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We're a community fostering friendship and insights by engaging in thoughtful discussions on significant concepts discovered from reading books and intellectual consumption.
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46
Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (week 5)
Pier 57, 25 11th Avenue, New York, NY, USOne of the great classics of European literature, Faust is Goethe's most complex and profound work. To tell the dramatic and tragic story of one man’s pact with Mephistopheles in exchange for knowledge and power, Goethe drew from an immense variety of cultural and historical material, and a wealth of poetic and theatrical traditions. What results is a tour de force illustrating Goethe’s own moral and artistic development, and a symbolic, cautionary tale of Western humanity striving restlessly and ruthlessly for progress.
Join us to discuss this classic book over the course of 6-weeks!
Week 1 Sat 6/20 12:30pm-2:30pm The Seahorse Room @ Pier 57
Week 2 Sat 6/27 12:30pm-2:30pm The Seahorse Room @ Pier 57
Week 3 Sat 7/4 12:30pm-2:30pm The Seahorse Room @ Pier 57
Week 4 Sat 7/11 12:30pm-2:30pm The Seahorse Room @ Pier 57
Week 5 Sat 7/18 12:30pm-2:30pm The Oyster Room @ Pier 57
Week 6 Sat 7/25 12:30pm-2:30pm The Seahorse Room @ Pier 57Reading for Week 5
Part 2 Acts 2 & 3 (about 99 pages)Feel free to read any translation you like, just make sure it is not an abridged version of the text.
I will be reading the Norton Critical Edition available here
free pdf download here *click on the first slow download option
(other formats available too —epub & mobi for kindle—just search in search bar)Rules for Our Group
1. Be Courteous
Respectful disagreement is totally acceptable; Condescension is not.
2. Be Concise
Keep comments brief, on topic, and allow space for others to join in.
3. Do the Reading
If you have not done the reading for the week you are welcome to attend and listen to the discussion, but out of respect for those who have read, you will not be permitted to participate in the discussion.Finally, Please update your RSVP if you are no longer able to attend the event.
- inaccurate RSVPs make it difficult for coordinators to plan successful events
- inaccurate RSVPs prevent waitlisted individuals from attending
*Multiple no shows may result in losing RSVP privileges for future events.
For more info and FAQ on the group click here.
Can't wait to discuss these ideas with all of you!
-Zach16 attendees
Deleuze and Guattari: Anti-Oedipus (week 3)
Art Cafe, 884 Pacific Street, Brooklyn, NY, USDeterritorialize with us at weekly discussions of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari's 1972 first volume of their groundbreaking Capitalism and Schizophrenia. This critique of Freudian psychoanalysis and modern capitalism reframes unconscious desire as a machinic productive force, dynamic multiplicities of flows that can be directed against fascistic thinking toward creative and revolutionary action.
Required reading for this meeting: Ch. 2 "Psychoanalysis and Familialism: The Holy Family" sections 1–3 (pg. 51–75)
There's an online PDF available that looks like it might have a few scanning issues, but it seems to mostly align with the widely available Penguin edition. We plan to meet weekly and work our way through the whole book 20–30 pages at a time.
We'll be meeting at Art Cafe + Bar in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn.
This event is free but we're all still socially obligated to purchase something, and Art Cafe is a cool place that we should support! They have a bar and they serve coffee and tea among other non-alcoholic drinks, as well as food.
16 attendees
Fiction Series: Humiliation & Power (Part III)
Spritzenhaus33, 33 Nassau Ave, Brooklyn, NY, USHi everyone!
Please join us on July 23rd for the final discussion of Wayne Koestenbaum’s Humiliation in conjunction with excerpts from Judith Butler’s seminal work on subjection/subjectivity, The Psychic Life of Power.
You do not have to have joined previously to join us for Part III!
For this meeting, we will be reading the following:
- Humiliation by Wayne Koestenbaum, Fugues #9-11 (pages 125-end) in the Picador edition)
- Chapter 5 and 6 of The Psychic Life of Power by Judith Butler, pages 151-198 (I have attached here the entire book, but only Chapters 5-6 are required for the third meet up. Please be sure to read Phillips’s commentary and Butler’s response, at the end of chapter 5)
Unfortunately, there is not a publicly available copy of Humiliation, so if anyone would really like to read this with us and is having trouble with access, please let me know. Both the Picador and Notting Hill editions are popular.
Some questions we’ll be thinking about:
- Can humiliation be self-defining? Or self-effacing?
- Is humiliation similar in nature to Butler’s discussion of subjection and the formation of the subject?
- Is humiliation a creative force, just as much as it might be a destructive one?
- In what ways can humiliation be a failure of social performance?
- Have our minds become sociopolitical landscapes (have they been anything else)? If so, are those political landscapes ones which shape what is humiliating, and by extension, our character?
- Is loss a kind of becoming?
Additionally, Humiliation deals with some hefty topics–if there is something that anyone does not feel comfortable talking about in a broader forum, please let me know privately ahead of time and I will ensure we steer clear of that.
We’ll be meeting at 7pm on July 23rd at Spritzenhaus33 in Williamsburg. If you have any other questions or difficulty finding us, feel free to message me.
See you there!
9 attendees
Realism with a Human Face by Hilary Putnam Week 1
Pier 57, 25 11th Avenue, New York, NY, USHilary Putnam (1926-2016) was a analytic philosopher known for his work in Mathematics and Logic. In Realism with a Human Face, written in 1990, he challenges the philosophy community to cultivate ideas which are aligned with real life and the social lives of everyday people. Drawing on the American philosophical tradition, in particular William James, he argues for a pragmatic realism which avoids what he sees as the pitfalls of relativism and the reckless reactions of postmodern thinkers. In this book, Putnam elucidates the views of many philosophers in the American and analytic traditions with clear prose and energetic insights, making this a fruitful read for anyone looking for a broad understanding of the American pragmatist and analytic traditions, particularly on questions of truth, realism, and the limits of scientific explanation.
Participants should read the entire reading before attending this in person meeting. We will read pages 1-79 for the first week. I will be reading from this version here.
For questions please send me a message or post to meetup.
Best,
Brian
21 attendees
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