Parisian Literary Salon

Romeo & Juliet Hampstead School Literary Salon
* This is a change from the Midsummer Night’s Dream Proposal! (We will save the study of Mid-summer for when we need it in mid-winter) *
“Peace, peace, Mercutio, peace!
Thou talk’st of nothing. “ –Romeo
“True, I talk of dreams.” –Mercutio, Act I, sc iv

The Romeo & Juliet Salon will be starting on Tuesday October 7th at the Hampstead School. This Salon- supported by the Community Learning Centre at HS- is particularly designed to inspire parents by using the texts their students are studying. We never stop learning from Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Dickens- why should our young people have all the fun? Over the course of the year we will study the works being read for the GCSEs and A Levels- the study of any of these works will enhance the ability of the participant to discuss other works of literature- to use the terms of analysis, to read deeply and critically. Of course, HS Literary Salon is not limited to parents…all members of the community are welcome. This Salon will meet at the Hampstead School Tuesday evenings from 7-8:30. Enrollment is happening now…email me at litsalon@gmail.com to register.

I have chosen Romeo & Juliet because I think it provides an accessible introduction to both the language and themes of Shakespeare. Even if your student has already studied this work, our discussions and investigation of the play will aide your work in the more complex plays. I will provide you with background readings on Shakespeare, his art and the play itself while we work our way through the play over the course of the next four weeks.

Romeo & Juliet is traditionally thought to be an ‘easy’ play- a straightforward love story. But even though it is an earlier work, Shakespeare is playing with some of his favorite themes: appearance vs. reality, paradoxical equations (“My only love sprung from my only hate”), and the energy of disorder threatening human relationships. There is much to be considered in this play about our inability to see beyond in-born prejudices to accept those outside our experience- and of course the all-conquering nature of love.

To register: The Salon is full when ten participants have registered. To register, please send me an email at litsalon@gmail.com . I will confirm your place and send you further details. The cost is 65£ for community members, reduced cost for Hampstead School Parents. Cost includes all copies and supplementary materials.

Email me if you have any questions-
See you in the pages-
Toby

Here is a succinct & inspiring quote from a Sound & Fury Salon participant regarding the quest for knowledge:

…I would like to beg you dear Sir, as well as I can, to have patience
with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions
themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign
language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you
now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live
everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the
future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into
the answer.

Rainer Maria Rilke, 1903
in Letters to a Young Poet

And in response, from another S&F Salon participant:
The books image in that quote conjured up ideas of existentialism and the
shadowiness of Jorge Luis Borges — and I found these 2 tangential quotes
from him on the net:

“I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.”

“Time is the substance from which I am made. Time is a river which carries
me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger that devours me, but I am the
tiger; it is a fire that consumes me, but I am the fire.”