Readers Guild

Plan for 2012 & Discussion Questions for The Long Home

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Published on January 09, 2012 by Meaghan Ritchey

As we approach the start of our 2012 reading list, I was hoping we could establish a more collaborative process for submitting/editing/responding each month.  I'd love help crafting discussion questions, adding supplmental materials, etc. If your discussion was particularly interesting and you'd like to share it with the IAM community, we gladly welcome blog posts from leaders. It is edifying for the community to hear many voices. The more contributions the better! 

As an example, the Portland group contributed a very smart list of questions for Wiman's The Long Home. Please use this resource.

 

Do you think there is a common theme in this collection of Wiman’s poems?

Did you find yourself relating personally to any of the poems?  If so, which one(s) and why?

Did you find any of them particularly challenging to understand or relate to?

What significance does the name “The Long Home”? (See Eccles. 12:5 KJV) In what ways is it fitting not only for the last poem but for the collection as well?

What descriptions in the poems did you find particularly evocative?

According to Clive James, Wiman’s poems are “insistent on being read aloud, in a way that so much from America is determined not to be. His rhymes and line-turnovers are all carefully placed to intensify the speech rhythms, making everything dramatic: not shoutingly so, but with a steady voice that tells an ideal story every time.”  Did you find yourself reading any of his poems aloud.

 

 

Thanks, 

Meaghan Ritchey

meaghan@iamny.org

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St. Louis Reviews The Long Home

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Published on January 09, 2012 by St. Louis Readers Guild

 

"...The light is gathering in the eyes of children not yet born, that dawn's the time to call the Lord...."
 
This passage on page 18 was quoted with respect to the mystery of human life in time and space.  To grasp this mystery it was noted that one must follow the poet.   Slow analogy and metaphor, which one finds in Wiman's poems, when received, work to give up some of lifes secrets.  Living in time and space is always in community with other people, and in this context we may comprehend, to some degree, this mystery. 
 
Of the three longings, the poem "Elsewhere" spoke of the longing for a better place.  Also in "the Long Home"  Josie's longing to be loved is evident when her husband speaks her name and the reader realizes who the narrator is.
 
It was noted that one knows that one is in love when one loses track of time and space.
 

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Spokane Reviews The Death of Adam

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Published on January 02, 2012 by Spokane Readers Guild

The Death of Adam, a book of robust and mindful challenges regarding life, faith, atheism, Darwin, Marx, Bonhoeffer, Calvinism, and the numbed-down mind of the contemporary age, produced a lively exchange of ideas for all of us.  The notion that each generation carries with it the seed of ignorance as well as the gift of illumination is readily apparent when we read the insights of American treasure, novelist and essayist Marilynne Robinson.  Her detailed and enduring sense of healthy skepticism about human nature, science, faith, and atheism is an antidote to the lack of consciousness that can so often attend our lives. 

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2011 Readers Guild Selections

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Published on December 16, 2011 by Meaghan Ritchey

Please consider supporting your local bookseller or use the links below to purchase these books online.

 

January: The End of the Affair -- Graham Greene
Buy the Book - Download the Discussion Guide
 
February: Blankets -- Craig Thompson
Buy the Book - Download the Discussion Guide
 
March: Amusing Ourselves to Death -- Neil Postman
Buy the Book - Download the Discussion Guide
 
April: Remains of the Day -- Kazuo Ishiguro
Buy the Book - Download the Discussion Guide
 
May: Where I Was From -- Joan Didion
Buy the Book - Download the Discussion Guide
 
June: The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work -- Alain de Botton
Buy the Book - Download the Discussion Guide 

July: Death Comes for the Archbishop -- Willa Cather
Buy the Book - Download the Discussion Guide 

August: Phantastes -- George McDonald
Buy the Book - Download the Discussion Guide

September: Arcadia -- Tom Stoppard
Buy the Book - Download the Discussion Guide 

October: The Heart is a Lonely Hunter -- Carson McCullers
Buy the Book - Download the Discussion Guide
 
November: The Death of Adam -- Marilynne Robinson
Buy the Book - Download the Discussion Guide 

December: The Long Home -- Christian Wiman 
Buy the Book - Download the Discussion Guide

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St. Louis Readers Guild Discussion on 'The Death of Adam'

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Published on December 06, 2011 by St. Louis Readers Guild

 Our disscussion opened with the notion that we tend to believe everything that we read and we tend to believe the lastest thing we have read.  This is at least better than believing what we see, as tends to be the modern paradigm.  We should see (or comprehend) what we know, and not only know what we see.  The author seems to suggest this paradigm.
 
The chapter on Darwin was taken up, but we did not get to the bottom of it.  Malthus quote "alieviation of misery only leads to greater misery"  seems to represent the authors view that our suffering will increase as we continue on our course in which the soul of man is ignored or neglected.   The theory of natural selection proves little or nothing in the way of prescription or prediction as to how to live.   The people alive will always find their triats dominant, and are not able to grasp what their traits ought to be like anyway, if everything is natural. 
 
Civilization requires faith.  The author seems to be saying that the sense of hearing is the the sense that is most to be trusted in contrast to the sense of seeing.
 
The miracle is the fact of existance in time and space.  The Death of Adam refers to the death of creation according to one reader, or the death of man as a created, intellectual, soul, incarnate ( a phrase by Marion Montgomery).

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St. Louis Readers Guild Discussion on 'The Heart is a Lonely Hunter'

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Published on November 15, 2011 by St. Louis Readers Guild

Our discussion commenced in the general view that the novels' events are contingent and not exceptional, and without a linear aspect.  One reader said the novel ended in exhaustion.  The world is not intrinsically bad, but things just happen, according to this reader.  The characters have a palpable humanity and yet there is a hopelessness that lingers.  It was noted that there is in the novel no appeal to heaven, but merely earthly living of real people.  
 
It was noted that Singer's death was out of character with his good manners which are fruit of a moral goodness that he represented.
 
However, the description of the culture of the South is convincingly portrayed.  A culture which was very different from our own, and is very much gone today.

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Spokane Readers Guild Reviews Arcadia

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Published on October 25, 2011 by Spokane Readers Guild

Tom Stoppard's Arcadia, a very funny, entertaining play, that made us want to see it in person.  We discussed the title and the connections about Arcadia having something to do with Tom Stoppard's vision from the Latin, meaning "even in paradise, death is present."   The play brought about a very powerful juxtaposition of truth throughout the centuries and how in our own present time we often feel we are finding the most fresh and unique and singular discoveries, the discoveries of our age... but Stoppard makes the case that each new generation often lacks humility and a deep honoring of the past and therefore comes across pompous in its discoveries, many of which are simply echoes of an already established and profound past.  Beautiful play.  Great read.  Marvelous understandings of life and each other and the desperation, decay, and death we all must face.  

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St. Louis Readers Guild

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Published on October 03, 2011 by Meaghan Ritchey

 

Our discussion included the point that the "chaos theory" , which is a theme in "Arcadia",  assumes that the world is a closed system (not open to Supernature).  This may not be true and therefore many of the conclusions of the characters like Septimus will not be correct.  Though the world is running down like the law of entropy, it may still be open to creative changes from outside.  The Greeks understood the law of entropy because they said "For every thing gained two things are lost."
 
We also concluded that the author supposes sexual attraction to be more important than fidelity for 19th century and modern English.   Marriage requires creative enrgy input to flourish.  To suggest that eros is the chaotic element that is not explained by empirical science may be missing the possibility of love.
 
Also, the 20th century is the age of rational man plus sentimental man combined.  We did not find a satisfactory single noun for this age.

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Spokane Readers Guild Review of Phantastes by George McDonald

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Published on September 29, 2011 by Spokane Readers Guild

George McDonald's Phantastes gave us all a taste of the imaginative and creative powers of one of the revered elders of fantasy.  Touted as majestic and honored as a true mentor by revered writers such as Madelain L'Engle, J.R.R. Tolkein, and C.S. Lewis, McDonald did not fail to deliver an experience that made us descend into a world entirely new and filled with freedoms and crucibles we would not have imagined.  The book helps us all confront the deep pain of human existence and the meaning to be found in serving and truly loving something higher than ourselves.  The journey from death to life, back through death, and into a more profound experience of life again was one of rich wisdoms and a sense of well earned peace in the end.  A unique and multi-layered read, the work felt archetypal, and the read was transformative.  

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Audio resources for October reading: The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

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Published on September 21, 2011 by Meaghan Ritchey

Check out these two audio resouces to supplement your reading for October:

The Big Read: The Heart is a Lonely Hunter pt. 1

The Big Read: The Heart is a Lonely Hunter pt. 2

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