Sunday, November 29, 2009

Shared Reading?

For anyone who'd like to join in, I have a six month plan to move through Carolyn Forché's anthology Against Forgetting. I know many of you are already familiar with this stuff, and many of you are busy! But I'm always salivating for more poetry conversation, and with this book especially it would be helpful to pair reading with discussion.

I'm also thinking of taking Anne Carson's Eros, the Bittersweet and C. D. Wright's Cooling Time with me to Japan... these are the kind of meaty books that would benefit from the focus the airplane and being surrounded by a foreign language provides. At least that's what I'm hoping, since I haven't made much progress with either on American soil! I also like the idea of reading them at the same time; both are prose-on-poetry. So anyone who might like to attack one/both of these over winter break and then chat it up is very welcome to join me.

Only a little bit is left of the semester now! Best of luck to all during this final push.

5 comments:

Molly said...

I'd be happy to read either with you, but here are two things:

1. At the end of winter break, I was hoping to host a (vegetarian/vegan) Russian Feast in honor of the end of my "Russian Studies." I thought I'd share some of my favorite Akhmatova and maybe we could all share some favorite winter poems.

2. Maybe if we read one or both of the two Meryl is suggesting, we could have another get together to discuss them? :)

xo

Meryl DePasquale said...

1. Yes, I am so there! Yay Red Wing! I'll bring a poem from the Soviet Union section of Against Forgetting to share. Can I make borscht??!!!

2. Molly I know you to be a superwoman, but I can't imagine how you'll possibly read all that Russian stuff and those two chewy texts on top.

What did I do over the long weekend? Reread Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice (plus a few chunks of Sense and Sensibility) for the BAZILLIONTH time. One must also make time for the sappy stuff; the brain needs a break when you're on break!

But McC taught Cooling Time this semester, and God knows what she endured from her students. I for one want to hear about it. So a gathering is in order, and reading both texts needn't be a requirement for attendance.

Now I'm off to marry an incredibly rich man who has been playing games with my heart. Or maybe I'll just wash my tattoo and go to bed with the husband I already have...

Molly said...

My friend Karen has a poem called "Borscht":
http://www.karenrigby.com/id16.html

Oh, and my vegetarianism is official now, pushed up whippy-quick from something I'll post about on my (field|work) blog shortly. We had to get a separate pizza for me tonight. No garlic chicken for me! :)

And Meryl: don't doubt the power of me-reading. The Russian lit thing is casual. Well, the prose part is. I ordered a stack of Akhmatova biographies and critical texts from Powell's, but I love group-reading, and I think I become less dumb in the company of others. Maybe. :)

xo

PS: Stick with Shawn for now. He's pretty swell. But you can always say it: "Reader, I married him."

Meryl DePasquale said...

Tolstoy! Casual!

I've written a poem called Borscht too... in my pre-program life. Karen's is better! :)

Molly said...

I would equate reading Anna Karenina with reading Jane Eyre. :) I *lurved* both, but though both are oft-categorized as "classics" or "canonical," (which we could debate to no end, and, honestly, I'd enjoy!), they are also fantastic escape reading.

Other Tolstoy? Yeouch. I think.

And I want to read your "Borscht," Meryl. (Maybe a prompt for all of us?)

Karen's showed up in the anthology _O Taste and See,_ which I haven't read cover-to-cover yet, but I want to. I think CC would too: culinary poetry? Heck yeah.

Maybe, after the Russian-feast, and our Meryl-duo-books-get-together, we should have a poetry feast, where we celebrate good books to eat (mmm) and make one another some dramatic dishes.

Also, Amanda, I think you are the only one of us five to teach a summer class: please feel free to queue up some reading for us.

Shall we say?:

Winter break reading/considerations:

1. Find a winter-y poem to share for Molly's Russian feast.
2. Read either Carson's Eros, the Bittersweet OR Wright's Cooling Time for Meryl's chat-get-together.
3. McColleen will begin to think of how we can help her with her Bob Dylan project!
4. Amanda will think of something for us to read as a group next...
5. CC: you, my darling darling, are admirably studious in so many ways; let us know how our brains can help yours.
+6. More posting on the blog? I understand how duotrope can replace that suggestion I had at the Thai dinner: WOW! But maybe other posts and chatting?

If this doesn't make sense, or seems too-whatever, please let me know. I was just trying to think of ways to make sure our time is well-spent.

My selfish hope is that Meryl and McColleen will both be right here in Minnesnowta next school year, but if that isn't true, then I want to take advantage of some serious time we have with one another.