Short, Cheap, Nearly Great Books SE Denver: December 2021

Friday, December 31, 2021

Tues, Jan 4 @ 7:30 PM [MT] via Zoom + Schedule

Please join us to discuss The Thing About Cassandra.

Find it on page 13 of Trigger Warning: Short Fictions & Disturbances by Neil Gaiman.

Contact me (Mike Levin) for the Zoom link.

Friday, December 17, 2021

Tues, Dec 21 @ 7:30 PM [MT] via Zoom

Please join us to discuss The Economic Basis of the Withering Away of the State by Vladimir Lenin.

Find it on page 297 of Imperfect Ideal: Utopian and Dystopian Vision – Great Books Foundation.

Read it online at
https://wikirouge.net/texts/en/The_State_and_Revolution/05/V._The_Economic_Basis_of_the_Withering_Away_of_the_State

Contact me for the Zoom link.

Friday, December 3, 2021

Tues, Dec 7 @ 7:30 PM [MT] via Zoom

Please join us to discuss Pity and Shame by Ursula K. Le Guin.

Find it on page154 of Best American Short Stories - 2019.

Read it online at: https://tinhouse.com/pity-and-shame/

Contact me for the Zoom link.

Mike Levin

Basic Guidelines for Shared Inquiry

Read the selection carefully before participating in the discussion. This ensures that all participants are equally prepared to talk about the ideas in the work.
Most of us need to read short stories more than once.
Support your ideas with evidence from the text. This keeps the discussion focused on understanding the selection and enables the group to weigh textual support for different answers.
Discuss the ideas in the selection and try to understand them fully before exploring issues that go beyond the selection. Reflecting on the ideas in the text and the evidence to support them makes the exploration of related issues more productive.
Listen to other participants and respond to them directly. Directing your comments and questions to other group members, not always to the leader, will make the discussion livelier and more dynamic.
Expect the leader to only ask questions. Effective leaders help participants develop their own ideas, with everyone gaining a new understanding in the process. Participants should look to the leader for questions, not answers.