Tonight Is the Night: "The Lonely City" Discussion at 8 PM
Hey all. Here is the Zoom room. Hopefully I did this all correctly: https://zoom.us/j/93459738262?pwd=L3dtTW1VWWI5NnAyQkxsVUJSUzdtUT0
As for topics, I want to give everybody a chance to participate, so I'm personally going to only suggest a few topics, but anybody is welcome to add any they'd like to discuss or bring up. One thing I'd like to focus on is the experience of reading the book in this very lonely, isolated time.
1. I'd like to talk about your experience of reading about loneliness and the impact it had on great artists. How did it make you feel? Did it help?
2. At one point, Laing asks, "What is it about masks and loneliness?" She believes that "The obvious answer is that they offer relief from exposure, from the burden of being seen." We're living in a time when everybody is wearing a mask, so doo you find wearing a mask offers "relief from exposure"?
3. What particular subject did you related to the most?
4. Even though this book is about people working and living in their lonely big cities, it almost feels like a different kind of loneliness, one that’s being forced upon us. With our cities quiet and almost totally shut down, was it hard to relate to the cityscape Laing wrote about throughout the book?
5. Were there parts of the book you had a difficult time getting through for any reason?
I’ll see you tonight at 8 (Eastern time).
Jason