Monica Byrne's The Actual Star: Reading Group [5-weeks, $100 Suggested]
Instructor: Andrews | Thursdays October 7-28 | 7:00-8:30 PM ET + Author visit Nov. 4, 8-9 PM
What if, in the future, we could pick every aspect of our identity, from gender and sexuality to ethnicity? What if there were no status hierarchy, and capitalism was over? What conditions would it take to get us there? And what aspects of the past might make that possible? What beliefs—from ancient myths to contemporary science—would pave the way?
Monica Byrne’s The Actual Star imagines this future, linking it not only to our present day, but to the distant past, too. According to the publishers: “The Actual Star takes readers on a journey over two millennia and six continents —telling three powerful tales a thousand years apart, all of them converging in the same cave in the Belizean jungle. Braided together are the stories of a pair of teenage twins who ascend the throne of a Maya kingdom; a young American woman on a trip of self-discovery in Belize; and two dangerous charismatics vying for the leadership of a new religion and racing toward a confrontation that will determine the fate of the few humans left on Earth after massive climate change. In each era, a reincarnated trinity of souls navigates the entanglements of tradition and progress, sister and stranger, and love and hate—until all of their age-old questions about the nature of existence converge deep underground, where only in complete darkness can they truly see.”
Over the course of four weeks, we’ll read this epic novel together. Each week, we’ll also discuss various aspects of our culture and beliefs that inform the narrative: how do myths work and why have they been so important to different cultures? How do the language and concepts of science affect our day-to-day existence? What is gender? How does capitalism relate to climate change? Can we make a different future, or are we doomed to repeat the past? Hopefully we’ll come out of it with some sense of possibilities and power of fiction in every arena of our lives. The final session, after we’ve finished reading, will be a meeting with the author!
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