GBSF BLOG: 53rd Asilomar: Rob Calvert reports

The 53rd annual Great Books Asilomar weekend began with rain squalls, soon clearing to beautiful spring weather on the gorgeous California coast. One hundred or so eager lovers of literature gathered from near (Monterey Peninsula College) and far (North Carolina) to exchange ideas on Plato, Woolf, Shaw and selected poetry.

Vince Scardina leads discussion of George Bernard Shaw’splayCaesarandCleopatra

at Asilomar.Seated from left, Roger and Ann Brogan,

Vince, Jan Fussell, JenniferAnderson. PhotobyJimHall.

The clandestine, unacknowledged Theme Committee was a bit more obvious than usual this year in its choice of selections. Clearly, this weekend’s readings explored the passage of time. Poems by Keats, Auden, and Thomas all dealt explicitly with things that wither in time and things that do not. Plath’s Daddy looked back in time as she attempted to exorcise a childhood demon. As for Rae Armantrout’s Soft Money, what was that poem about? Prostitution? Britney Spears? Banana republics? Dubious investment practices? Perhaps all of the above.

Meanwhile Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway couldn’t seem to make it through a sentence of internal monologue without hearing a clock chime somewhere. And Shaw’s Caesar and Cleopatra was a long muse on “The modern British empire is nothing compared to those cool Ancient Romans — those were the days.” So yes, time was in the air.

As I compiled evaluation stats and looked at comments, it was clear that many (myself included) were challenged by Plato’s Phaedrus. A poor choice of translation was partly responsible, for which I take full blame — we’ll be more careful choosing editions in the future. But the dialogue presented difficulties beyond those caused by the translator for those of us unversed in the mysteries of classical rhetoric. Some of us preferred to set the rhetoric aside and concentrate on Phaedrus’s initial discourse about lovers vs. non-lovers (Platonic love), perhaps separating us into Lovers and Talkers. When the discussion was over, I was left wondering – what was Socrates smoking when he hallucinated flying chariots drawn by one white horse and one black horse? Cosmic.

Unsurprisingly, the weekend held a few surprises. It was realized too late that we hadn’t followed the usual rotating-groups-of-ten- people arrangement, and that we’d share discussions with the same twenty companions for much of the weekend. With a little spin control, this evolved into an impromptu “experiment” in which feedback was solicited on whether fixed groups or rotating groups are preferable. Rotating groups was the clear victor, and we’ll return to that arrangement next year. Thank you, “test subjects”! We also innovated this year by adding a Saturday afternoon film screening, drawing on the success of GB mini-retreats, in which a book discussion is combined with a viewing of its film adaptation. The gods of consumer electronics were not kind, however. A roomful of seventy people, assembled and ready to enjoy Vanessa Redgrave’s portrayal of Clarissa Dalloway, instead witnessed a line of text on the video screen saying: “Cannot play this disk – please insert another.” That was when we realized that our DVD was cracked nearly straight through! So much for Netflix, and Blockbuster to the rescue. Following a mad dash to the Pacific Grove video store, I returned with The Hours (closest I could get to Mrs. Da loway) and was greeted by “No problem about the delay — we’ve been talking.” I love bookies.

Clarissa Dalloway and Peter Walsh would have fit right in at the Saturday afternoon party. Although there were no sightings of the prime minister, we were graced by the artistry of Donna Reynolds’s piano playing. The party provided a welcome chance to catch up with old friends and to debate what the poetry had really been about.

Organizing an event of this size is made easy because so many share in the effort. The genius of the Great Books Council of San Francisco lies in the willingness of its members to help make it all happen. Sheri Kindsvater shouldered the largest burden as registrar, meeting the needs of each attendee while navigating the sometimes strained relationship with Aramark, which is now in charge of Asilomar State Park’s management. Barbara McConnell helped in a thousand ways, most notably as discussion arranger, a task that bears remarkable similarities to reciting the Gettysburg Address while humming the Ode to Joy and dancing the tango. Barbara helped Mary Stuart, who coped beautifully with incessant “one more thing” plan changes as she assembled registration packets at the last minute (assisted by Jan Vargo). Louise DiMattio was our own Clarissa Dalloway, arranging and hosting the film screening and party. That volunteer list just scratches the surface, though — there were also the reading selection committees, the stalwarts at the Friday registration table, and last but not least the 21 discussion leaders who read and reread the books, thought up topic questions, attended pre-discussions, and generally made themselves experts, all so that they could avoid expressing their own opinions and let us have the fun of expressing ours. Thank you.

A walk to the beach.