Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Rushdie Wins!!

Hey all--wow, what a great meeting last week. Thanks to everyone who braved the crappy weather to head out to 1369.

We liked 1369 so much that we've decided to keep the venue for our next meeting. See you all on Monday, August 13th, 8pm at 1369 in Inman Square. We decided to take on Rushdie's The Satanic Verses for the month of August--it's a bit longer than our other contender, Kafka on the Shore, so will be a good fit before school restarts and people's schedules become tighter.

As always give me a shout with any questions.

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Perfume Movie Night? Wednesday?

IS WEDNESDAY A BETTER DAY?

The screen adaptation of Perfume is just being released today. Wednesday August 1 works for me, but I am open to suggestions. We could do this at my apartment depending on how many are interested (our living room is a bit small, but I do have 2 couches!) .

How many people are interested in getting together to watch it?

Monday, July 23, 2007

Some interesting connections to Perfume

Reading perfume prompted me to start toying on the web, googling topics like: "sensory adaptation" and "olfactory hallucination." While I couldn't find too many scholarly pieces to read, I did come across a few definitions/points of interest. Olfactory hallucination was prompted by conversations that I regularly have with my boyfriend who is a mental health professional. I wondered, if Grenouille was brought to trial, modern day, how would he be judged/diagnosed. I feel almost certain that he would serve a lessor sentence due to insanity (but anyone with a legal background feel free to weigh in).

Just curious--did Perfume prompt any similar web searches from anyone else?

I'm posting some of my results below:

A definition:
Olfactory hallucination: A false perception of odor or smell. Typically, the experience is very unpleasant. For example, the person may smell decaying fish, dead bodies, or burning rubber. Sometimes, those experiencing olfactory hallucinations believe the odor emanates from them. Olfactory hallucinations are more typical of medical disorders than mental disorders.


Links:
http://chemse.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/27/7/611

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bsc/hed/2000/00000040/00000007/art00092

http://health.ivillage.com/brain/0,,6blg,00.html

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Update: Meeting Still On As Planned

Hi everyone,

I've gotten a few responses about next week. It looks like it's just a hard week for everyone :(. Anyway, it seems as if more people than not will be able to make it for the original meet time, so let's keep things as they were originally:

Monday, July 23 @ 8PM. Location: 1369 Coffee House, Inman Square

See you all there!

Questions? Directions? Other issues? Send me a a note.

Alli

Friday, July 13, 2007

Scheduling...Arggh!

I think either Erica or Jen said she had a problem with Monday the 23rd, and now I do, too. I have to go to the hospital at 3:30 for an exam and I don't know how invasive it's going to be -- whether I'll be up for going out that evening. My guess is it will be fine, but I don't want to cancel at the last minute. Considering other problems with Monday, I'm wondering if it would be worthwhile to move it to Thursday maybe (my memory is that Tuesday and Wednesday were both bad). If that causes more problems, let's keep it at Monday and I'll be sure to feel better by 8! I just wanted to throw it out there. Hope your weeks are going well.

PS. Sarah -- my email is ajherring@gmail.com for directions to my house. Thanks again for offering a ride!

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Hey everyone,

Great meeting last night.

Note, our next meeting is scheduled for Monday, July 23 @ 8PM. Location: 1369 Coffee House, Inman Square . Give me a shout if you need directions.

Per our discussion last night bring along a secondary text or any other piece of writing/art/anything that speaks to how you read/interpreted the book. We'll use the end of next week's meeting to decide on a read for the next month and to check in on the "flow" of our meetings.

For those of you not at the first meeting, contenders for next month are:
The Satanic Verses, Rushdie
Glamorama, Easton Ellis
Kafka on the Shore, Harukami

Use the comments to cast your votes--we also got some great suggestions for additional reads last night.

See you all soon,
Alli

Monday, July 9, 2007

a couple of links

Although I haven't met any of you yet, I'm going to post a few things.

First, the reading group guide from random house for Perfume.

And second, reading group tips provided by Powell's in Oregon, for any of you (like me) who haven't done this before....or have. Book Muse looks useful in general.

...I hope this is a proper use of the blog...this is my first blog post ever!

Friday, July 6, 2007

Wheeeeeeeee!

We are so cutting edge. Go us.

Perfume

For anyone interested, here are the trailer and teasers for the film adaptation of PERFUME (Das Parfum)






http://www.perfumemovie.com/

Welcome

Well hello everyone--and welcome to the book group's blog page.