Contents
1. Opening thoughts
2. Salon updates - Salon happenings - Salons future
3. Salon trips: Italy, India
1. Opening thoughts
As those who pay attention to these kinds of things may have noticed, the Salon newsletters have trickled down to less than once a month- perhaps due to more happening around the Salons rather than less, and the delicious distraction of trying to write a book on the Salon- and oh yes, the pressing details of daily life, bike accidents and madness of impending summer…I imagine you are also juggling the many calls to your attention and work at this time of the year. This is the moment to look back in astonishment at what the year has brought, and look towards the coming rentrée with the sense of possibility that a new term offers. Below you will find one participant’s reflection on the past few Salons. I look forward to meeting new participants and the wonderful & curious current members in the Salon events ahead.
“What a marvelously diverse and rich array of books! It really has been - once again - a wonderful intellectual and emotional journey through these pages and how they relate sometimes in the same ways, sometimes differently to the various members of our salon. We learn so much more through this communal reading, this team effort at understanding and enjoying these books than we would on our own. All were complex, beautiful masterpieces. And reading them all, will have in some way, changed our lives, and the way we view the world. Thank you for giving us this unique learning opportunity - and for all the FUN we have doing this together in your lovely apartment, full of light, its windows stretching away to the skyline on either side, it is such an OPEN space.â€
2. Salon updates- Salon happenings, Salons future
This week marks the end of the Salons on Dante’s Purgatory, the second in a three part series. This study has brought us all deep into the world of 13th & 14th century Italy: particularly studying medieval theology, the tradition of Courtly Love, the nature of allegory and symbol, good and evil, divine judgment, free will- all this through one man’s attempt to make meaning of his faith by exploring the soul’s journey in the afterlife. Of course we must finish the Commedia in September with Paradiso- although I am not sure we will ever truly be finished with our study of this work. There is a solid group of 8-11 current participants interested in continuing- if someone would like to join at this point in the journey (a challenge, certainly but not an overwhelming one) please let me know now so I can be sure the numbers work.
In May and June I worked with a dynamic group of readers out in the western suburbs of Paris on a study of Beloved. One member of the group moderated the discussion using the notes and reflections I have been compiling for the Salon book. The feedback has been very positive- and I enjoyed getting new insights and ideas from a group reading this momentous work for the first time.
I am missing the voice of the modern even as my study of Dante’s Divine Comedy is teaching me about the roots and paradoxes of contemporary culture & literature. For those who have always wanted to do a Salon, I would like to offer one of the Salon classics as well for the fall. Below you will find several choices and possible times. Please let me know by the end of June if you are interested in one or more of the following, and your time preference. Each of these Salons will meet for 6 consecutive weeks starting the week of September 10th and costs 75 euro, including copying costs.
* September-October Salon offerings *
· Tuesday Nights (8-10 PM)- Paradiso by Dante
· Other choices:
The Sound & the Fury Invisible Man
To the Lighthouse Midnights’ Children
Hamlet King Lear
The God of Small Things Middlemarch
These Salons would either meet Tuesday afternoons (2-4 PM) or Monday evenings (8-10 PM). Please indicate your preference with your request for inscription.
Looking ahead to the November Salon series, I am hoping to offer some new (to the Salon) works. Under consideration are:
Dead Souls - Gogol, Mrs. Dalloway - V. Woolf, Paradise Lost - Milton, The Odyssey - Homer, Daniel Deronda - G. Eliot, Absalom, Absalom! - Faulkner
Thoughts ? Interests ? Other suggestions ?
Salon Poetry Night
I have had many requests for a poetry salon or a poetry night. We would read a poem or two together and respond to the poem with a structure similar to that we use in the regular Salon but condensed into one evening, as a poem condenses experience into its gathered images and language.
I know there are those who fervently love poetry as well as many who don’t know how to read a poem. I will offer some structures for the study of the poem, but the focus will be on our responses to the language & sounds & structure of the work. As with the Salon, we will use our individual responses and questions to build to a full-bodied read and through this enlarge our own perspectives on the work. I encourage especially those who want to get a taste of the Salon experience or who may not have the time to commit to a 6 week Salon.
Sound enticing? Let me know if you are interested by email.
Details:
Date: (choice) June 27th and September 5th *
Time: 8-10 PM
Works studied: possibilities are poems by Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, T.S. Eliot, Ted Hughes, Denise Levertov…
Place: Chez moi, 3 ter rue d’Alesia in the 14th (details to follow for those registered)
Cost: 5-10 euro sliding scale and optional food or beverage contribution
* DATE: This is a crazy time of the year for everyone- so if an evening of poetry wouldn’t be a nice break at the moment- or it is just not possible- please let me know of your interest. Considering the timing, I think the September offering is more likely.
3. Salon trips: Italy, India
Based on the success and pure pleasure of our trip to Dublin for Bloomsday after studying Ulysses, I am researching two Salon trips for the coming years. Those who went to Dublin saw their study come alive and aspects of Joyce’s world that needed the lived experience of the home he left broadened our understanding of the book. And we had a really good time.
Italy: October/November 2007
This trip will come at the end of our study of The Divine Commedia and will be focused on the art and architecture of Medieval Florence and Tuscany. I am working with Claude Rocca (Art Historian) who I hope will be able to lead us through the heart of Dante’s world.
India: La Toussaint 2008
I am working with a Salon participant who splits her time between India and Paris to organize this proposed week-long visit to India (Bombay & Poona). The focus of this trip will be to glimpse aspects of contemporary India as this huge collection of histories, languages and cultures gallops into the global market. We will have discussions and presentations from local poets, editors, writers and others as we immerse ourselves in the land and traditions. In preparation for this trip, I will offer a work based on India in three Salons before the occasion of the trip.
Both of these trips are still in the planning stages. Please email me if you have questions or thoughts.