Linda Presents NiKolai Gogol

Jacquie's Email

Hello Literary Ladies!
Of course, Nikolai Gogol is much more than his “Nose”, as Linda will tell us all when we meet for her presentation on Zoom but having read his astonishing short story recently in George Saunders' A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, I thought it would be fun to look at a few artists' interpretation of one of Gogol's most famous creations -- and they certainly did not disappoint.
Until then, keep your noses clean! x Jacquie

Christine's Minutes

On March 30, 2022, fourteen members and one associate member of the Literature Club gathered, yes, once again on little screens brought to us courtesy of Zoom*. And since we have become so intimate – adept – with zoom, I thought I would share a few facts about this phenomenon.

*ZOOM was founded in 2011 by Eric Yuan and some other engineers. In 2013 they launched their software. In 2017 ZOOM’s valuation made it a unicorn. The company turned its first profit in 2019. On March 11, 2020, WHO declared that the spread of this new respiratory disease, the novel coronavirus, was now a pandemic. Millions of people started to work remotely, children had to go to school remotely, and even some Literature Clubs have had to eschew their lunches and – meet remotely.

President Connie Stewart rang the bell at 1:11p.m. She indicated that “where is spring?” should go on record as her first question of the meeting.

The minutes of the previous meeting were read and accepted. Our treasurer reported that, with a recent infusion of our annual dues, our treasury has swollen to a respectable $430.11.

As for our business: Joanna Reisman shared her screen to show us the ballot for next year. After winnowing from the cumbersome original list, we now have six choices for next year’ program: Nineteenth-century American and British Novels; Banned Books; Behind the Iron Curtain; Drama; The Harlem Renaissance; Literature from Canada. It does not bear mentioning that the last choice is new this year, and our program chair is by birth a Canadian.

Connie thanked Jacquie for compiling such a lovely collection of ‘noses’ to illustrate her email.

Today, Linda Tucker presented Vladimir Nabokov’s biography of Nikolai Gogol, originally published by New Directions in 1961. Linda suggested that as the book starts with Gogol’s death and that the word nose appears no less than thirteen times in the first three pages, we should assume that this will be no ordinary biography merely relating a life story. Nevertheless, our presenter did tell us something of Gogol’s short life.

Nicolai Gogol was born in 1809, in Sorochintsky, Ukraine. His father died when he was a teenager. After high school, Gogol left home to seek a civil service job in St Petersburg. Without connections, that turned out to be difficult. He had equally little success as an actor or a poet. He took money his mother had entrusted to him and traveled to Germany. Only when the money ran out did he return to St Petersburg and take a shabby civil servant job.

By 1830 his short stories about Ukrainian life were coming out in literary reviews. According to Nabokov, Gogol’s students at a girls’ boarding school thought he was very dull.

Meeting the revered Pushkin in 1831 meant a great deal to Gogol. By then Gogol was publishing his short stories, about “ghosts and Ukrainians”, according to Nabokov. The stories were quite popular, “The Nose” among them. When his play, The Government Inspector was produced in 1836, Gogol felt that it was misunderstood by the critics, and left the country to lick his wounds in Rome, for twelve years. There he started writing Dead Souls. In 1839 he made a quick trip back to Russia and read Dead Souls to his friends. Then, back in Italy he wrote “The Overcoat,” and kept working at Dead Souls. The first part of Dead Souls was published in 1841, with the name changed to the uninspired The Adventures of Chichikov, as Dead Souls was considered blasphemous. For the next six years Gogol traveled, looking for health and inspiration, but none. He was unable to finish Dead Souls, and actually burned all he had written of the second part. Gogol returned to Russia in 1848, and died in 1851, at the age of 42.

Following our immersion in Nabokov’s biography, members read passages from Dead Souls, “The Overcoat,” and finally, “The Nose”, a story initially rejected by the Moscow Observer as “dirty and trivial”. We also heard from George Saunders who, in his A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, explains the key scene in “The Nose” in this way: “The world is full of outrageous nonsense”.  Additionally, members learned some important vocabulary specific to Russian literature. Nabokov explained “poshlust”, and per Saunders, we discovered “a particular Russian form of unreliable narration called skaz”.

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that after spending quality time with Gogol, the world can never look quite the same again.

Respectfully submitted,

Christine Lehner, Recording secretary

Sharon Presents Zora Thurston Neale

 Jacquie's Email

Zora Neale Hurston

There are years that ask questions and years that answer.

Dear Literary Ladies,
    As this year continues to raise so many questions, we are so fortunate to be able to come together again this Wednesday, May 16th at 12:45 pm on Zoom to hear Sharon's inaugural presentation on Zora Neale Hurston.
    In addition, attached please find a draft of Joanna's inaugural topics ballot for your review. We ask that you come with any suggestions or changes you might wish to see before Joanna sends it out for an official first round of voting.

    Until then! Jacquie

Christine's Minutes

On March 16, 2022 sixteen members of the Literature Club gathered, yes, once again, on Zoom. From a quick check-in on the state of our membership, per our Zoom tradition, we learned that the woodcocks are emerging, that cappuccino is to be had in Williamstown, that some people are actually back to working IRL and wearing heels, that Carla has changed her topic to Margaret Wise Brown, and that we are all very concerned about Ukraine.

At 1:07 President Connie Stewart expertly rang the bell for her inaugural meeting.

The minutes for the last meeting were read, and accepted.

The treasury is still at $265.11, but there are hopes for huge gains in the coming weeks, as our dues are collected. Your $15 may be sent via check, Venmo, or Zelle to Lori, our treasurer.

There was a brief discussion of the list of possible topics, as circulated by Joanna. Literature of Adolescence was deleted, and Literature of Canada was added.

    Then, onward to our armchair travels to Florida, to Harlem, to Haiti, and back to Florida, all in an afternoon. Sharon, in her inaugural presentation for Literature Club, knocked it out of the park. Her subject, Zora Neale Hurston, was a novelist, playwright, anthropologist, folklorist, and a leader in the Harlem Renaissance.

    She was born in 1891, in Notasulga, Alabama, during hog-killing season. She was fifth of the eight children of John and Lucy Hurston. Zora, however, was not pleased with that birth year, and subtracted from it so many times that she ended up being born in 1901.

    When she was three, the family moved to Eatonville, Florida. Eatonville was one of the few all-Black incorporated towns in the country. Valerie Boyd, her biographer, wrote that her confidence derived from growing up in Eatonville, where she learned to experience “racial health”. Growing up without the “white gaze” she did not know she was ‘colored’ until she went away to school.

    When Zora was 13, her mother died, and many things in her life were altered for the worse. She was sent off to boarding school where she did not fit in. When she returned home, she discovered that her father had remarried, to the archetypal evil step-mother. The father, John Hurston, was a complicated man. He was a pastor of the Macedonian Missionary Baptist Church; he was also a philanderer, and sometimes violent. Several of Hurston’s protagonists are based on her father, including the pastor in Jonah’s Gourd Vine. After returning from boarding school, Hurston worked at many jobs, from a ladies’ maid in a theatre troupe to a waitress, ending up in Maryland.

    But all she cared about was getting her high school degree, and to that end, she shaved more years off her age in order qualify for free schooling in Baltimore. She excelled in high school and was admitted to Howard University. Her writing began to get serious attention. In 1924, her short story, “Drenched in Light,” was accepted for publication, and the next year she moved north to Harlem. Like Eatonville, Harlem was all black, and she became part of the Harlem Renaissance. At a 1925 Awards Dinner for winners of the Opportunity Literary Contest, Hurston won several prizes, for two short stories and for a play called Spears. Langston Hugues was there, and decided he wanted to know her – they soon became close friends.

    With her prize money, Hurston enrolled at Barnard. Thus began her lifelong need to accept financial aid from white people. This aid allowed her to continue with her writing, but it also led to complicated and uncomfortable situations. At Columbia, Hurston met Franz Boas, the renowned anthropologist. Anthropology was a perfect fit for Hurston, who never stopped loving and retelling the stories heard on her porch in Eatonville. In 1927 she received a fellowship to collect “Negro folklore” in the South, and collect she did, from Florida to Haiti and New Orleans. She discovered the use of ‘double words’ in Negro vernacular, and became a pre-eminent scholar of Hoodoo.

    Hurston’s anthropological work found its way into her novels, as did the language of her characters. Her use of this vernacular was often criticized, as it made Blacks appear uneducated. She was also criticized for not focusing on the plight of Blacks. But she was also defended by certain Black critics.

    Meanwhile, money was needed to live. Charlotte van der veer Quick Mason supported many Black artists in addition to Hurston. She only asked that she be called “Godmother” and that her identity be kept secret.

    Hurston’s 1928 essay, ‟How it Feels to be Colored Me,” published in a white journal, set out her views on race. In 1930 she began working on a play, Mule Bone, with Langston Hugues, based on a short story of Hurston’s. But things between the two grew complicated, and in the end, the process destroyed their friendship.

    Hurston’s three marriages were all brief. Her longest relationship was with Percy Punter, a graduate student at Columbia, who later became the inspiration for Teacake in Their Eyes Were Watching God.

Hurston’s best-known work, Their Eyes Were Watching God, was written over seven weeks in Haiti, and was published in 1937 to very little notice. Even though it contains a rare incidence of what is known to beekeepers as “Apian-porn.” Then in 1973, Alice Walker ‘discovered’ Hurston and her work. Since then, millions of copies have been sold all over the world, it is taught in schools everywhere, and even a Halle Berry movie has been made.

    The writer’s life did not end well. She struggled financially, had serious health issues, and died in a welfare home in St Lucie, Florida in 1960.

    But Walker’s discovery and resuscitation has wrought great changes. Eatonville now hosts a Hurston Festival every year, and there is a Zora Neal Hurston National Museum of Fine Arts.

Sharon shared with us her experience of hearing the latest biographer, Valerie Boyd, speak, on January 7, which is Hurston’s birthday. She then emailed with the writer, until her untimely death at 58.

    Zora Neal Hurston remains with us. Her play written with Langston Hugues, Mule Bone, was finally produced on Broadway in 1991. Her words keep resonating, as her quote: “There are years that ask questions and years that answer.”

    Members read from Hurston’s autobiography, Dust Tracks, from Jonah’s Gourd Vine, from Their Eyes Were Watching God, and from Valerie Boyd’s Wrapped in Rainbows.

Respectfully submitted,
Christine Lehner, Recording Secretary

Annual Meeting 2022

Jacquie's Email

Hello Literary Ladies!!! It's somehow that time of year again - March!!! Along with hopes for warmer weather, crocuses, and peace in Europe, it's time for our Annual Meeting.
    Our agenda includes:

• The nominating committee will announce our fearless leaders for 2022-24 - president and vice president. (This is not an election year for other officers.)
• A discussion on whether to continue on Zoom? In-person masked? Lunch? (As Fran pointed out, we owe Sharon many!)
• Begin a discussion of topics for next year. Attached please find a list of topics since the inception of the club to facilitate brainstorming. (We've done biography twice before, and in 1912-1913, German literature was the topic. Hmmm.)

I look forward to seeing you all on Wednesday in your neat little rectangles on my computer screen. Until then! Jacquie

Christine's Minutes

On March 2, 2022, fourteen members of the Literature Club met, again, on Zoom, this time for the time-honored ritual of our Annual Meeting. Our pre-meeting chat ranged from books to new kitchens to blizzards in Montreal to the last great Auk.
    President Fran Greenberg rang the bell for the last time as our president. The minutes were read and accepted. The treasury remains at $ 265.11
    The nominating committee presented their slate for a new president and vice president. Their two-year term will begin next meeting. Because of COVID constraints, we were unable to have our usual ceremony for the "Passing of the Bell", with fifers, drummers, baton-twirlers, and book jugglers.
    The committee nominated for our next president, Connie Stewart, and for vice opresident, Joanna Reisman. Both were unanimously acclaimed. All members applauded Fran for her excellent presidential term, especially in what have been exceptionally trying times. She has been a reassuringly competent presence at her computer guiding us through the shoals of Zoom. In her farewell speech, Fran generously declared that the Literature Club is “a superb organization to be president of".
    Our first topic of the meeting: to Zoom or not to Zoom, that is the question.

Whether ‘tis nobler to stay in our screens
And miss the pleasures of Another’s
Living room, and A Literary Lunch
Or to take arms against a mess of mandates
And by opposing them, to risk the wrath
Of Omicron. To Zoom, a known Path.
Or not to Zoom, tis a consummation
Devoutly to be Wished for.

If not absolute consensus, then there certainly was agreement and a willingness on the part of every member to be considerate to all other members. We agreed that each of us should feel safe. The decision, such as it was: we will continue with Zoom through our April 20th meeting, when Jacquie will present The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas.* After that we hope to be able to meet outside and unmasked. One important sidebar: for many presenters it would be very helpful to know ahead of time whether or not we will Zoom, as that can affect their preparation.
    Our second topic was to discuss suggest possible topics for next year. Joanna helpfully provided the list of the suggested topics from last year, containing lots of the old chestnuts. New suggestions included:

• Crime and criminals
• Literature from Countries threatened by Russian land-grabbing and Putin’s madness? Or more succinctly, Writing from Behind what Used to Be called the Iron Curtain, or even, Reclosing the Iron Curtain.
• A book or an author that changed my life
• Banned Books – not band books as this secretary originally understood and then wracked her brain searching for rock’n’roll books.
• Books from a single specific year

OR, we could revisit The New York Times’ list of Comforting Reads.

Meeting adjourned at 2:40 pm
Respectfully submitted,
Christine Lehner, Recording Secretary

*That program has been re-scheduled for the end of the season.