Calendar of Events
Click on event title for information.
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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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March 2008
Dear Great Books Supporter,
2008 is our 50th Anniversary Asilomar Great Books Weekend.
Join us for great discussions and a great time, although I am not sure we can keep up with the antics of many who attended earlier Asilomars: See below for some remembrances of times past.
The information in Some Useful Great Books Links has been updated.
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.
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.
Now you can refer your friends to our website and they can sign up there also. We also have added an archive of past GBSF E-Newsletters which can be accessed in the "Quick Links" box on the left.
Some of you have emailed me that you did not receive the September/October 2007 E-Newsletter. That is entirely likely as I was editing email address lists then and deleted some emails which I had to recover later (my fault). That issue contained information on Poetry Weekend, Long Novel Weekend, Leader Training, and Asilomar. Click here to view or go to the E-Newsletter Archive in the "Quick Links" box to the left.
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
Jo
Klein-Duke and Craig Miller portray a daughter and father coming to
grips with the aging process in Silver Spring Stage's poignant
"Painting Churches." Tina Howe's play was nominated for the 1984
Pulitzer Prize for Drama. --Washington Post
"Beautifully written. . . . A theatrical family portrait that has the shimmer and depth of Renoir portraits." --N.Y. Times
"A radiant, loving and zestfully humorous play . . . distinctly Chekhovian. Howe captures the same edgy surface of false hilarity, the same unutterable sadness beneath it, and the indomitable valor beneath both." --Time
In 1993, "Painting Churches" by Tina Howe was used as the basis for a television movie "The Portrait" a teleplay by Lynn Roth. The movie, directed by Arthur Penn, starred Gregory Peck, Lauren Bacall, and Cecilia Peck, real life daughter of Gregory Peck.
Get in the picture. We will be taking a group photo of all who attend our 50th Asilomar Weekend Retreat. We will have on display some group photos of previous Asilomars including the 25th anniversary.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. Click on Asilomar Conference Center for a description of the facilities.
In times past, the Tide Inn seems to have been the place to be. Some remembrances:
Earl Mortensen--Shirley and I joined a Great Books group led by the infamous Bill Baker in southern Marin in the early 70's. We were urged by Bill to go to Asilomar but thought that it was probably a rather stuffy group of book aficionados. How wrong could we be! They partied at Tide Inn until the wee hours and often times Bob Scott and the infamous Bill Baker would lead a charge to the beach for a beach party at midnight. Then on Sunday morning Bob Blaisdale would read the comics to us ala Jonathan Winters. Those were the days my friend! We thought they would never end.
Barbara McConnell--Bob Scott climbed through the McConnells' window at 3 a.m. after a beach "counseling" session. Bob's room was next door but he couldn't tell the difference.
When he finally got to his room and started chatting with wife, Marjorie, she was heard saying, "Rob, I'm not angry with you yet, but if you say one more word, I will be. Now go to sleep!"
Larry Fussell --The joy of getting a room in Tide Inn was so I didn't have to stumble too far to bed.
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| We have an archive for these GBSF E-Newsletters! You will find a link in the "Quick Links" box to the left or click here. The archives should be useful for new subscribers and those who are new to Great Books discussions. There is a lot of information for discussion leaders in previous issues. Refer your friends to items of interest.
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What Is a Great Book?
 At our last GBSF Executive Committee meeting the question was raised as to what is a Great Book. Good question. I said that I would follow up with some information and observations and encourage any discussion of the question. I will now defer to my betters to start the discussion: Scott Buchanan and Mortimer Adler. Among many other achievements in the academic world, Scott Buchanan was one of the founders of the Great Books program at St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland. Mortimer Adler was also one of the founders of that program at St. John's and one of the founders of the Great Books Foundation with which we are affiliated. Click on What Constitutes a Great Book? to go to some information from Buchanan and Adler. Also, you can click on Three Criteria of Great Book Selection for some more information offered by Adler on the occasion of selecting works for the 1990 edition of the Great Books of the Western World published by Encyclopedia Britannica. Please note that the number of selections of Great Books within the GBWW is limited by the fact that the GBWW contains a Syntopicon which references ideas within the GBWW to all of the authors' works contained therein. The criteria used by Adler are applicable to any Great Book.
To comment, question, or otherwise add to this discussion just reply to this E-Newsletter or post to the GBSF community forum which contains the pages linked above. |
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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."
In 1937 the film Lost Horizon, directed by Frank Capra, starred Ronald Colman, Jane Wyatt, H. B. Warner, and Sam Jaffe, with Edward Everett Horton, John Howard, and Thomas Mitchell.
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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. The Great Books Chicago, 2008, April 25-27 theme is "Deadly Sins." Click here for more info.
Symposium Great Books Institute discussion schedule for late March: Dante: The Inferno; Rig Veda & Upanishads: Selections; Omar Khayyam: Ruba'iyat. April: Plato: Gorgias; Chaucer: Canterbury Tales; Plutarch: Plutarch's Lives. Check the website for dates and times. Some of these discussions are full. 325 Hayes St., San Francisco, CA 94102 415-437-4000.
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 and Great Ideas.
Classical Pursuits offers learning vacations around the world with location appropriate Great Books discussions as well as Toronto Pursuits, July13-18, 2008: this year, LATE EDITIONS, focusing on creativity in later life. Ann Kirkland also produces one of the best e-newsletters available: Convivium.
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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