Starting in December, the Slow Reading Discussion Group will read works of fiction exploring the theme of displacement--surely one of the defining features of our current tumultuous time in history.
Starting in December, the Slow Reading Discussion Group will read works of fiction exploring the theme of displacement—surely one of the defining features of our current tumultuous time in history. In earlier times, most people on this earth could expect to live in a single place (often a single home) all their lives. But today—whether we are talking about a move from one country to another, from one city to another, or simply from one house to another—displacement has become the norm, and is perhaps the most salient feature of modern life. We will be discussing various permutations of this theme in four very different works of fiction through this spring. Members of the group will also be encouraged to write about the role displacement has played in their own lives. For this session, please read sections 1 and 2 of the short story “Tell Me a Riddle” by Tillie Olsen—available in Tell Me a Riddle, Requa I, and Other Works (University of Nebraska Press, 2013), pp. 57-79, or Tell Me a Riddle, introduction by John Leonard (Delta/Seymour Lawrence, 1994), pp. 63-92. This series funded by the White Plains Library Foundation.