September 2009, In A Grove by Ryunosuke Akutagawa

Our next meeting will be September 25, 2009 at 07:00 P.M. We will meet at the Plaza Branch Library, 4801 Main St., Kansas City, MO.

We will be discussing In A Grove, by Ryunosuke Akutagawa. This is a classic Japanese short story available on line in English translation.
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In A Grove is a short story by Japanese writer Ryūnosuke Akutagawa. It first appearing in the January 1922 edition of the Japanese literature monthly Shinchō. Akira Kurosawa used this story as the basis for his award-winning movie Rashōmon. "In a Grove" is an early modernist short story consisting of seven varying accounts of the murder of a samurai, Kanazawa no Takehiro, whose corpse has been found in a bamboo forest near Kyoto. Each section simultaneously clarifies and obfuscates what the reader knows about the murder, eventually creating a complex and contradictory vision of events that brings into question humanity's ability or willingness to perceive and transmit objective truth. The story is often praised as being among the greatest in Japanese literature.

Those of you who have complained in the past that the books selected by the Great Books group were too long have no excuse for not reading this book. It is about 9 pages long depending on the font size.

LINK TO MEETUP.COM PAGE FOR THIS MEETING

August 2009, Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

Our next meeting will be August 28, 2009 at 07:00 P.M. We will meet at the Plaza Branch Library, 4801 Main St., Kansas City, MO

We will be discussing Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman. This will be the third of our planned three meetings on the book. Pick your favorite poem and share it with the group. It may appear that we are stuck in a rut of Whitman's free verse. Well, it's summer time and things move slowly in the summer and that includes our group.

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