Convivium – August, 2008
A monthly guide to adventures for the mind,
travel for the soul.
Even though it is mid-August, the days are noticeably shorter than a month ago. The mystery and melancholy of the dark, ominous at this time of year, prompted me to select the quote by Lawrence Durrell. Thankfully, on this annual fall pilgrimage, I have a cadre of companions -- writers like St. John of the Cross (Dark Night of the Soul) and Eugene O’Neil (Long Day’s Journey into Night); composers like Richard Wagner (Tristan und Isolde) and Anton Dvorak (“Song to the Moon”), and artists as diverse as Rembrandt, Vincent van Gogh, Edvard Munch, Edward Hopper and Giorgio de Chirico.
Edward Hopper, Night Hawks
Giorgio de Chirico, Melancholy
I wonder whose company you seek as the shadows lengthen.
Orhan Pamuk, Turkey’s most eminent novelist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2006, believes “literature to be the most valuable hoard that humanity has gathered in its quest to understand itself.” As a child and young writer who felt he lived far from the centre, he surrounded himself with writers who shared his feeling of being on the periphery, most notably Dostoyevsky, who, like himself, writes of “the jealousy, anger and pride of a man who cannot make himself into a European.” This month, THE INSTALLMENT PLAN features Orhan Pamuk’s rich, engaging, and moving Nobel acceptance speech, “My Father’s Suitcase.” Click here.
We will be discussing Orhan Pamuk’s most topical novel Snow on our spring trip, Talking Turkey: Caught between East and West. A poet from Istanbul has returned to his native country for a visit after 12 years in exile in Germany. An old friend at an Istanbul newspaper has asked him to report on an epidemic of suicide among teenage girls, the latest of whom is one of the "head-scarf girls," a group of young women who have been barred from the secular university for covering their hair. This month in TODAY IN LITERATURE, we see how life sometimes imitates literature. Read Margaret Atwood’s 2004 review, “Headscarves to die for” in the New York Times followed by a July 20, 2008 article, “Traditional head scarf unveils new rifts in Turkey” in Toronto’s Globe and Mail. Click here.
At a wonderful week at Toronto Pursuits last month we celebrated our 10th anniversary focusingon Late-Life Creativity. In CLASSICAL TRIVIA! See if you can beat Shirley Marsden of Toronto who identified the photos of 23.5 of 30 extraordinary people whose crowning achievements occurred at advanced age. Click here.
Our 2009 season is nearly planned. We hope to have everything posted on the websiteby mid-September and our brochure in your hands by early October. You can have an advance view of what’s on tap for Travel Pursuits. Click here. The dates for Toronto Pursuits will be July 12-17, and details of the seminar offerings will be announced next month. Please contact us if you are interested in any of our 2009 offerings. We still have a few spaces available for Alice’s Wonderland this October 5-9. We will discuss six short stories of Alice Munro in the beautiful lakeside village of Bayfield Ontario and attend a performance of at the Stratford Festival.
Ave atque vale,
CLASSICAL TRIVIA!
‘Late Editions’ Photo Contest
INSTALLMENT PLAN
Nobel Lecture by Orhan Pamuk
TODAY IN LITERATURE
“Headscarves to die for” by Margaret Atwood and “Traditional head scarf unveils new rifts in Turkey” by Mark Mackinnon
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Classical Pursuits Blog
