Adding Women to the Mix
November 16, 2006

Last night, I went to my book club, where we discussed The Old Man and the Sea. Everybody agreed it is a great book and has great prose style. We talked more than usual - probably because there were three women there. And that created a different atmosphere. Until now, the club has been exclusively male.

Afterward, the group leader told me he thought we should keep it all male - and he's probably right. Given an audience of XX chromosomes, we are still doing what we have done since we hit puberty: showing off for girls.

That said, the meeting was successful. Ideas were exchanged. Points debated. "Girls" impressed. And, most important, several passages of Hemingway's prose were read out loud. He really was the greatest prose stylist of the 20th century. To not like Hemingway is to have a dead ear for language.

posted by M. Masterson @ 1:20 PM,

3 Comments:

At 11:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

My purpose for being in a book club is to read a book and then gain the benefit of other readers' insights and interpretations. Book club discussions deeply enrich my reading experience. By keeping your club all-male you're missing out on the female perspective and limiting your reward.

 
At 1:41 PM, Anonymous Amyred said...

Um, was the point of the meeting to read a great piece of literature, or to see if the guys still have "got it?" Just wondering. ;-}

 
At 11:51 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

You better hope that Martha Burk doesn't here about this decision.

 

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