About us
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The BIG IDEAS book club is a monthly meetup for members wanting to discuss important or intriguing ideas and issues in society and our lives. Originally called the 'Phil-Psyc' book club, the discussions include not only big ideas in philosophy and psychology but also from economics, politics, sociology, and science.
Each month a big idea or key thinker will be selected for discussion. For example, a topic could be something like ’free will’, ‘identity’, ’meritocracy’, ‘the simulation hypothesis’, ’post-capitalism’, etc. Similarly, the key thinker could be someone like ‘Carl Jung’, ‘Michel Foucault’, ‘Daniel Kahneman’, etc.
For each topic, a key book and video material will be suggested. The attendees are not required to have read/watched these in order to attend and are welcome to engage in their own reading/viewing material. However, I do strongly encourage reading the set book as it helps in creating focal points for the discussion.
This monthly Meetup will be hosted by Paul T. Many thanks to Dr Steve Mayers who started this book club (and who also started Café Psychologique Sydney) but who unfortunately has moved on from Sydney. Hopefully, the meetup organizer pool will expand so as not to rely on one person.
During the post-Covid restart of this book club (late 2023), it may take some time to find a favourite meeting venue, and hopefully members will have some promising ideas on venues. Being relatively quiet, having food and drink, being approximately central to Sydney and close to public transport are at least four criteria that make sense to me. As a starting place, we can test the 2nd floor (one below the rooftop) of the Keg & Brew Hotel, 26 Foveaux St, Surry Hills. It’s close to Central Station and the light rail. But make sure to check the actual event location.
Come along and join in the conversation!
Keywords: Book club, philosophy, psychology, sociology, economics, politics, science, critical thinking, intellectual discussions, conversation.
Upcoming events
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What Do Christmas Movies Tell Us About Ourselves and Society?
Keg & Brew Hotel, 26 Foveaux St, Surry Hills NSW 2010, Australia, Surry Hills, AUIs Love Actually a celebration of love, or a two-hour HR incident with tinsel? Is Home Alone a cosy Christmas classic, or a study in how cheerfully American culture celebrates a kid maiming grown men with paint cans and a blowtorch? And, of course, is Die Hard actually a Christmas movie?
This December, the Big Ideas Book Club is trading a book for a lively exploration of Christmas movies, with familiar favourites such as Love Actually, Home Alone, Elf, The Holiday, Die Hard, It's a Wonderful Life and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation giving just a taste of what we might discuss. This will be a casual and social event, so there's no need to brush up on your Derridean deconstruction, Foucauldian discourse analysis or Žižekian cultural theory.
That said, while there's no book to read for this event, we've prepared an optional guide (link below) to spark ideas about themes commonly explored in Christmas movies. These include nostalgia and invented tradition; love and romance; loneliness and forced festive cheer; redemption and second chances; and consumer capitalism vs the Christmas spirit. And if the theme of Christmas as a social institution that forces a dysfunctional group of people to perform family harmony once a year sounds familiar, may I also suggest you watch the wonderful Australian series A Moody Christmas, currently available on Netflix and Prime Video (sometimes listed as The Moodys Season 1).
Optional pre-reading guide: What Do Christmas Movies Tell Us About Ourselves and Society? (32 pages)
We'll inevitably spend a lot of time in the Anglo-American Christmas universe, but we'd also love to hear what Christmas, or its closest equivalent, looks like on screen (and around the dinner table) in other countries and cultures.
So join us for a Christmas drink (and optional meal) at 6:30pm on Monday, 7th December, on the 2nd floor of the Keg & Brew Hotel in Surry Hills (i.e. up two flights of stairs). The venue is conveniently located near Central Station and the Light Rail.
We’ll see you there — unless, of course, you’re unexpectedly trapped at an airport, you’ve bumped into your teenage crush while doing some Christmas shopping, or you’re defending your house from burglars.
P.S. Please adjust your RSVP if you have indicated that you will come but are no longer able to do so. This is courteous to others if there is a waitlist.
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These are just some further optional links to consider to supplement the reading of the prepared document. Feel free to pass on other useful links in the discussion section.Videos and Podcasts:
- Dr Lauren Rosewarne, an academic at Melbourne University, shares what she learned after watching (or enduring) 1000 Christmas movies as research for her book Analysing Christmas in Film: Santa to the Supernatural (2018):
What I Learned Watching 1000 Christmas Movies (13 mins)
The Best (and Worst) Christmas Movies – by someone who’s watched over 1000 (9 mins)
75 Christmas Films Worth Watching - Six short podcast clips on various aspects of Christmas movies (hit the play button near the top):
A Film Lover's Guide to Christmas Movies - Love Actually - an attack, a defence, and a therapist’s ranking of each relationship:
Toxic Takeaways - How Not to Love, Actually
Love Actually is Good, Actually - BFI video essay
Relationship Therapist Ranks Love Actually Romances
Written:
- Optional pre-reading guide:
What Do Christmas Movies Tell Us About Ourselves and Society? (32 pages) - A short piece on the benefits of watching Christmas movies:
Why Christmas Movies Make Us Feel Good - A data geek's analysis of whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie:
Using data to determine if Die Hard is a Christmas movie - Article on the sociology of Christmas:
What Our Favourite Festive Films Reveal About Society
17 attendees- Dr Lauren Rosewarne, an academic at Melbourne University, shares what she learned after watching (or enduring) 1000 Christmas movies as research for her book Analysing Christmas in Film: Santa to the Supernatural (2018):
Past events
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