Wednesday, September 10

Comedy

What makes something funny? What is the relationship between comedy and society. Is there something that connects comedy over time…what might Aristophanes (The Frogs), Petronius (Satyricon), and Moliere (Tartuffe) have in common with Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, George Carlin? Is comedy that is now seen as offensive (Stepin Fetchit, the Three Stooges), Dark Comedy, Sophomoric Comedy, and “Laughing because you think you’re supposed to, even if you don’t get it” remain funny? Why or why not? And how does comic writing, including satire, Jonathan Swift, Gail Collins, Maureen Dowd, relate to that performed before an audience? We will explore the nature of comedy in society and discuss its meaning as an art form and as an important part of culture.

The Power of Ideas

What are the principal factors shaping history? Is it great leaders, important battles, new technologies, the clash of economic systems, or something else? 

No matter how you answer these questions, underneath it all is the immense power of ideas. Arguably, ideas and concepts such as liberty, the
scientific method, autonomy, democracy, capitalism, and others have done more to shape human history than any single event or person, with each radically altering how societies organize themselves, what they value, and how they envision the future. Important ideas shape our laws, our institutions, our place in the world, and define our sense of what is possible. If you had to identify one single idea as the most influential in all of history-for good or for ill-what would it be, and how would you defend its paramount importance in shaping the world we inhabit today?

A Personal Response to Wisdom

What does the word “wisdom” mean to you? For this session, we will ask participants to write freely about this concept as they understand it and as it applies to them. Without judgement of others in the group, we will discuss each person’s ideas and ideals in terms of wisdom and its application to each individual’s life.

The American Identity

What does it mean to be an American? The American Dream: the pursuit of happiness. What does that mean? For two and a half centuries, the United States has been defined by a set of ideals called the "American creed"—liberty, individualism, equality, and self-government. This identity was seen as a unifying force in a nation of immigrants whose cultures coalesced around a common political philosophy. Today, that consensus seems fractured. Have our values changed in 250 years so that we are missing the meaning of America’s foundation? Should foundational documents be cherished as relics or revered as value statements applicable to the present day? Could an originalist interpretation of the Founders’ intent give us an understanding of the core values of the American Creed?

The Great Political Realignment

We are living through a major political realignment, where traditional party coalitions are fracturing

and re-forming in unexpected ways. Issues of class, education, and geography are scrambling old

loyalties, creating a landscape that is less about left-versus-right and more about complex, shifting

cultural and economic tribes. What are the primary forces driving this realignment—is it economics,

cultural grievances, or demographic change? More importantly, how would you describe the new

coalitions that are emerging, and what do they mean for the future of American governance?

The Romantic Movement in Philosophy, Art, Literature, and Music

Romanticism was an intellectual and artistic movement prominent mostly from the late 1700s until the mid 1800s. Seen as a response to the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution, Romanticism focused on the importance of imagination, subjectivity, and appreciation of nature. We will touch on the major works in literature, poetry, music, visual art, and philosophy and discuss these in terms of their contribution to artistic and intellectual traditions. The Library will be hosting a 5-part series on Romanticism in art and thought in tandem with this session, although participation in these additional programs is not required.

Community and Modernity

 The term community is ubiquitous in our public discourse: community organizing; the Black community; the LGBT community; community development; the business community; the Evangelical community; the academic community; etc. We will take a deep dive into how and why this term is deployed so widely, starting with Ferdinand Tönnies’ distinction between gemeinschaft (community) versus gesellschaft (society), that is social relations based on personal relations, traditions, and deeply shared values versus mass society organized around formal, impersonal, contractual relations. Our contemporary widespread usage of “community” suggests a recognition something positive and essential to human relations, perhaps solidarity and connectedness, that is diminished by modernity.+

Rewritten Masterpieces

Recently there have been some notable rewrites of masterpieces: Percival Everett’s retelling of Mark

Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, James, David West Read (Schitt’s Creek) and Max Martin’s reimagining of

Romeo and Juliet, & Juliet; and Sandra Norman’s reworking of George Orwell’s 1984, Julia. What all

these efforts have in common is a post-modern critique of the masterpieces, a de-centering and

deconstruction of main characters – Huck Finn, Romeo, and Winston Smith are given a back seat to Jim,

Juliet, and Julia. There are number of derivative works of music and drama as well. Are these legitimate”

Artistic exercises or simply transgressive escapades?