Discussion of "Sound of the Mountain"

We met 8 May to discuss Sound of the Mountain.

In attendance were:

Dave & Mary
Darryl & Barbara
Wendall & Shelia
Alice
Susanna
Catherine

Prior to the meeting, we listened to some Hang music, which most of us who were here early for the meeting found very interesting. YouTube videos with different artists and play styles abound.

At the last meeting, Darryl offered to present a poetry reading to start this meeting off, but circumstances interfered with the implementation of that idea, so we will have the poetry reading next meeting.  If members enjoy that as a start to the meeting, we may pass the baton amongst the willing members, having one member select and read a poem to start each meeting, we will see how that goes.

Four of us finished the book, with the rest of us somewhere between pages 50 and 100.  Of those who finished, one person read it as an e-book, three read a physical book.  This book was a little harder to come by in print format, so several folks reading in print format could not start it until late in the 4-week reading schedule.

The prevalent feeling we expressed about the book is "Nothing really happens".  A couple members said they kept waiting for the "story to start".

In general, it was a pretty lively discussion, with lots of unanswered questions about the significance of various things in the book, including the Noh masks, the dog(s), the various plants and flowers, the "mountain", even what the sound of the mountain was.

This book did not have a reading group guide/questions. It's not clear whether that is a factor in how few of us completed the book. One member did employ the Cliffs Notes to gain a better understanding of the story and it's literary devices.

We spent some time talking about the direction we want to go in the group for reading.  Barbara suggested we find a novel that paints a picture of our American society and culture, as a juxtaposition to the portrayal of Japanese society, culture, etc. in Sound of the Mountain.  Several "Great American Novels" were considered for reading list inclusion, including those of Steinbeck, Fitzgerald, Gardner (and others I don't recall right at the moment).  The group members were asked to consider what books we might add to the candidates list that would illustrate American society and culture, and email suggestions to Dave for inclusion in the list.  A couple members conjectured a book about American culture, written by an immigrant, might be very interesting for the perspective it offers.

Folks generally feel there should be more breadth to the candidates list, so we have more to choose from when we vote.  Guns, Germs, and Steel enjoys popular support as a selection, but several members wanted to hold off on that until summer when they have more time to spend on what may be a "homework assignment" type read. We seem to agree this is not a "Novels Only" club.  We seem to agree we want to select things that are outside our individual comfort zones, things we would not necessarily choose for ourselves.


After some discussion of the Dead White Males problem, and the somewhat vociferous rejection by some members of several works by women that were added to the list recently, we selected "Butterfly Burning" as the next club read.  This book is very short at a mere 144 pages, and some members have schedule conflicts in early June, so we settled on May 29th (3 weeks away) for the next meeting. Hopefully that will allow us to tackle something that presents a greater challenge, perhaps Guns, Germs, and Steel, or a biography for example the Biography of John Adams by David McCullough, which I will add to the candidates list this weekend.

Catherine provided links to a couple "around the world" reading blogs and lists that folks might check out, see if anything from these lists sounds interesting:
A Year of Reading the World
Around the World in 80 Books

A good time was had by all, and we sorely missed those who could not make it.