last night's meeting and about next month

Hey, it was great to see everyone last night--the Neanderthals are definitely BACK. We've already got our next meeting date and our next book selected--we'll meet on November 5th, and we'll be reading an inconsequential, trashy little mass-market beach book called Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (I dunno, I hear he's kind of the poor man's John Grisham).

At any rate, should be good stuff. Newcomer Chris Enloe made the book suggestion, and he says you can merely read the first 100 pages and have a great time with this novel, with more than enough fodder for conversation next month (after all, isn't Crime always more interesting and fun than Punishment?).

Note that there are a number of translations available. Chris' personally recommends the translation by Pevear and Volokhonsky, but then he also makes the sensible suggestion that you go to the bookstore and read the first several paragraphs in each translation they offer to find the one that works for you. I enjoyed P & V's translation of The Brothers Karamazov, but I'm also intrigued that there's a Norton Critical Editions version available for this one.

But back to last night . . . our discussion of No Country for Old Men has to rank up there with the one we had for Under the Banner of Heaven a few years back (minus the alleged threatened ass-kicking). We ranged from serious thematic questions about the nature of evil and the future of humanity to critical considerations of literary craft. We reminisced about the women in South America and discussed the depths/heights to which reality television has fallen/climbed. We admired the scenery. Mullen admitted that he cried at the end of Charlotte's Web. Recently.

Some of the better discussion-generating questions we had:

• Does McCarthy share Sheriff Bell's worldview that our society is sliding inexorably into decay, or do we make a mistake if we conflate the worldview of a fictional character with that of the author?
• Whether the opinion is Bell's or McCarthy's, do you agree with it?
• Why did Moss go back to the scene of the crime? To take the dying man a drink of water? To kill the only person who saw him there? To (rather hamfistedly) serve the needs of the author in advancing the plot? Is this action believable or a sour note in the narrative?
• Do you think more or less of McCarthy for writing such a relatively accessible book?
• If you were in Moss' shoes, would you take the money?

Feel free one and all to add your thoughts, particularly those of you who couldn't make it last night. Add a comment here, or--for those of you with authorship rights--start a new post if you like.

Reviewing our reading list

Kicking off a little conversation . . .

Looking back over the reading list, what titles would you designate in the following personal categories:

1) Best book we've read
2) Best discussion we've had (that you can remember)
3) Unmitigated rubbish, won't ever read again
4) Book you never got around to but really do mean to read at some point

Here are my choices:

1. The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien
2. Under the Banner of Heaven, Jon Krakauer
3. Anthem, Ayn Rand (the only one I banished from my bookshelf)
4. True History of the Kelly Gang, by Peter Carey

Your thoughts?

Return of the Neanderthal

After a moderate hiatus, it looks like the Neanderthals are coming back to life. We have a book to read, we have a date to meet, and we have a location to muster the horde. Hopefully, we'll have a particularly winsome waitress to convey the libations. Well done, Michael Lumpkin, for getting things moving again.

So I thought that we should give blogging a try in honor and support of the Neanderthal revival. Personally, I really should be a bit more blogosphere savvy for professional development reasons, and this is as good an excuse to get started as any. Hopefully it'll provide a place for us to continue our conversations. I ran into and paddled with Neanderthal-in-absentia Rich Eustis at the Ocoee this weekend, and he gave me the shove I needed to give this a try. For Brian Sullivan, Rich Eustis, John Mullen and others who now live way out of town, here's your opportunity to freely participate (though we'd obviously love to see you in person at the meetings).

Feel free to pass along any suggestions for how this ought to work. Welcome to the blogosphere, Neanderthals. It's so simple, a caveman can do it.

UPDATE: I've sent out invites to everyone on Lumpy's original email--the NPS faithful--to have authorship on this site. If you have something you want to throw out here for consideration, post away!