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Guidelines
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| Events: Book Club |
Book Club Information
Suggested Guidelines
These comments on the study of literature are cribbed from the Pink Monkey web site. If you are looking for on-line files of various books, sometimes Pink Monkey has .pdf files available.
The study of literature is not like the study of math or science, or even history. While those disciplines are based largely upon fact, the study of literature is based upon interpretation and analysis. There are no clear-cut answers in literature, outside of the factual information about an author's life and the basic information about setting and characterization in a piece of literature. The rest is a highly subjective reading of what an author has written; each person brings a different set of values and a different background to the reading. As a result, no two people see the piece of literature in exactly the same light, and few critics agree on everything about a book or an author.
When reading and discussing literature here, we hope to arrive at an objective literary analysis based upon the information actually found in the novel, book, or play. In the end, perhaps, everyone will end up with an individual interpretation, but one that can be readily supported by the information that is presented in the guide. In our discussions, you or others here may come up with a different interpretation of the mood or the theme or the conflict. Your interpretation, if it can be logically supported with information contained within the piece of literature, is just as correct as anyone else's.
Literature is simply not a black or white situation; instead, there are many gray areas that are open to varying analyses. Your task is to come up with your own analysis that you can logically defend. Hopefully, these discussions will help you to accomplish that goal.
For the new attendee to these conversations, we tend to discuss a variety of thematic elements in both the literary texts and the literary characters being explored. We also suggest possible means of implementing these elements into games or player characters. Finally, it's been the experience of many here that stating subjective literary concepts as absolutes tends to kill further debate. However, one of the best ways we know to promote further thoughtful conversation is asking questions of others so they will clarify their positions to you. Who knows? Perhaps by doing that you'll also learn something interesting and new!
Most important of all, these discussions are for fun. Enjoy!
We meet in the Reality Fault Library at 6:00pm PST, 9:00pm EST, on the fourth Monday of each month. The listed dates are approximate, and may change if necessary. All are welcome to join in the discussions!