The Curb Scholar Book Club discussion of Richard Bach’s Jonathan Livingston Seagull and Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing
At our last Scholars meeting attendees engaged in a book club discussion of Richard Bach’s Jonathan Livingston Seagull and Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing. Questions about self-reliance, group think, and the limitations of the “bootstraps” mentality were discussed. The conversation also addressed how widening one’s frames of reference can enhance an understanding of complex histories and experiences, whether in the context of personal narratives, or more broadly to historical narratives like the American Slave trade in Homegoing. Scholars were also tasked with returning to the retreat landscape prompt and in one paragraph address why they chose the places they chose, what their attachment to those places are (what stakes they have in the landscape), how their research impacted (if it did) their initial understanding of or appreciation for that space, and what they feel their relationship/responsibility to those landscapes should be moving forward. At our next meeting the students will share their place writing with the group.
Written by Joshua Moore
Posted September 11, 2019