Short Stories Round 2: The Darkside of Man

and so it continues... i'm really enjoying this season of short stories, venturing quickly into different authors worlds, getting a small taste of each man/womans individual style. its been fun for me, even edifying in a way to conquer five pieces in a month, be they short. it still feels like an accomplishment. and the conversations have never dissapointed. i'll admit, i felt a bit like a farce at first, within the idea of a group of us itting in a circle, 'discussing literature and drinking wine' (read with a snobby accent). but i've been happily proven wrong. thank you all for being a part, i do appreciate it.

so... first a familiar face. i will write this from my perspective, with everyone invited to share theirs. i felt a theme of 'the darkside of man' throughout this series of stories. with 'Bernice Bobs her hair, we discussed he cattiness of young girls, caught up in the light of social acceptance, the gullibility of men in taking whatever they're fed. the joy of revenge. the weird sacrifices made to navigate a lifestyle that seems so important but yet always results as so unfulfilling. mackensie read a forward from her book that shared a story of how this story came from aletter fitzgerald wrote to his sister on how to succeed more as a girl (ie, eyebrow grooming and conversational tactics. fascinating).
"the thief," a personal favorite to many in the group, told a story of the stereotypes and normal disdain placed against a thief, against a story of friendship and love persevering through that very sin. a great fable of man learning bitterly the cost and weight of love at personal cost.
"the destructors" was accompanied by a clip from 'donnie darko' and followed by a conversation of the almost terrifying shallowness and reckless abandon of youth. testing limits and rules unbound by adult rots of why and why not. just to simply see the world burn.
"lamb to the slaughter" was a fun and complete story. we discussed the weird, but very human, daze that she, the protagonist, moves around her world post murder. the way she detaches from her world, the way we have all experienced post break up or any bad situation, and glide on cruise control through the actions that follow. it was wrapped up neatly.
and lastly... i was a bit nervous bringing mr. king into the mix. he's a personal favorite, but gets a negative wrap as a mostly horror writer with horrible cinematical adaptations. but we spent more time discussing this than any other, which warmed my heart. the horrifying but real feeling depiction of the devil. the ways he plays us, the deceitfulness of his pursuit. the way he speaks, so rooted in genesis 3. stephen king is a masterful story teller, who hopefully you will read exclusively from now on.

yes.

thanks to you all for being a part. you're all amazing.

Short Stories Round One: Social Commentary

we had good talks yesterday over cheese, crackers, authentic fresh hummus and pitas, brownies and wine. good eats. we did read around with edith whartons "roman fever," a first for book club. that lead straight into a conversation on mens vs. womens perspectives, the way we process and handle friendships. the societal role of women at this point in history and what wharton's statement was on this through her literature.
next we discussed the two pages of magic that was "breakfast" by john steinbeck. we all marveled at his ability to make you feel the bite of the early morning cold, the smell of fresh bacon, the taste of dark, bitter coffee and the feel of stiff dungarees. he is one of those few authors who can transport you to his world with such little effort. a-maz-ing.

"everything that rises must converge." this coversation followed much along the lines of rosies previous post, ie. the sons arrogance. we talked of the generational differences in cultural beliefs and how much eah of us are guilty of picking fights with our parent to prove not only the error of thier ways but the vast knowledge that we have of the world we live in. we also laughed a bit at o'conners love of the drastic twist endings that sometimes seem unnessecary.
"harrison bergeron" came next. we discussed the fantastical worlds that vonnegut creates, how he constructs places that we can all relate to to a certain extent, but turns it on its head, like seeing a reflection in a dirty or broken mirror. we discussed the social satire and sad humor that laced the entire piece.
last was "the curious case of benjamin button." this story was not really discussed as we could all no longer ignore the call of the roddy's pool. derek and i discussed it briefly on the way over. we enjoyed the weaving parrallels of the time periods, the generatrional commentary and highlighting that comes with his reverse aging and fish out of water characterization. also the humor that slowly digressed into a depressing ending.

all was good. food, community and enlightenment. good times. wish everyone could come.

-tim

Flannery...O'Genius.

Yesterday, I enjoyed Everything That Rises Must Converge. I read it on the bus...which was so fitting. The son's arrogance disturbed me more than the mother's racism. That isn't prolific or anything, just a thought. I am, now, even more intrigued by O'Connor than before. Did you know her and Thomas Merton had an almost "kinship" with one another? I'm not sure they ever met in person but they would exchange work through letters and mutual friends.

Here she is with one of her peacocks. She's got a sly look about her, like she knows a funny secret. Which I thinks is a good description of her writing: a sly, funny and genius secret.

Anywhoo, that's all I got. I wish I could attend the meeting of the minds. I will read the rest and post before this weekend. Love, Rosie.

good morning

I just read 'Breakfast' and I'm slightly enamored with Steinbeck. Story was beautiful and surprisingly emotional for me...? Anyway, it's nice and overcast this morning and I just want to stay home in my p.j.s and read the rest of our shorts. Gotta go to work though.
-mackenzie

book club this month was great. i feel that there is so much that goes on in all of our hearts and minds daily that it is like a breath of fresh air to bounce ideas and thoughts off of each other. we are learning through each other! we are enriching our lives! we are the few but bold strongholds, unmoved by the powerful wave of apathetic mental-seizure that has wiped out most of our generation! it is up to us to carry the torch!

i tried to get the book yesterday at barnes, had to order it. anyone start it yet?

dvh

Book Club Revisted

thats clever...
yesterday we dissected and discussed "Brideshead Revisited," over wine, homemade cranberry scones and mini raspberry burritos. the conversation turned to faith, mans role with God and wealth and the current state of the church. it was really a fascinating and educational discussion, enlightening to all parties. it's what a gathering like this is supposed to be...

everyone who was there, please post ideas and conversations you remember as comments here to share with those who were not able to be present.

here is the summer schedule we decided on:

June: "A Pilgrim at Tinker Creek," by Annie Dillard. she is wonderfully poetic. meeting on June 29th in Long Beach, as to not conflict with 4th of July weekend.

July: in hopes of switching up genres and styles, we're going to venture out. "Twilight," by Stephenie Meyer.

August: with the success of our discussion of faith and the church, we thought we might jumped genres again and veer into the 'faith' arena. "Blue Like Jazz," by Donald Miller. in hopes of kick starting some awesome conversations.

i think this will be a fun crop for the summer. i look forward to hanging out and nerding out over some good reads with you all.

please use this blog out of towners

tim

Small Hips, Not War

Hello, all. This is Mackenzie. Nice to meet some of you.
Before we go much further into our next adventure, here's some of the stuff I found on Farewell. It’s overdue, and I know we're excited about Brideshead, so I’ll try to keep in brief.

One of the topics I had hoped to chat about last week was the censorship of Farewell. Not only was the published text censored, leaving to imagination what letters might have best filled those ­­-----dashes, but the first installment of the 6-part serial publication of Farewell was banned from newsstands in May 1929 by Boston’s police chief. He found it “salacious”. His efforts to protect the minds of young readers actually worked to the advantage of publisher and author when the book was sold a few months later. See, it turns out that if someone prohibits you from reading something, you’re probably going to REALLY want to know why. The 1991 article “Censorship” by Scott Donaldson discusses all this as well as the topic of high literature and high morals and how it’s kind of hard to say when they equate and when they don’t.

Ok, next I read about what Tim referred to as Hemingway’s "free style rap". Hem’s known for his very succinct and well chosen language, and Michael S Reynolds wrote about it “The Writing of the Novel” (he’s succinct too, I guess). This essay actually shows the way Hem edits his work to paint really specific pictures, or just make careful suggestions. This time Hem also wrote some very fluid (what’s the opposite of lucid?) passages to depict Henry’s thoughtstream when injured, dreaming or just really hungry, which are super exciting to read because we’ve all been there. He's really just the best.

The topics of love and war are most obvious, and that’s perhaps the reason that our ever-so-sophisticated group did not even get into them too much(did we?) The basic composition of the book is said to devote about half its chapters to Henry’s war experience and half to the love thing with Cat. In "Loser Take Nothing", Philip Young argues that there are six parallel stages of these journeys. Henry has “an affair” with the war, then becomes involved seriously and gets wounded, he recuperates in Milan, then travels “to a retreat which leads to his destruction”. Catherine’s journey leads from “a trifling sexual affair to actual love and conception, then through her confinement in the Alps to the trip to the hospital which leads to death.” Hmmmm. Also, did any one find a pun in the title: the “arms” of battle and the “arms” of a woman? Well, I hadn’t, but Norman Friedman did in his essay which shares its title with my little blog post here.

I’m sure many of you all put these things together on your own, and sorry if it's been a bore. I know I'll continue to ponder these and other things brought up in the book; patriotism, foreign involvement in war, the glorification of, and disenchantment with, war and its intrinsic ideals. I look forward to our next convo.

check it out guys!

maybe the book club should start considering doing a field trip? it comes out this summer...

P.S. welcome joey!!!

good food + good book = good time

i would like to send out a big thank-you to derek for hosting a truly fantastic book club meeting! he made a delicious meal inspired by the book and supplied good music and vermouth. he even made the pasta noodles from scratch! well done my friend! there was a small number of us that were able to make it this month but it was such a wonderful afternoon and i hope more of you can make it next month, you won't be disappointed. we decided on a book for this month and our next meeting time and place so look for an e-mail from tim with the details.
amber

rosie has a change of heart (warning: don't read this post if you haven't finished the book!)

As before mentioned, I TRUDGED through the first 150pgs, or so. It felt Hemingway was establishing his dominance or something, I swear. The problem may be that I was reading it at the end of the semester so I was extremely busy and wasn't taking the time to really process what he was saying, and with him that is a problem because he didn't give an inch the first half of the book. I was constantly trying to decipher the emotions the characters were feeling and trying to read between the lines of their dialogue. This may be a problem, maybe you aren't supposed to read Hemingway this way. I'm not sure.Another problem may be I've been reading a lot of female authors lately and they are slightly more...I guess hospitable is the word, in their writing style. I maybe got used to having things wrapped up real nicely and Hemingway doesn't give a shit....In the end I guess the very thing that frustrated me in the beginning of the novel is what I began to love towards the end.I feel the book turned around for me when Henry returns to his unit. By far, my favorite narrative in the whole book is Hemingway's description of the Italian armies retreat after the German forces had broken through the front lines. (starting on pg.188 of the "new" version). I felt all wrapped up in the entire sequence. The description of the columns of people moving out in the storm, them drinking wine and eating cheese and apples for breakfast, the virgins, all the talk of Bonello and Piani being socialist and not anarchists, and when they shot and killed the 2 sergeants. Amazing. It felt as a defeat in a war should feel: raw and hard.Possibly my favorite quote is towards the end when Henry is describing his love for Catherine (after they flee to Switzerland) and he says, " Often a man wishes to be alone and a girl wishes to be alone too and if they love each other they are jealous of that in each other, but I can truly say we never felt like that. We could feel alone when we were together, alone against the others. It has only happened to me like that once. I have been alone while I was with many girls and that is the way that you can be the most lonely. But we were never lonely and never afraid when we were together." pg. 249. I can think of no better description of being totally comfortable with a person. I crave "alone" more than almost anything and the thought of having someone you can feel alone but not "lonely" with is genius and possibly one of the best ways I've ever had loved explained to me by an author. Good one Erney.Lastly, most of the book I thought to myself, "Hemingway can't write a woman." I did not feel a fondness towards Catherine. I soo wanted to, we are both women and she was a nurse, and yet often she felt flighty to me...and I blamed Hemingway. Until the tragic end when she says, "Don't worry darling, I'm not a bit afraid. It's just a dirty trick." I realized that she wasn't what I had thought she was during that last scene in the hospital. Life had just tired her out and made her untrusting and a little cynical; so she had learned to take things lightly. Maybe? Now, I'm not about to clear a spot in my top 10 female characters in literature or anything, but it made me understand her a little moreI loved it and felt it no one could have written a better and more appropriate ending.Well played, Erney.
-Rosie

May 4th Hemingway discussion anticipated

I trust April was wonderful for you with flowers and Earth Day to keep you occupied, among other events :) This Sunday we will be meeting to discuss Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms. I imagine the conversation to be a good one. Here are the details:

WHEN: May 4th beginning between 1:30-2:00pm to allow for a leisurely drive from church, etc.

WHERE:
Derek, David and Nathan's house in Long Beach (check your email for address)

WHAT TO BRING:
- $5 for Derek as he will be making homemade pasta
- a hearty appetite
- a passage from Hemingway you most enjoyed, least enjoyed, a theme that piqued your interest, etc. to be read aloud and discussed if you so choose.

I am looking forward to Sunday and seeing (or meeting) your faces - please email or post any questions you may have.

Much love to you until we meet this Sunday,

Donia

Festival of Books!

There is one happening this weekend at UCLA. Information can be found at:
http://www.latimes.com/extras/festivalofbooks/booksigning.html#top

I am not exactly computer savvy so this isn't a direct link, but if you copy and paste it into your "browser" you should get to the right place. Otherwise, google UCLA festival of books. It's really easy, it's what I did.

Since we are in a book club and since we like books I believe a festival of books is right up our alley! You have to purchase tickets (only 75 cents!) on-line for the panels so if you are interested you should look at the web site and plan ahead. I am planning on attending Sunday, that is for certain. I may also attend on Saturday.

Leave a comment if you are going to attend and would like to try to coordinate.
-Amber

A Farewell to Arms

I just finished a farewell to arms and thought I'd get a thread going. I know a lot of you that I 've heard from are not loving it. Some of you actually made it sound like you wanted to assault old Ernie if you had the chance. So either way, love it or hate it, here is the place to begin a conversation about the exploits of one Lieutenant Frederic Henry.

-Tim

book club meeting #1, status: SUCCESS!!!

hey, derek here.  just wanted to let you all know that, like donia wrote in the email,  a few of us met yesterday to talk about The Road over some tasty foodies and great wine. it was a really great time and this was a good  book to start out with (good call tim).  i think that a once a month meeting (every first Sunday at one) is a great time to set.  so mark you calenders and just plan on it.  for you out-of-townees we want to try to make this blog a more frequently used thing so please feel free to get crazy on this thing.  

The Road

(this is Donia writing) We had a wonderful first meeting with Derek, Jessica, Nathan and myself. I'll be the first to admit I felt a tension/strain to transition into talking about the Road instead of casually chatting and eating Sun Chips, hummus, carrots, and drinking wine and coffee. Soon though, we not only embraced each other's inaugural points of the book (of course, once we refreshed our memory of what the book was about) but I also felt at ease and was able to share the meaningful moments I experienced with the book without much worry. Nathan jumped on Wikipedia to find out a bit more background information on McCarthy, his Oprah Winfrey interview, where he lives, etc. to try to help us contextualize the book - whatever the intention, the research added to the discussion. We then ventured into other topics of conversation inspired by themes, symbols and ideas found in the Road.

For me, I was catapulted into uncomfortable mental territory reading most of the Road. Its descriptive imagery was terrifying. I couldn't help but think, "what if"? I love drama, conflict, sad situations, stories of broken humanity, realism, etc. but I generally want things to be wrapped up nicely - I knew this wasn't going to be that type of book. One thing in particular that frightened me was how the father experienced what I would consider beautiful, joyous dreams as instead, nightmarish and something he wanted to divorce himself from as it meant death was closing in on him (one example of a vivid, colorful dream can be found on p. 272). I noticed this towards the latter half of the book. His 'nightmarish' dreams happened more frequently until his death but he had a difficult time acknowledging these sleeping memories because of their hopeless indication. I was also startled by a point Derek made about the interaction of the father and son when they found old train tracks. The son didn't understand the playful noises and actions of his dad while we the reader, assume the train was a remembrance of a potential play toy or something else happy from the father's childhood memory. This moment, coupled with a few others in the book, made me jump into the shoes of a man who had the experiences and hopes apart of an old world while presently living/dealing with a new world that was so near obsolete. What did you all think?

just a thought...

so i think that maybeeee it would be cool to discuss the next book to read.  rather than putting all of the pressure on tim to round up the troops to make a decision we could all figure it out on here.  so maybe we can just start a dialog and all give our opinions as to which book we think would be good to read next and why...  here are the options up for choosing:

"the amazing adventures of kavalier and clay" michael chabon

"a fairwell to arms" or "for whom the bell tolls" ernest hemingway

"a ship made of paper" scott spencer

"out of the silent planet" c.s. lewis

"david copperfield" charles dickens

"the end of faith" sam harris

"god bless you mr. rosewater" or "cat's cradle" kurt vonnegut

 - my suggestions were the sam harris one or the kurt vonnegut.  they are completly different kinds of reading.  "the end of faith" would be more just for the sake of good discussion and vonnegut is just my favorite fiction writer so there's that...

ok peace,

derek

welcome

a place to discuss the books. maybe label each post by page numbers or chapters and discuss in the comment areas so the book isn't spoiled for anyone.