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Poetry Weekend
Long Novel Weekend Recap
More Leader Workshop Recap
Asilomar 2008
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September/October, 2007

Dear Great Books Supporter,

In this issue, be sure not to miss More Leader Workshop Recap; more good tips for those unable to attend the workshop.  Also, we have the poetry reading list for this year's Annual Poetry Weekend.  Also, there is a recap of the Long Novel Weekend, which included six hours of excellent discussion of The Sound and the Fury in a beautiful setting. 
  We are continuing the Great Books discussions founded by Robert Hutchins 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.
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22nd Annual Poetry Weekend
November 10-11, 2007, Westminster Retreat in Alamo
Ancient MarinerI am always amazed when reading Great Literature, whether poetry or prose, to find so much familiar language.  I have not read Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner, but a quick scan found the following:

Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.

and later:

Ah! Well a-day! What evil looks
Had I from old and young!
Instead of the cross, the Albatross
About my neck was hung.

At right, our mariner with neckpiece.  From an illustration by Gustave Dore.



Here are the poems that the Poetry Committee has selected for The Poetry Weekend in November 2007:  One session devoted to The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
    Session theme: The Observed Self
        Faint Music                                     Robert Hass
        Each Bird Walking                            Tess Gallagher
        Man and Wife                                   Robert Lowell
        On Looking in the Looking Glass       Isabella Gardner
        Poem                                              Frank O'Hara
        Still the Mind Smiles                         Robinson Jeffers
    Potpourri:
        The Flight of Swans                         Robinson Jeffers
        Wise Men In Their Bad Hours           Robinson Jeffers
        Snake                                             D.H. Lawrence (AS95)
        Blossom                                         Mary Oliver
        Men at Forty                                    Donald Justice
        Taking Off Emily Dickinson's
            Clothes                                       Billy Collins
        Sonnet CXXX                                  William Shakespeare
   The cost for the weekend is $150.  For more information click here.  Previous participants will automatically receive applications.  If you have NOT been to the Poetry Weekend before, please contact us for an application.  We will send out all applications starting mid-August, 2007.  Contact:  Theda or Oscar Firschein at 650-854-3980, or email [email protected].

Long Novel Weekend Recap    Pond above Walker Creek
Walker Creek Ranch 2Too Tough For Us?
    Not On Your Life
William Faulkner's masterpiece, The Sound and the Fury, this years reading for the Long Novel Weekend is a difficult book; reading it takes time and effort.  Its first section, the tale told by an idiot, is as confusing as anything to be found in literature.  The second part, from the stream-of-consciousness of a young man on the day of his suicide, is easier but not enough to give it bragging rights.  So how did we do?
Participants and leaders did just fine.  They came to Walker Creek Ranch in rural, northern Marin County well prepared as they always do on Long Novel Weekends, and everyone - each in his or her own way - contributed to the success of the event.  All of the discussions went very well.  And all who were there no doubt benefited from those discussions.  In short, it was an example of Shared Inquiry at its best.
And if the discussions were not enough, the weather was good and there was time to enjoy relaxed conversations with other Great Books enthusiasts.  And we had an enjoyable time at the Saturday evening program and party.          ---- Chuck Scarcliff

Jim Vasser remembered reading a Compson family history written  by Faulkner, but not included in the edition of the novel read by us at the Long Novel Weekend.  I checked out an earlier edition from my local library and found the appendix about the Compson family from leaving Scotland to the last of this line with that name.  For those who have read the novel, this addition is moving and complex.  Here is a summary (teaser) in mostly Faulkner's words, which should not be read before reading and discussing the novel.  I highly recommend the full nineteen pages added by Faulkner.
 
Appendix

Compson:  1699-1945

QUENTIN MACLACHAN, son of a Glasgow printer, fled to Carolina from Culloden Moor, at eighty, having fought once against an English king and lost, fled again into Kentucky, where a neighbor named Boone had already established a settlement, fathered CHARLES STUART, left for dead in a Georgia swamp by his own retreating British army, on his own homemade wooden leg overtook his father . . . For more click on:  Faulkner-Compson history.

More Leader Workshop Recap

In the July/August 2007 issue of this E-Newsletter in the Leader Workship Recap, Kay White mentioned issuing each participant a wallet-size laminated card with the four Rules of Shared Inquiry and ten Effective Practices for Leaders.  We have had numerous requests for those rules and practices so here they are:

Ten Effective Practices for Leaders
1. Lead slowly.
2. Listen carefully.
3. Use your seating chart regularly.
4. Encourage participants to talk to one another.
5. Strive for answers.
6. Relate ideas to each other and to "a basic question."
7. Turn to the text frequently.
8. Encourage challenges to assumptions in your questions.
9. Get everyone to contribute.          
10. Ask follow-up questions often. 

The Four Rules of Shared Inquiry Discussion    
1. Only those who have read the selection may take part in the   discussion.
 2. Discussion is restricted to the selection that everyone has read.
3. All opinions should be supportable with evidence from the selection.
 4. Leaders may only ask questions-they may not answer them.


Asilomar Weekend Retreat 2008
April 11-13, 2008
The major event of the year for the San Francisco Great Books Council is the spring weekend at the Asilomar Conference Center in Monterey, California. This is the 50th year that the Great Books Council of San Francisco has been holding this retreat at Asilomar.  We intend to keep going for another 50 years and getting better every year.  During the weekend there are four discussions of reading selections, including poetry, plays, philosophy and fiction.  That is eight full hours of some of the best conversations you will ever have.  The beauty of the area and comfort of the accommodations are conducive to stimulating discussions and convivial parties.
Asilomar discuss 2007 2
  Be sure not to miss next year's 50th Anniversary Asilomar '08!
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Sincerely,

Jim Hall
Great Books Council of San Francisco