January 27, 2012 -- Catch 22 by Joseph Heller

Friday, January 27, 2012, 7:00 PM
Kansas City Public Library/Plaza Branch
4801 Main Street, Kansas City, MO
We meet in the small meeting room.
Catch 22 by Joseph Heller was published 50 years ago which makes it eligible for selection by our group. This is the most recently published book that our group has ever read and discussed.

Eleven people attend our meeting on January 27. It was a robust discussion from a group bubbling over with comments and opinions. If you missed this one, you missed a good one. Those in attendance included Marc, Bernie, Tim, Karen, James, John, Bo, Paul, Tim, Jan, and Clif.

Schedule for 2012

January 27 -- Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
February 24 -- Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry
March 30 -- Symposium by Plato
April 27 -- Tao te Ching by Lao-tsu
May 25 -- Idylls of the King by Alfred Lord Tennyson
June 29 -- The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (part 1)
July 27 -- The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (part 2)
August 31 -- The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (part 3)
September 28 -- Anthony & Cleopatra by William Shakespeare
October 26 -- Gilgamesh
December 7 -- Gospel of Mark from the Bible

December 2, 2011 -- The Federalist Papers, by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay

Our next meeting:
Friday, December 2, 2011, 7:00 PM
Kansas City Public Library/Plaza Branch, Small Meeting Room
4801 Main Street Kansas City, MO

We plan to discuss the Federalist Papers which are a series of 85 essays written in 1787 and 1788 to promote the ratification of the United States Constitution.

The following is a discussion of the contents of the Federalist Papers. As you read them and note items of interest, you all are invited to add comments to this post. Perhaps these comments can then serve as a guide regarding which to give priority in case you don't have time to read them all. (I've already added the first two comments regarding Papers 10 and 84.)

Structure and Content of the Federalist Papers

In Federalist No. 1, Hamilton listed six topics to be covered in the subsequent articles:

"The utility of the UNION to your political prosperity" – covered in No. 2 through No. 14

"The insufficiency of the present Confederation to preserve that Union"—covered in No. 15 through No. 22

"The necessity of a government at least equally energetic with the one proposed to the attainment of this object"—covered in No. 23 through No. 36

"The conformity of the proposed constitution to the true principles of republican government"—covered in No. 37 through No. 84

"Its analogy to your own state constitution"—covered in No. 85

"The additional security which its adoption will afford to the preservation of that species of government, to liberty and to prosperity"—covered in No. 85.

As the series grew, this plan was somewhat changed. The fourth topic expanded into detailed coverage of the individual articles of the Constitution and the institutions it mandated, while the two last topics were merely touched on in the last essay.

LINK TO COMMENTS

LINK TO DISCUSSION OF POTENTIAL BOOKS FOR 2012 SCHEDULE

October 28, 2011 -- Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Our next meeting:
Friday, October 28, 2011, 7:00 PM
Kansas City Public Library/Plaza Branch, Small Meeting Room
4801 Main Street Kansas City, MO

We are meeting to discuss Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

Notes from the Underground (Russian: "Notes from Underground" is a more literal translation) is an 1864 short novel by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. It is considered by many to be the first existentialist novel. It presents itself as an excerpt from the rambling memoirs of a bitter, isolated, unnamed narrator who is a retired civil servant living in St. Petersburg. The first part of the story is told in monologue form, or the underground man's diary, and attacks emerging Western philosophy. The second part of the book is called "Àpropos of the Wet Snow," and describes certain events that, it seems, are destroying and sometimes renewing the underground man, who acts as a first person, unreliable narrator.

September 30, 2011 -- Ecclesiastes

Our next meeting:
Friday, September 30, 2011, 7:00 PM
Kansas City Public Library/Plaza Branch, Small Meeting Room
4801 Main Street Kansas City, MO

We are meeting to discuss the Book of Ecclesiastes as literature.

The Book of Ecclesiastes, literally "Book of the Teacher", commonly referred to simply asEcclesiastes, is a book of the Hebrew Bible and Christian Old Testament. The English name derives from the Greek translation of the Hebrew title.

The main speaker in the book, identified by the name or title Qoheleth (usually translated as "teacher" or "preacher"), introduces himself as "son of David, king in Jerusalem." The work consists of personal or autobiographic matter, at times expressed in aphorisms and maxims illuminated in terse paragraphs with reflections on the meaning of life and the best way of life. The work emphatically proclaims all the actions of man to be inherently "vain", "futile", "empty", "meaningless", "temporary", "transitory", "fleeting, or "mere breath", depending on translation, as the lives of both wise and foolish men end in death. While Qoheleth clearly endorses wisdom as a means for a well-lived earthly life, he is unable to ascribe eternal meaning to it. In light of this perceived senselessness, he suggests that one should enjoy the simple pleasures of daily life, such as eating, drinking, and taking enjoyment in one's work, which are gifts from the hand of God.

The book is particularly notable for its iconic phrases, "the sun also rises," "[there's] nothing new under the sun" and "he who increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow."

Plutarch's Lives by Plutarch (meeting 3 of 3)

Our next meeting:
Friday, August 26, 2011, 7:00 PM
Kansas City Public Library/Plaza Branch, Small Meeting Room
4801 Main Street Kansas City, MO

Our “big book” for the summer is Plutarch’s Lives by Plutarch. We have already met twice and will be meeting one more time to discuss the book. Please look at the following list to see which of the remaining "lives" we will discuss in August. If you can't read all of the assignment, we have designated which "lives" to give first priority.

The top priority “Lives” for August:
Demosthenes
Cicero
Demetrius
Mark Antony

Other “Lives” for August:
Alexander the Great
Julius Caesar
Phocion
Cato the Younger
Agis
Cleomenes
Tiberius Gracchus
Caius Gracchus
Dion
Marcus Brutus
Aratus
Artaxerxes
Galba
Otho

Plutarch (c. 46 – 120 AD) was a Greek historian, biographer and essayist. Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans, commonly called Parallel Lives or Plutarch's Lives, is a series of biographies of famous men, arranged in tandem to illuminate their common moral virtues or failings, written in the late 1st century.

The book contains twenty-three pairs of biographies, each pair consisting of one Greek and one Roman, as well as four unpaired single lives. It is a work of considerable importance, not only as a source of information about the individuals biographized, but also about the times in which they lived.

Plutarch's Lives by Plutarch (meeting 2 of 3)

Our next meeting:
Friday, July 29, 2011, 7:00 PM
Kansas City Public Library/Plaza Branch, small meeting room
4801 Main Street Kansas City, MO

Our “big book” for the summer is Plutarch’s Lives by Plutarch. We have already met once and will be meeting two more times to discuss the book. Please look at the following list to see which of the remaining "lives" we will discuss in July and August. If you can't read all of the assignment, we have designated which "lives" to give first priority.

The top priority “Lives” for July:
1. Aristides and Cato the Elder
2. Nicias and Crassus

Other “Lives” for July:
1. Philopoemen and Flamininus
2. Pyrrhus and Gaius Marius
3. Lysander and Sulla
4. Cimon and Lucullus
5. Eumenes and Sertorius
6. Agesilaus and Pompey

The top priority “Lives” for August:
1. Demosthenes and Cicero
2. Demetrius and Mark Antony

Other “Lives” for August:
1. Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar
2. Phocion and Cato the Younger
3. Agis and Cleomenes
4. Dion and Brutus
5. Aratus
6. Artaxerxes
7. Galba
8. Otho

Plutarch (c. 46 – 120 AD) was a Greek historian, biographer and essayist. Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans, commonly called Parallel Lives or Plutarch's Lives, is a series of biographies of famous men, arranged in tandem to illuminate their common moral virtues or failings, written in the late 1st century.

The book contains twenty-three pairs of biographies, each pair consisting of one Greek and one Roman, as well as four unpaired single lives. It is a work of considerable importance, not only as a source of information about the individuals biographized, but also about the times in which they lived.

Plutarch's Lives by Plutarch (meeting 1 of 3)

Friday, June 24, 2011, 7:00 PM
Kansas City Public Library/Plaza Branch
4801 Main Street Kansas City, MO
Our “big book” for the summer is Plutarch’s Lives by Plutarch. We will be meeting three times this summer to discuss this book. Therefore we have divided the book into three reading assignments, and we have designated which “Lives” to read first if you are unable to read the complete assignment.

The top priority “Lives” for June:
1. Pericles and Fabius Maximus
2. Alcibiades and Coriolanus

Other “Lives” for June:
1. Theseus and Romulus
2. Lycurgus and Numa Pompilius
3. Solon and Poplicola
4. Themistocles and Camillus
5. Timoleon and Aemilius Paulus
6. Pelopidas and Marcellus

The top priority “Lives” for July:
1. Aristides and Cato the Elder
2. Nicias and Crassus

Other “Lives” for July:
1. Philopoemen and Flamininus
2. Pyrrhus and Gaius Marius
3. Lysander and Sulla
4. Cimon and Lucullus
5. Eumenes and Sertorius
6. Agesilaus and Pompey

The top priority “Lives” for August:
1. Demosthenes and Cicero
2. Demetrius and Mark Antony

Other “Lives” for August:
1. Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar
2. Phocion and Cato the Younger
3. Agis and Cleomenes
4. Dion and Brutus
5. Aratus
6. Artaxerxes
7. Galba
8. Otho

Plutarch (c. 46 – 120 AD) was a Greek historian, biographer and essayist. Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans, commonly called Parallel Lives or Plutarch's Lives, is a series of biographies of famous men, arranged in tandem to illuminate their common moral virtues or failings, written in the late 1st century.

The book contains twenty-three pairs of biographies, each pair consisting of one Greek and one Roman, as well as four unpaired single lives. It is a work of considerable importance, not only as a source of information about the individuals biographized, but also about the times in which they lived.

May 27, 2011 -- Candide by Voltaire

Our next meeting is Friday, May 27, 2011 at 7:00 PM.
Meeting place is Plaza Branch Library, 4801 Main Street Kansas City, MO.
We will be discussing Candide by Voltaire.

Candide is a French satirical novel written in 1759 by Voltaire, a philosopher of the Age of Enlightenment. Candide is characterized by its sarcastic tone, as well as by its erratic, fantastical and fast-moving plot. A picaresque novel it parodies many adventure and romance clichés, the struggles of which are caricatured in a tone that is mordantly matter-of-fact. Still, the events discussed are often based on historical happenings, such as the Seven Years' War and the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. As philosophers of Voltaire's day contended with the problem of evil, so too does Candide in this short novel, albeit more directly and humorously. Voltaire ridicules religion, theologians, governments, armies, philosophies, and philosophers through allegory; most conspicuously, he assaults Leibniz and his optimism.

It’s a short book that can be read in four hours.

We're meeting in the Small Meeting Room at the Plaza Branch Library. That room is located beyond (north of) the front desk and in the first door to the right.

April 29, 2011 - Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, tr. Edward FitzGerald

April 29, 2011 - 7:00 p.m.
Kansas City Public Library/Plaza Branch, Small Meeting Room
4801 Main Street
Kansas City, MO

This is our "non-western literature" book of the year.

Omar Khayyam was a 12th Century Persian Poet (also mathematician, astronomer, also philosopher). The Rubaiyat is available at most libraries and free on-line. It's not very long.

The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (Persian: رباعیات عمر خیام) is the title that Edward FitzGerald gave to his translation of a selection of poems, originally written in Persian and of which there are about a thousand, attributed to Omar Khayyám (1048–1131), a Persian poet, mathematician and astronomer. A Persian ruba'i is a two-line stanza with two parts (or hemistechs) per line, hence the word "Rubáiyát" (derived from the Arabic root word for "four"), meaning "quatrains".

Group member Bernard has left this review AT THIS LINK since he won't be able to attend our next meeting.

March 25, 2011 - Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare & movie “10 Things I Hate About You"

Small Meeting Room
Kansas City Public Library/Plaza Branch
4801 Main Street Kansas City, MO
7:00 p.m. - March 25, 2011

This is our annual literature and movie night. We will discuss Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew" and then together watch the movie, "10 Things I hate About You," which is loosely based on Shakespeare's work.

The Taming of the Shrew is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1590 and 1594. We will discuss Shakespeare's play for about 30 minutes, and then we together will watch the movie, "10 Things I Hate About You." The movie is a 1999 American teen romantic comedy film. It is a loose adaptation of The Taming of the Shrew set in a modern Seattle, Washington, American high school. The screeply was written by Karen McCullah and Kirsten Smith.

February 25, 2011 The Odyssey by Homer

(9 people attended, we all had a good time, no photo taken)
Our next meeting will be February 25, 2011 at 7:00 p.m.  Our meeting place will be the small meeting room at the Plaza Branch Library, 4801 Main Street, Kansas City, MO.

We will be discussing The Odyssey by Homer.

This book is our ancient Greek (or Roman) classic for the year.  It's also a book that our group previously discussed six years ago.  It is included in this year's reading list because we believe classics deserve to be reread.

The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer,  It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work traditionally ascribed to Homer.  The poem is fundamental to the modern Western canon.  Indeed it is the second--the Iliad being the first--extant work of Western literature.  It iwas probably composed near the end of the 8th century BC.

The poem mainly centers on the Greek hero Odysseus (or Ulysses, as he was known in Roman myths) and his long journey home following the fall of Troy.  It takes Odysseus ten years to reach Ithaca after the ten-year Trojan War.

Please see the following link for a discussion of Odyssey translations:
http://www.meetup.com/greatbookskc/pages/Odyssey_Translations/

Check the following link for a message from Christopher about spoken ancient Greek:
http://www.meetup.com/greatbookskc/messages/boards/thread/10426002/#39737402