Great Books is a conversation; it is not a lecture. I’ve seemed to have forgotten that fact. For at least the last 20 years, I have allowed the sessions of Great Books of Greater Cleveland to open with a mini lecture comprising background information on the writer and the work itself. Depending upon the leader, this lecture could last from five to fifteen minutes.
The Great Books sessions I attended 40 years ago began with the leader asking a question about what we had read. Ruth Helmuth would ask a question and she’d sweep the room with her gimlet-eyed stare. Those who didn’t have an answer were squirming in their seats! Other leaders took a softer approach, using an encouraging tone as they asked questions. But whoever led would not have opened with a lecture. It was understood that a Great Books session was purely a conversation.
Mea culpa, friends. Running this venerable group is daunting and time-consuming. I let go of the original structure of pure conversation, and thus our meetings evolved to include the “introductory information” opening.
We are dropping it. The GB sessions will begin with the leader asking a question to get the discussion off the ground, and away we go. When I followed this original format during the most recent GB session, I did, in fact, run out of questions. At that point the participants stepped in and stepped up to carry on the conversation with their own questions, observations, and disagreements. It was positively brilliant! To all GB discussion leaders I say, “Trust the group. They will come through for you.”
I hope you’ll join the next conversation on October 17, 7:00 p.m., when we will discuss two short stories by E. A. Poe. See this website for details to join in person or virtually.