Introduction
Can We Make Sense of Love?
Across the centuries, love has been a recurring subject for writers and artists, giving rise to countless stories.
In The Agony of Eros, Byung-Chul Han describes love as a process of losing the self in the other and returning from that self-forgetting to a changed sense of self. In The Art of Loving, Erich Fromm examines the causes and conditions of love with an almost technical precision, distinguishing falling in love from being in love.
Whatever the explanation, there is courage and romance in the moment when two strangers choose to dismantle the wall between them, commit to one another, and share an inner life.
This time, let’s talk about love.
Philosophy & Society
Read the original article (Chinese) Original Event Information
Date and time: Sep 6, 2024 (Fri) 7:30PM
Location: 16595 Redmond Way, Redmond, WA 98052 (Eastline Apartment 3F Clubroom)
Topic: Works About Love That Matter to You
Capacity: 15 people, including five observer seats
— Schedule —
Arrival and seating
Opening and participant introductions
Sharing session: works about love that matter to you (3–5 minutes each)
Open discussion: recent books, films, plays, music, or something interesting that has happened.
Group photo
— Registration —
https://forms.gle/Aa54wS1a98zZErf99
Please use the registration link above.
Registration order is determined by the link above.
If attending as an observer, add “observer” after your display name.
Your email address is used to send the apartment access code and instructions.
After registering, add the assistant on WeChat to join the event group.
📌 Include “book club” in your friend request.
Find the account “别处读书会” on Xiaohongshu.
Find out about other events.
— Notes from Xiaowan —
I was reading in an armchair when an Ella Fitzgerald recording suddenly made me want to paint. This picture came from the memory of wearing a qipao at a dance: a green dress against a red curtain.
I enjoy swing dancing. In partner dancing, rhythm is the basis of an understanding that need not be spoken. People from different cultures and places can dance together through a shared sense of melody, beat, and rhythm. The process resembles love: testing, understanding, moving forward and back, making room for each other. Words are only one, rather limited, form of expression.
About Elsewhere Book Club
Elsewhere Book Club
The name Elsewhere comes from Milan Kundera’s Life Is Elsewhere.
Life Is Elsewhere.
We seem more inclined to imagine a golden age when looking backward or forward. Yet, in my own life, this moment and elsewhere have become inseparable, each giving meaning to the other.
Live fully in this moment. The search for elsewhere also takes place here and now.
I arrived in Seattle just last month. In an unfamiliar place, my first impulse was to start a small book club, perhaps to meet others who find steadiness in books and enjoy sustained conversation.
Mount Sumeru within a mustard seed; a mustard seed holding Mount Sumeru.
I hope this small space can give us somewhere to exchange ideas each week.