A belated posting by the host, but I had to decipher my notes!!

The meeting in May was not book-based, but asked members to bring along their suggestions for readings around the theme of 'Contemplating the Future'. I suggested this not having any idea of how the evening might pan out, but as ever our ideas roamed widely.

As host I started with a future that I cannot begin to contemplate, inspired by the recent film 'The Hurt Locker', and I read 'An Irish Airman Foresees his Death' by W B Yeats. How does a person face the certainty of death? Is it just adrenalin that keeps soldiers going? We did talk a lot about the contemplation of death. Donna read 'As I Walked out one Evening' by W H Auden, where lovers swear eternal faithfulness, but how hopeless it all is:

But all the clocks in the city
Began to whirr and chime:
'O let not Time deceive you,
You cannot conquer Time.

Marion delighted us all with a poem of her own, typically forthright, 'When the future seems bleak and you've nothing to do'. The message? Don't just sit there wondering what the future might hold, just go out there and take it into your own hands and do all the things you've dreamt about for so long.

Sheila read from one of Paul Theroux's books, where he talks about his feelings on being diagnosed with cancer. The future is not always about things ending, but also about new beginnings.

Merinda discussed David Mitchell's 'Cloud Atlas' and the alternative universe that it presents. The chapter we looked at is about the recording and archiving of memories. It is also about dreams of other lives: 'Dreams are all I have ever truly owned'. I am not sure whether they were dreams of an afterlife, the one future we didn't speak of is the possibility of life after death.

Lynne raised the question of the future of bookclubs, and of reading in general, with the rise of new media. The consensus was that the medium didn't matter that much, a question of personal preference, but we'd still be reading!

Finally, I could not resist reading a couple of my favourite poems which take a quirky look at the future, Jenny Joseph's 'Warning' (When I am an old woman I shall wear purple) and Roger McGough's 'Let me die a youngman's death'.

This month's cake was Death by Chocolate, what a way to go!

Contemplating the Future

In the absence of the host's blog here are a couple of thoughts that were discussed, commented on, debated or mulled over.

The effect of time
The importance of the past to determine the future
The impact of electronic media on book sales and bookclubs
The importance or not of face-to-face interaction
What is a book — is it the whole package or is it the words within?
Death — lots on death though not much on the afterlife

We read peoms by the famous and the not-so-famous. We read from books old and new and some of us just came up with ideas of our own. Ending the night with Death by Chocolate cake we left with much food for thought.

A visit to the theatre

Following on from our last meeting, when we watched 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof', we decided to go as a group to the Oxford Playhouse to see another Tennessee Williams, 'The Glass Menagerie', produced by the wonderful Shared Experience company. TW himself said in his introduction that it is about memory. It certainly seems to be quite autobiographical.

Tom and his sister Laura live with their mother Amanda, played by Imogen Stubbs, in a small flat in run-down part of St Louis. Amanda lives with the memories of her beautiful charmed youth.

Tom works in a warehouse and has been christened Shakespeare by his fellow workers because he is always writing. But he feel his life is too internal, and he yearns to experience the 'real' life he sees in the movies he goes to every evening.

The character of Laura seems to be based on that of TW's sister Rose, who ended her days in an asylum. She has been sent to secretarial college, but never attends her classes, as she cannot deal with people.

Like all TW, very intense and full of the heat and humidity of his settings. An excellent cast.

Enjoyed by all.