Calendar of Events
Click on event title for information.
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Annual Picnic
June 14, 2009
Long Novel Weekend
August 22-23, 2009
Great Books in Wine Country
October 3, 2009
Poetry Weekend
November 7-8, 2009
San Francisco Mini-Retreat
February 2010
Asilomar Weekend
April 16-18, 2010
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May 2009
Dear Great Books Supporter,
The Spring-Summer 2009 issue of Reading Matters, in full color, is now available on our website or click here for direct access. Reading Matters is our premier publication and this issue includes:
- A recap of Asilomar Great Books 2009
- A message from our president, Kay White
- Louise DiMattio on the 2009 Long Novel Weekend
- A recap of this year's Mini-Retreat by Claudia O'Callaghan
- An article by Wallis Leslie on Sophocles' Antigone
- Another futile attempt by the forever stubborn Rick White to discover a theme at Asilomar
- Observations by Chuck Scarcliff . . . and much more
Included in this E-Newsletter is an invitation to our Annual Picnic. The flyers for the picnic and Long Novel Weekend missed being mailed with Reading Matters, but are available on our website.
Due to a mistake on my part with our email lists some of you did not get everything sent. I have included below articles on the Poetry Weekend and the San Jose Book Groups Expo which some may have already seen. In our June issue we will have a recap of the Leader Training session held in May. We have added to our calendar a Mini-Retreat, Great Books in Wine Country to be held in Calistoga, California on October 3, 2009. Further information will be available in the June issue.
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. Your friends need only enter their email address in the yellow box on the website and click "GO".
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.
We
are continuing the Great Books discussions founded by Robert Hutchins
and Mortimer Adler of the University of Chicago in 1947. Great Books Counci of San Francisco (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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GBSF Annual Picnic
EVERYBODY IS INVITED!
June 14, 2009
Mary Wood leads one of the discussions of Lost Horizon at last year's picnic
At this year's Annual Picnic we will be discussing H. G. Wells' The Time Machine (ISBN: 0141439971). If you don't have that edition, any will do for this discussion. When a Victorian scientist propels himself into the year A.D. 802,701, he is initially delighted to find that suffering has been replaced by beauty, contentment, and peace. Entranced at first by the Eloi, an elfin species descended from man, he soon realizes that these beautiful people are simply remnants of a once-great culture-now weak and childishly afraid of the dark. They have every reason to be afraid: in deep tunnels beneath their paradise lurks another race descended from humanity-the sinister Morlocks. And when the scientist's time machine vanishes, it becomes clear he must search these tunnels if he is ever to return to his own era. This is Wells' first novel and may be his best. At 90 pages, this is an easy read for such a Great Book and should provide for a Great Discussion.
At the picnic we will also have our annual meeting that takes but a few minutes. Brent Browning will be manning the grill so bring something to barbecue if you wish and something to share with others and a lawn chair. For details and location chick here or go to our website.
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23rd Annual Great Books Poetry Weekend
Rear view of the Manor at Westminster Retreat in Alamo
The leaders for "On Being Human" were Kathleen Conneely, Theda and Oscar Firschein, and Sheri Kindsvater; Steve Doherty was backup; for "Poets On Poetry," Brent Browning, Louise DiMattio and Wallis Leslie, with backup by Mary Wood. For the Sunday AM "Potpourri, " the leaders were Carol Hochberg, Rudy Johnson and Chuck Scarcliff, with backup by Mary Wood.
Kay White wished for more female poets in the selections; there were only three: Kim Addonizio, Muriel Rukeyser and Emily Dickinson. Kathleen Conneely provided an unexpected bonus: the Saturday afternoon screening of Ingmar Bergman's "Virgin Spring," which was the inspiration for Addonizio's poem.
The Saturday evening program, selected and organized by Carol
Hochberg, was a dramatic reading of the "East Coker" section of T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets. It was an unexpectedly moving presentation and the most successful of the Saturday evening programs to date.
According to Brent Browning, "everything I heard throughout the weekend was positive." That said, we look forward to next year's Poetry Weekend on Nov. 7-8, 2009. The Poetry Committee will be putting on its thinking caps to come up with a selection that engages the varied interests and tastes of our participants. Finally, "Let each one tell one" of their friends to widen participation and spread the good words of poetry.
The Lodge, formerly the stables
(Editor's note: When we learned what was to be the Saturday evening program I was not particularly impressed. I figured this will be a real dud. Was I ever wrong. As each of our four groups recited their part it got better and better, including chanting, as from a chorus, to interpretive dance. It was a rousing and hilarious success. Later in the evening some of us stuck around to view a small portion of a long lost, recently found series of conversations made for public television between Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren discussing Adler's How to Read a Book. Lots of guffaws over Van Doren trying to teach Adler how to read poetry! More information below.)
Path to the Lodge from the Manor
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San Jose Book Group Expo 2008
Several GBSF Council members attended the Books Group Expo at the San Jose Convention Center in October 2008. In the picture are Jim Hall, Sheri Kindsvater, Tracy Oliver and Lindsay Tigue. Louise DiMattio also attended, but could not be there for the picture. The Great Books Foundation sponsored the booth and invited us to attend. They sent Lindsay Tigue from Chicago with lots of material to hand out. Lindsay did a great job. She is very personable and a tireless worker. I have worked booths at various conventions over the years and I have not met anyone better at having a ready smile and a greeting for people approaching the booth or walking by. We made many contacts, talked to a lot of people and a good time was had by all. |
Adler and Van Doren on How to Read a Book
Thanks to the diligent sleuthing of a Sedona, Arizona, archivist, a
series of classic conversations about the art of reading, between the
late philosopher Mortimer J. Adler and his acolyte Charles Van Doren,
are once again available on video from Encyclopaedia Britannica and the
Center for the Study of The Great Ideas.
The discussions between the two public intellectuals, produced by
Britannica in the 1970s, were lost for many years until they were
rediscovered recently by Ken Dzugan, archivist for the Center. They're
now available on a single DVD and may be ordered online at http://www.thegreatideas.org/HowToReadABook.htm. This address also contains a short video sample of the DVD.
The DVD is also available locally through Jim Hall. Just reply to this E-Newsletter and I will get the information to you about how to order. The DVD is also available at our events.
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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 discussion schedule for June classes: 1) Arthur Schopenhauer: Essays and Aphorisms - Two Saturday mornings starting June 6th 2) Euripides and Jean Racine: Hippolytus and Phaedra - Two Saturday mornings starting June 20th
July classes: 1) Gabriel Garcia Marquez: Short Stories - Three Wednesday evenings starting July 1st 2) Mary Wollstonecraft: Vindication of the Rights of Men and Women - Four Monday evenings starting July 6th 3) Camus: The Rebel - Four Tuesday evenings starting July 7th 4) The Icelandic Sagas - Three Saturday mornings starting July 11th 5) Plato and Sophocles: The Lysis and Philoctetes - Three Thursday evenings starting July 16th. Check their 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, July 12-17, 2009. Travel destinations in 2009 include: Ecuador, Venice, Savannah, Russia, Corfu, Philadelphia. Ann Kirkland also produces one of the best e-newsletters available.
The next London Theatre Tour for Thinkers VII Will be October 26-31, 2009. Contact Ted Kraus at tedmkraus@yahoo.com or call 925-939-3658.
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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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