Modernist Fiction, Its Origins and Beyond... and other stuff

Please join us for a discussion and read through of Junichiro Tanizaki's 1931 novel Quicksand. Please read the whole book for this Meetup.

Quicksand is a silkily nuanced novel of erotic gamesmanship and obsession. Sonoko Kakiuchi, an Osaka lady of a good family, married to a dully respected lawyer, tells a story of temptation and betrayal. Sonoko is infatuated with the beautiful art student and femme fatale Mitsuko, a woman so seductive and heartless she can even turn Sonoko's husband into her own accomplice. Filled with intrigue and treacherous romance, readers will be entranced by Tanizaki’s seminal novel.

Amazon Purchase Link:
https://www.amazon.com/Quicksand-Junichiro-Tanizaki/dp/0679760229

Please join us for a discussion and read through over the next year on Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, sometimes shortened to Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, is a six-volume work by the English historian Edward Gibbon. The six volumes cover, from 98 to 1590, the peak of the Roman Empire, the history of early Christianity and its emergence as the Roman state religion, the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, the rise of Genghis Khan and Tamerlane and the fall of Byzantium, as well as discussions on the ruins of Ancient Rome.

Online Text Link:
https://gutenberg.org/cache/epub/25717/pg25717-images.html#vol01

Amazon Purchase Link:
https://www.amazon.com/Decline-Empire-Volumes-Everymans-Library/dp/0307700763

Please join us for a discussion and read through of René Girard's 1972 essay Perilous Balance. I am reposting this meetup because I wasn’t able to give people enough time to read and digest the essay the last time. Please read the whole essay for this Meetup.

"Perilous Balance: A Comic Hypothesis" is a 1972 essay by French theorist René Girard, notably included in his book To Double Business Bound. It explores the philosophical and psychological nature of laughter, defining both laughter and tears as bodily forms of catharsis that subconsciously express human powerlessness against mimetic rivalry.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://hiw.kuleuven.be/hua/events/hom-seminar/suggested-reading/girard-perilousbalance.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiXqZjozdyVAxXDiCsGHagXCggQFnoECCEQAQ&usg=AOvVaw2ZqTYxTxuNnGT4JQvptWCb