Round Rock New Neighbors is a social organization of women welcoming women in the Round Rock area since 1978. Both "new" and "old" neighbors are welcome. For more information: rrnewneighbors.org [Barnes & Noble requires that RRNN's book club be open to the public, so you do not need to be an RRNN member to attend book club, and both men and women are welcome and do attend. ]
EEA-based end users: There are no ads on this site. Us it at your own discretion.

LOCAL LITERARY EVENT:

Thursday, January 19, 2023

We Laugh With A Cry From the Far Middle

A Cry From the Far Middle: Dispatches From a Divided Land, by P.J. O’Rourke, did make many of us laugh! O’Rourke had a way of satirizing with impunity, somewhat by making fun of all factions equally. We were sad to learn that O’Rourke had died in early 2022.

 Cindy nominated this book for us, and she sent links to 2 videos of interviews with O’Rourke. These were like a smoke screen – there was smoke on the screen from the little cigars (cigar-ettes?) that O’Rourke seemed to smoke constantly and which are probably responsible for his death at age 74. ‘Nuff said about that. O’Rourke evolved from being a Hippy to being a political Conservative to being a Libertarian, all the while writing political satire. He was a well-received and much appreciated writer.

Cindy chose various questions from the list she had suggested for us. She asked us whether we thought of ourselves as Coastals or Heartlanders, according to the definitions and a questionnaire in the book. Flo said she knew she was a Coastal, because in her 20s she first visited the midwestern U.S. from her home in New York and wondered how the USA could contain such a population that seemed very uninformed and yet were able to vote for President. Some of us were a mixture of Coastal and Heartlander. Marcia said her family was divided between Coastals and Heartlanders, politically. Ken demonstrated that the choices in the questionnaire were silly BUT were “…just like the ones we get in every election.” Cindy said her opinions have changed a lot over the years, partly because of which part of the country she lived in.

 We agreed that the political divisions in our country give the USA a healthy diversity, especially since we aren’t under a particular threat. A point in favor of this is that Russia’s war on Ukraine has united us (and our divided Congress) against the enemy, Putin, whose agenda doesn’t show any specific end goal. Thus, in a serious situation, we have the potential to be united.

 We continued to discuss current and previous political situations and aspects of our lives. The book and Cindy’s questions inspired us to lively and inspired conversation!

No comments: