Book club meeting

[pegkerr]

The night before last I drove out to one of the suburbs because I'd been invited to be the guest at a book club discussing The Wild Swans. This was fun; I've done it before. I was prey to my usual anxieties that a) I wouldn't be able to find the address and b) I would talk too much. I did find the address--although I feared I was lost at one point and almost turned around--and I was on time for the meeting. And perhaps I did talk too much, but the book club didn't seem to mind and asked many questions. I asked my usual questions of them in return. As I have come to learn, the fairy tale "The Wild Swans" isn't as well known as I had thought it was when I started writing the book, and several of them had never encountered it before. Not all the parallels that I'd attempted to draw were seen by the readers in this group, either, i.e., Bill is William's doppelganger, Patty is Patience's, and the nettle coats = the squares of the AIDS Quilt. One reader figured things out about William rather quickly, but for the rest, the truth was revealed to them in the gaol scene, at the same time that William figured it out himself. I've had a range of responses from readers on that one, and so it sounded about right.

Discussion was lively and lasted until 10:00. As a thank you gift, they presented me with a little book, Cicely Mary Barker's Flower Fairies of the Spring, and a little fairy statuette.

I do enjoy doing book club meetings.

Comments

[liadan-m.livejournal.com]

Well, I know the reason I first picked up The Wild Swans was because I was estatic you had written something besides Emerald House Rising (which, btw, got me started on gems and jewelry, a nice little profitable sideline). But I knew the story of the seven swans from when I read fairy tales. It was one of my favorites, because I liked the stories of sacrifice and the times it paid off. An essential part of my early reading.

I'm thinking about Wild Swans at the moment because I just re-purchased it for my collection. The first edition wandered off into someone else's library, and now my mother is reading it. It's interesting to see what she's seeing as the paralells in the book and what conclusions she's making as she goes along. Of course, she's the one who read me the seven swans all those years ago.

Hmmm, Emerald House Rising is nominated for our book club sometime in the fall...do you think you'd mind coming across the river to the U?

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

I'd be very pleased to come to your book club to talk about Emerald House Rising. I've been to five or six meetings about Swans, but I've never been to a book club discussing EHR, so it would be interesting for me. If your group would like to invite me, just let me know.

[liadan-m.livejournal.com]

will do.

We're all a bit odd, so somehow its not surprising we're doing something like using an unusual book. Now, if I can convence them that we need to do this sometime before finals...

Nettle coats

[amandageist.livejournal.com]

Peg, if you have never read "Women's Work," by Elizabeth Barber (which everybody should), and if you're interested, I have trivia about nettle coats.

(makes 4,683rd mental note to find a copy of The Wild Swans)

~Amanda

Re: Nettle coats

[liadan-m.livejournal.com]

order it. I just found a copy in borders by accident, and I've been looking for 3 years.

[bookshop.livejournal.com]

That sounds like such a nice and pleasant experience for everyone involved. :)

The Wild Swans has been on my mind a lot because I've been betaing a fanfic recently that draws strongly on one of the chief themes in the novel. Without spoiling anyone who may be reading this who is looking forward to reading it, I'd like to encourage you, if you have time, to take a peek at geoviki's fic A Thousand Beautiful Things when it comes out--it should be posted in its entirety in a week or so.

Viki has never read The Wild Swans, though I've recommended it to her for reasons that will be obvious, but being her beta has brought back to me the way that certain archetypes, certain myths, and certain themes in folk literature remain compelling, even when they are retold and told over and over again.

*hugs* I haven't commented here in a while Peg--I've been rather distracted on the whole (but good). But I hope you're doing well. It sounds as if you are. :)

[kiwiria.livejournal.com]

*sigh* Wish you could come to Denmark. I'd love to attend a book club meeting with you as the speaker, and I'm sure a lot more people would know "The Wild Swans". I got most of those parallels right away! :)

[til-midnight.livejournal.com]

My Comp Lit class read Grimm's Fairy Tales and when we discussed "The Wild Swans," I immediately thought of you and squee'd into my hand. However, that was the first time I've run across the fairy tale.