seems to echo in the lines and characters of Henry James, Isabel in particular.
“You think of me the child of my circumstances: I make my circumstance…I—this thought which is called I, –is the mould into which the world is poured like melted wax. The mould is invisible, but the world betrays the shape of the mould. You call it the power of circumstance, but it is the power of me. “ –from Emerson’s essay The Transcendentalist as quoted in New Essays on The Portrait of a Lady edit. By Joel Porte (Cambridge Univ. Press 1990).
Our study of PoA may include a consideration of this quote in light of Isabel’s life and choices: how much do we make ourselves? How does the world impose itself on the individual in the act of self-creation?
Looking forward to our work together—see you in the pages-

Coming up in Paris:
• Friday 22nd May 6-10 PM Beloved by Toni Morrison
• Saturday 23 rd May 5-10 PM Light in August by William Faulkner
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SIGN UP FOR THE ABOVE BY 26TH APRIL: email litsalon@gmail.com

Coming up in London:
• Sunday 16th May 5-10 PM Beloved by Toni Morrison * see description under ‘What might we read’…

Looking forward to our work together—see you in the pages-