A few things left to say…9/21/06 October 19, 2006

Hope everyone is having a great week.
Last week…

 – Can you relate with Knecht’s rebellion?
 – Was Knecht’s rebellion, a) really rebellious, b) proved his point?
 – Was it for a world change or a personal change?
 – Was it a selfish decision?

We have a busy couple of weeks coming up so put this on your Palms or palms.
 – This week we are finishing up GBG; meeting at Mile Hi Coffee
http://denvercoffee.blogspot.com/2006/03/mile-high-coffee-englewood.html
 – I will be emailing you the list of possible books. We will be voting on them next week. Anyone who gave a suggestion must describe the plot and explain why they want to read it at our meeting on the 21st.
 – We will also be discussing our Halloween Party.
 – The temple trek will take place on the 28th and we will discuss details soon.

See you on Saturday

GBG Nearing the end – 10/14/06 October 12, 2006

Another great discussion from one of the most “boring” books we have read! Just kidding Joel. For some reason the book is really interesting, even if it’s just to get to Hesse’s point.

 – Could someone else have written this book and made it better?
 – Would a better editor have made this book more interesting?
 – Is it just a Hesse stylistic thing or was he trying to write it like a Castalian?
 – The theme of the value of the reflective life?

This week we are trying a new place Scooter Joes. (Hint: It’s right before the Funky Buddha…hmmm maybe we should go there instead of the Stupa). http://www.scooterjoescoffee.com/

Speaking of we will be making a trek to the temple on the 21st so plan a little extra time for book club…like 5 hours of time. On the way we will be discussing our new books so I need all submissions by the 20th. Also I have the flyers for our party on the 27th and I will try to get them to you this week.

see ya there

A Post from Sam 9/7/06 October 4, 2006

Well we had a great book club, and a good turnout even though no one posted the meeting time/place. 

Topics of discussion:
Does the author promote the ideals/system of castalia?
What is the balance between experiential learning and traditional models?
Do you believe that Knecht’s perfection is believable?
What are the similarities between Plinio and Father Jacobus?
What role did religion play in Hesse’s life and writings?
How does Hesse succeed when the writing is so boring and dry?
Proposed field trip for the last week of Glass Bead Game.

It has been amazing how great the discussions have been the past two weeks considering this book’s stylistic challenges.  Next week’s conversations can only be better.  We are trying to read through chapter 9 this week, and planning on meeting at Stella’s (an olive branch to our littleton attendees) http://www.stellascoffeehaus.com

Sam

Greetings from Ecuador September 29, 2006

Hello everyone. Hope that everything is going brilliantly. Just thought I would start a post about the Glass Bead Game. Will someone post were you are meeting this Saturday?

 Thanks!

your travelling book club partners

PS – On Saturday Shanda and I are going to stand on both the hemispheres!

Survivor Amy, Chess, Elitism and Donald Duck in Mathmagic Land September 23, 2006

I just wrote an entire post complete with bullets and it’s all gone.  Now I’m crabby and trying to re-create it.   It was already tough in that I was back-dating it to the day we met.  hmmmm.

A guest post by M.

I started by saying that none of the people there know what Survivor Amy looks like, so I can’t report on whether or not she was there.  For all I know, she’s the person who made my yummy mocha thingie.

We discussed whether or not the translation matters (ostensibly it does), but the Prof made the insightful point that it probably doesn’t matter until the 5th or 6th reading of a book (or something).  Joel (what’s your code name?) and Inspector Love noticed that the title of Chapter 3 in the old translation is “Apprenticeship”, and the title in the newer version is “Years of Freedom”.  All other chapter titles were the same. 

Other topics discussed, in no particular order:

• Elitism (elite schools are so elitist)
• comparison to the Amish lifestyle
• mockumentaries — a possible new business venture?
• Ambition and Joseph’s unawareness (?) of his own advancement
• Really smart people with no common sense and/or people skills
• Smart people who don’t play chess
• I’m really not that old, but the 1959 movie Donald Duck in Mathmagic Land.  I’m watching a couple copies on eBay as I type this.  It *will* be our next Movie Night.
• It’s dry, it de-emphasizes the beauty of literature, doesn’t use normal devices such as character and plot.  And yet, we’re still reading it.

And there you have it.  An awfully book-club-like discussion.  We almost lost the “barely” part of our name that week!