Calendar of Events
Click on event title for information.
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Mini-Retreat
February 2, 2008
Asilomar
April ll-13, 2008
Leaders'Workshop
May 3, 2008
Annual Picnic
June 8, 2008
Long Novel Weekend
August 23-24, 2008
Poetry Weekend
November 15-16, 2008
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GBSF E-Bulletin
February 1, 2008
Reading Matters is the printed and mailed publication of the Great Books Council of San Francisco. This is, and always has been, our premier publication. Chuck Scarcliff has done a marvelous job revising the format and adding more color and pictures to make RM even better. The February issue is now available for download at our website. Just click on "Latest Issue: Winter 2008".
In this issue of Reading Matters:
*First timers at Asilomar.
*Workshop for Leaders and Readers by Mary Wood.
*The many attractions of Monterey/Pacific Grove area on the Asilomar Great Books Weekend.
*Tracy Oliver and Louise DiMattio on Leading Great Books Discussions.
*Janice White disagrees with Chuck Scarcliff on outside references in discussions. I'm with you, Janice.
*Long Novel Weekend-2008.
*Recap of Poetry Weekend-November, 2007.
And much more.
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January 2007
Dear Great Books Supporter,
2008 is our 50th Anniversary Asilomar Great Books Weekend. This year we will be discussing works by Hawthorne, Machiavelli, Howe, Van Duyn, Feldman, Jeffers, Frost, Reed, Heaney, and Collins.
We are continuing the Great Books discussions founded by Robert Hutchins (see quote below) and Mortimer Adler of the University of Chicago in 1947. GBSF (serving Northern California) is a volunteer organization of motivated readers. We coordinate over 40 existing groups, provide leader training and sponsor literary events in scenic locations.
If you know someone who might be interested in receiving this E-Newsletter, just click on the "Forward email" link at the bottom of this page. Enter your friend's name and email address and we will send him or her a copy.
Rob Calvert has updated the GBSF website. If you have not visited it for awhile, check it out. Rob has done a great job, including the addition of sign-up boxes for this E-Newsletter. Now you can refer your friends to the website and they can sign up there also.
There are a number of links (click here or on blue letters with underline) available for more information. You may have to double click depending on your email program. You can reach our website by clicking on "More about us" in the Quick Links box or by clicking on the GBSF logo at the top of this page.
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50th Annual Great Books Asilomar Weekend
April 11-13, 2008
"The tradition of the West is embodied in the Great Conversation that began in the dawn of history and that continues to the present day. Whatever the merits of other civilizations in other respects, no civilization is like that of the West in this respect. No other civilization can claim that its defining characteristic is a dialogue of this sort. No dialogue in any other civilization can compare with that of the West in the number of great works of the mind that have contributed to this dialogue."
---Robert M. Hutchins (From the Great Books Academy website)
 "When evening comes, I return home and enter my study; on the threshold I take off my workday clothes, covered with mud and dirt, and put on the garments of court and palace. Fitted out appropriately, I step inside the venerable courts of the ancients, where, solicitously received by them, I nourish myself on that food that alone is mine and for which I was born; where I am unashamed to converse with them and to question them about the motives for their actions, and they, out of their human kindness, answer me."
---Nicolo Machiavelli (From a letter to his Patron and Benefactor Francesco Vettori, Florence,10 December 1513.)
At Asilomar 2008 we will be discussing Machiavelli's The Discourses, a commentary on a monumental history of Rome by Livy (Titus Livius, 59 BC-17 AD). Machiavelli explores civic virtue within a repiblican form of government and more. We will join Livy, Machiavelli, Hutchins, and others in this Great Conversation and be "...unashamed to converse with them..."
Asilomar Dining Hall
There will be a Saturday Evening Party to celebrate our fifty years at Asilomar. Here are the readings for this year:
Poetry:
The Moose in the Morning Mona Van Duyn
The City and its Own Irving Feldman
The Purse Seine Robinson Jeffers
The Master Speed Robert Frost
The Naming of Parts Henry Reed (PW96)
The Bog Queen Seamus Heaney
Aristotle Billy Collins
Novel: The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Essay: Selections from The Discourses by Nicolo Machiavelli
Play: Painting Churches by Tina Howe
For more information and access to a flyer and registration form click here or contact Sheri Kindsvater at kindsvater@aol.com.
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| Reading Matters, our newsletter delivered via the post office, is now available electronically in living color and it arrives sooner. Just go to our website and click on "Latest Issue" for a downloadable version of RM. If you will email me your name and zip code I will see that you are removed from our RM postal mailing list and that will save us a lot in postage and printing costs.
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Annual Picnic
June 8, 2008
The Monastery in Shangri-La
"While attempting to escape a civil war, four people are kidnapped and transported to the Tibetan mountains. After their plane crashes, they are found by a mysterious Chinese man. He leads them to a monastery hidden in "the valley of the blue moon"-a land of mystery and matchless beauty where life is lived in tranpuil wonder, beyond the grasp of a doomed world.
It is here, in Shangri-La, where destinies will be discovered and the meaning of paradise will be unveiled."
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Some Useful Great Books Links
GBSF is affiliated with the Great Books Foundation which was started in 1947 by Robert Hutchins and Mortimer Adler and produces most of the reading material used by Great Books discussion groups around the country. Their website provides a wealth of information and a list to find groups in your area or how to start a discussion group if one is not available near you. GBF also publishes Junior Great Books for use in schools or at home for K-12 students.
Symposium Great Books Institute discussions in Februaryand March: Virgil: Aeneid; Thucydides: The Pelopponesian Wars; Kama Sutra; Camus: The Stranger & Myth of Sisyphus; Sufi Poetry-Rumi, Hafiz & Rabia; Freud: Future of an Illusion; Freud: Civilization & Its Discontents. Virginia Woolf: Orlando (Optional: Orlando Performance @ ACT on March 13th); Descartes: The Discourse on Method and Meditations; The Bible: Gospels of Matthew & John; Dante: The Inferno. Check the website for dates and times. Some of these discussions are full. Symposium Cultural Pairing: discounted tickets for a lecture given by Karen Armstrong entitled "Understanding Islam and the West".
Center for the Study of the Great Ideas, founded by Mortimer Adler and Max Weismann, exists to help citizens understand why philosophy is everybody's business and to promulgate the insights and ideals embedded in Dr. Adler's lifelong intellectual work in the fields of Philosophy, Liberal Education, Ethics and Politics. This is a comprehensive website with something for everybody interested in Great Books.
Classical Pursuits offers learning vacations around the world with location appropriate Great Books discussions as well as Toronto Pursuits, a week in July of music, art and GB discussions. Ann Kirkland also produces one of the best e-newsletters available.
London Theatre Tour for Thinkers VI, October 20-25, 2008. Six days of the world's best theatre followed each morning by a Great Books type shared inquiry discussion led by Ted M. Kraus, a veteran NYC drama critic and experienced GB discussion leader. Contact Ted at 925-939-3658 or tedmkraus@yahoo.com.
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Thank you for your interest in Great Books. Is there something you would like to know that we can add? This is your e-newsletter, so let us know.
Be sure to forward this email to your friends who might be interested in Great Books. Just click on Forward email at the bottom left.
Sincerely,
Jim Hall
Great Books Council of San Francisco |
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