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Book Club Housekeeping & Your Questions for Hardcore Literature (Patreon)

Published:
2021-10-17 14:46:07
Imported:
2026-06
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Dear Book Club Readers ---

I hope your reading is treating you well!

Here's a little bit of Book Club housekeeping/admin for the month.

1) A very warm HLBC welcome to new patrons

Welcome aboard, and thank you for joining the club!

Do let us know which book(s) you're enjoying at the moment and what life is looking like for you.

2) Short Ghost Story Challenge 

For those of you taking up the challenge of trying to scare your fellow book club members, please do send any scribblings my way by the 24th.

Details on Halloween reading and the ghost story challenge can be found here.

3) Coffee with Hardcore Literature

Do you have any questions about reading the Great Books? Or, indeed, anything else?

If so, please do let me know either here or PM me and I would love to sit down with a coffee and record my answers.

4) The Turn of the Screw

It's fantastic to hear so many of you diving into the serialised group reading of Henry James' chilling novella. 

We will have our first group reading discussion thread, covering the first five chapters, coming out this week.

5) Frankenstein

The Halloween weekend read of Mary Shelley's gothic horror masterpiece is going to be great fun.

I'm personally working from the 1818 version published in Oxford University Press hardback. If you would like Mary Shelley's introduction to the work for the 1832 version, I recommend the Penguin Classics edition. 

Both of these are great choices. Gutenberg also has the story, and almost every library will have it in the Horror section.

6) Upcoming Content

The Les Misérables Big Read is well underway. We've had podcasts on how to write a book review, overcoming reading obstacles, Emerson's self-reliance, and videos on Proust and Henry James and comparing the writers thus far.

On the horizon we have more short story appreciations and the secret Dickens novel for the Christmas reading season will be unveiled in a couple of weeks, along with more goodies.

And that's all for now, folks!

Happy reading!

Files

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Book Club Housekeeping & Your Questions for Hardcore Literature

Comments

Scott W

Q: In the opening pages of The Western Canon, Bloom hoped, 'there would come an underground blossoming of aesthetic appreciation, where poems are read as poems, and literature is understood, and enjoyed, and valued, on aesthetic principles' (p. 15). Do you share Bloom's hope, and if so, do you think the blossoming has begun? Q: Can you talk about the tradition of 'literary circles' (e.g. The Bloomsbury Group)? How far back does the tradition go? What purpose does the tradition serve? Thanks, Ben. I'm looking forward to The Turn of the Screw and am enjoying Les Miserables, especially thanks to your lecture videos and all the great discussion happening in the comments. Thanks everyone for making this such a great place to spend time.

Bill Freeman

Arlington, Virginia - USA Ben - I have a practical mechanics question. For works with a forward or an introduction, do you read those first or just dive into the beginning pages of the book itself. For example, for "The Odyssey," I read the introduction (by another classics writer) and the author's translation notes first but after reading the book, returned and reread both and got a lot more out of both. Also, I have noticed that these intro pieces can be spoilers. What do you think?

Sergey Taranenko

Hello everyone! I’ve joined the club back in September. So far, I have read Siddhartha and I am now starting with Don Quixote. The lectures have been amazing and very insightful, same goes for the comments. I’ve tried participating in the discussion but unfortunately it seems like Patreon was not intended to be used as a forum. Not only is there no proper notifications system, but comments also seem to occasionally disappear after you post them. I think I am going to take a break from Cervantes’s epic tale and join everyone else in reading “The Turn of the Screw,” so I can finally participate in the live discussion. I am also considering submitting my work for the Ghost Story challenge, but as it often happens with me, what I’ve written as of now digressed into a somewhat different genre. I was thinking that even though you will only read one story aloud, maybe you could post the rest along with the video so we can enjoy them and give each other feedback. Anyways, good luck to everyone who is participating!

Nat Green

I was wondering if there are plans for some kind of forum for the book club, or even something like a Discord server, where everyone can communicate easily and more in ‘real time’ as it were, with notifications etc? I am loving this corner of the internet so far, everyone has been so friendly, and the lectures I have watched are so incredibly interesting and I am learning so much. Thank you Ben for all the work you put in to make this such a great place to ‘hang out’ with like-minded people and to learn :)

Halcyon Distilled

Hello Ben, can narration style and pattern (layout?) (replace with literary term here) be so deliberate to run in tandem with that of the characters’ life events and themes of a novel? Hugo’s digressions and shifts from characters’ narration to historical, seem to mirror the paradigm shifts of the individual characters, the connection between macro and micro, shifts from light to dark, good/evil, etc.. I came to this observation especially when reading Toni Morrison’s “Beloved”. Morrison writes “Beloved” in such a fragmented way that I couldn’t help but think of how complementing it was to the theme of slavery itself as it disrupted lives in its wake, uprooting humans from one place to the next, disorienting them geographically and in spirit. Am I overanalyzing this?

hardcoreliterature
>>69968842

Amazing questions! Thank you very much, Scott. I have a feeling you may already know some of my answer to the first ;) Looking forward to talking about these!

hardcoreliterature
>>69973322

I love practical mechanics questions! I have a reasonably strong opinion on this one. Great question. Thank you, Bill! I look forward to discussing this one!

hardcoreliterature
>>69973871

Thank you, Sergey! Having spoken with Patreon, I believe they are working on the occasionally disappearing comments. It's so important to save everything, especially as the comments are so wonderfully thought-out and insightful. Cervantes definitely benefits from a little break, and The Turn of the Screw is a nice length as a literary side avenue. I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the tale, and do consider sending something across even if the genre has changed a little - it sounds like you have written a fun story :) Also, great idea, and I echo your good luck wishes to everybody!

hardcoreliterature
>>69980477

Great question, Nat! I'm looking forward to answering this one. And thank you so much for the kind words about the club - it really has become a lovely place to hang out thanks to everyone here :)

hardcoreliterature
>>70006238

Amazing question. This is one of my favourite things to think about when it comes to studying literature. You're definitely not overanalysing - you're onto something here, Beatrice. And I'm looking forward to going in-depth on this one :)

Paul Bernal

Ben, what are your top 3 books that need to be turned into films?

Fiona Wang

Do you think it's true that the best literature are created by authors who have experienced significant suffering? Suffering is a universal human condition, but I think the level of suffering differs between individuals. I am inclined to think that those who have suffered the most (and survived it) become some of the best authors. What are your thoughts?

Florian Pesantes

Ben, thank you for inviting to the Q&A: You someplace mentioned the term “structuralism”. First time I’ve ever heard of this. Was it in the lecture about Henry James? I’d love if you could expand on this and perchance give some advice to self study. I love the serial reading of “The Turn of the Screw”. Can’t wait for Saturday and chapter 3. I have attached to it the “Black Mirror” series on Netflix. Henry James first, the video thereafter. Saturday is my day of the week completely clear of anything attached to my day job and ideally without any timed appointments to pursuing the activities or inactivities that keep the joy in my life.

Caroline P
>>70130380

Hello Florian I was pleased to see you post. I felt you had been busy and was missing reading your comments

Michelle Marcoux

Thanks for opening it up for more questions, Ben. I apologize if this has been asked and answered in a different video. Since we have been discussing digressions with Les Misérables, my question pertains to that topic. I will often hear the term digression, or sometimes (especially lately while I’m reading a fantasy series - Malazan) people will say they hit a point that is “exposition heavy” or call a certain part an “info dump.” I’m curious what your thoughts are on those terms and how you think those parts of a story can successfully be done in literature, and what elements you think make them a miss for some readers at certain times. Thanks :)

hardcoreliterature
>>70091874

That's an incredible question. Suffering, sympathy, and aesthetic development are intricately linked. I'm looking forward to answering this one. Thanks, Fiona!

hardcoreliterature
>>70130380

Great question. Thank you, Florian! I would love to talk about this - yes, I believe it was in the Henry James video I mentioned structuralism. Wonderful to hear you've attached The Turn of the Screw to one of my favourite TV series. You must let me know which episode is your favourite :) Like Caroline, I have missed your posts too and hope you're keeping well :)

hardcoreliterature
>>70180659

Thank you, Michelle. This is a wonderful question - I love thinking about the mechanics of narrative, which is what I believe your question hits upon. Writers certainly do get taken to task for overdoing the exposition, which leaves us at a curious crossroads when it comes to Victor Hugo. I'm looking forward to answering this :)