My apologies for missing out my usual Seanchai Library update for the last few weeks. It was not intentional, just a problem with real-life distractions and an inability to organise my time properly.
It’s time to kick-off another week of fabulous story-telling in Voice, brought to Second Life by the staff of the Seanchai Library SL. As always, all times SLT, and unless otherwise stated, events will be held on the Seanchai Library’s home on Imagination Island.
Sunday 19th May, 10:00 – More from the Lost Coast
“The beach is a no-man’s-land, the coastal zone a dynamic give and take of land and sea, swell and tide. The nomadic peoples indigenous to this fluid land scape belong to the global tribe of surfers. They see the ocean differently than inlanders, differently too than the other fringe dwellers who seldom set foot in saltwater. For surfers the swells, currents, and the curling folds of waves are elements of a natural language.”
Join Shandon Loring aboard the SS Galaxy as he continues through Drew Kampion’s collection of eighteen short stories, published in various magazines over the last 35 years and now drawn together in a single volume. Together, they provide a raw glimpse of the surfing life from sliding into cold, stiff neoprene to experiencing the ecstasy of catching the perfect wave and riding it to shore.
Monday 20th May, 19:00 – Exit: The Endings That Set Us free
Caledonia Skytower once again opens the pages of Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot’s tenth book.
Exit is the “exploration of the ways we leave one thing and move on to the next; how we anticipate, define, and reflect on our departures; our epiphanies that something is over and done with. The result is an enthusiastic, uplifting lesson about ourselves and the role of transition in our lives.”
“Lawrence-Lightfoot, a sociologist and a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, has interviewed more than a dozen women and men in states of major change, and she paints their portraits with sympathy and insight: a gay man who finds home and wholeness after coming out; a sixteen-year-old boy forced to leave Iran in the midst of the violent civil war; a Catholic priest who leaves the church he has always been devoted to, he life he has loved, and the work that has been deeply fulfilling; an anthropologist who carefully stages her departure from the ‘field’ after four years of research; and many more.”
Tuesday 21st May, 19:00: The City and the Stars
In 1948 Arthur C. Clarke saw his first novel, Against the Fall of Night published in the magazine Startling Stories. Later, in 1953, it appeared as a novella in its own right, prior to becoming the basis of a much expanded work, The City and the Stars, published in 1956. Both focus on the same setting and principal character: the City of Diaspar and a young man called Alvin, but they tell individually unique tales – so much so that both remain in circulation,enjoying equal popularity.
One billion years in the future, Diaspar stands amidst the desert of Earth as the last, self-perpetuating city of humankind. Here, the Central Computer watches over people who live multiple lives over thousands of years before they return to storage, only to be “reborn” at a time selected by the Central Computer. Diaspar is utopian: poverty and need have long been eradicated and there is little strife. Life within the city is focused on creativity and art and in the deeper exploration of already well-understood fields. Enclosed, cyclical and ultimately static, Diaspar is both the culmination and twilight of human endeavour.
“Born” a teenager, as are all the city’s inhabitants, Alvin has no previous lives. Ass such, has none of the fear that stops others from leaving the city, and much curiosity as to what lies beyond its influence. In meeting the jester Khedron, Alvin succeeds in finding a way out of the city, where he discovers Lys. Thus is a chain of events set in motion which will forever change the world.
Join Gyro Muggins as he reads from The City and the Stars, which has been hailed as one of Clarke’s best works.
Wednesday 22nd May, 19:00: 100-word Stories
Join the irrepressible master of the 100-word challenge and podcast as he again dips into his treasure-trove of tales, both his own and from the hands of others, all told in the span of just 100 words.
Thursday 23rd May, 19:00: Nevada: True Tales from the Neon Wilderness
Shandon Loring reads from Jim Sloan’s collection of stories describing the idiosyncracies, colourful figures, notable events, and contributing developments of the neon capital of the world – Las Vegas.
Please check with the Seanchai Library SL’s blog for updates and additions to the week’s schedule.
In May, library guests are invited to support Seanchai Library’s featured real world charity Heifer International. Have questions? IM or notecard Caledonia Skytower.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 