Amanda's Thoughts

Hello All!


I am very excited about the start of phase two of the book club- the blog. As you all know, the book club has been a really exciting development in my life over the past 9 months or so and I am excited we are trying to find a way to continue it as Erik and I move out of the area.

The books we have read so far:

A Modern Utopia, H.G. Wells
This book was an apt and interesting way to kick off the book club. It is written as a narrative describing H.G. Wells' vision of Utopia. He gives us a tour of an alternate planet where his Utopia is housed, and contrasts this world with Earth. One of the most interesting aspects of the book for me was despite the fact that Wells was presenting his idea of Utopia, he still seemed somewhat stuck in his views of what is right and wrong in society. Here is a link to the wikipedia site about A Modern Utopia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Modern_Utopia

The Chalice and The Blade, Raine Eisler
This was one of my favorite books we read. The Chalice and The Blade gave an interesting new view of the progression of society, exploring the reasons why most cultures and civilizations have developed into oppressive, patriarchical societies. Eisler gives examples of different ways of interpreting research and archeaological studies to present societies that may have developed in a more egalitarian way and the reasons that changed.

Twilight of the Machines, John Zerzan
This book was my first formal introduction to a myriad of ideas that I had heard about living in Arcata. As some people in the book club said, this book is a fantastic introduction to concepts like Primivitism and Ant-Civiliaztion(ism?) One of Zerzan's main arguments is that the introducttion of language lead to the beginning of subjugation- subjugating plants, animals, and humans. Here is a link to the wikipedia entry on Zerzan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Zerzan


The Dispossesed, Ursula K. La Guin
I really loved this book. This was the novel that we read, and it has started a binge of reading La Guin's books for me. In The Dispossesed La Guin presents us with a group of people that have moved to another planet to live their concept of Utopia to its fullest. This book like A Modern Utopia contrasts the differences between two worlds, but in La Guin's book neither of them are able to sustain their vision of Utopia. There were some really interesting interpretations of why that is.

The Coast of Utopia, Tom Stoppard
I was itching to read a play and finally the club gave in. I think we would all agree it was worth our while. Tom Stoppard is known for his intricate dialogue that focuses just as much on what is not said as on what is. In this trilogy of plays he delivered a beautifully crafted set of plays as he has done with many other plays in the past. The Coast of Utopia follows a set of recognizable names from the Russian Revolution through a fictionalized representation of their lives. Here is a link to the wikipedia entry about this play

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Coast_of_Utopia

Belonging, bell hooks

The Blithdale Romance, Nathaniel Hawthorne

U/dystopian thoughts: initial directions

Last Summer myself and a few friends thought a book club might be a nice way to spend a Sunday night. The one thing that we agreed to avoid, however, was a vague impulse to get together and talk about the latest novel of note according to Oprah or The New York Times or even The Nation. We agreed early that a theme was necessary. So, in light of current events, as well as the wealth of interesting material we knew would be included, we chose Utopia/Dystopia.

We also thought that a few general guidelines might be helpful in avoiding any number of foreseeable issues in having an informal reading group: 1) we alternate between fiction and non-fiction; 2) we also alternate between male and female authors; 3) there are no requirements to be in the book club, word-of-mouth being the best means of recruiting new members; 4) there are also no requirements to take part in the discussion, besides having some knowledge of the material, eg- you don't have to read a certain amount of the book of the moment, but you should have reason for not reading if you didn't.

In short, we get together to talk about different concepts of utopia and the dystopian themes that come with it, as conceived in our current selection. This book club is open to all interested and has been informally based out of Northtown Books, Arcata, CA (707-822-2834) where I used to work. I imagine it will be continued out of Tin Can Mailman Used Bookstore (707-822-1307, contact person is Violet) just across the street after I leave. Welcome to the U/dystopian Forecast.