Literary Guild revives old tradition, discussion

A blast from GCSU’s past, the Literary Guild, met once again this past Tuesday night.

Not only did the Literary Guild meet two years ago when current senior and English major, Chelsea Losh, was president, but also according to Dr. Elaine Whitaker, chair of the English Department, Flannery O’Connor was once president of the guild back during her time at the college.

“I am excited about keeping a Georgia College tradition alive,” Whitaker said.

The group discusses literary works and their respective authors. No reading is required, however, and a limited knowledge of the works is alright. The important thing, according to the guild, is to be ready to share ideas.

This week was the first meeting in a few years and the topic was J.D. Salinger, the famed author who recently died. Current president of the guild, Ali Duckworth, a senior English major, printed out articles for discussion and brought books by Salinger to the meeting.

Duckworth wants the guild to be set up to encourage discussion. She placed the chairs of the classroom in a circle for a more intimate feel.

“Anyone can come to the meeting, you don’t have to be an English major. Just have an appreciation for books,” said Duckworth.

Duckworth is also a member of the Dean’s Student Council. That is where she got the idea to resurrect the guild toward the end of this past semester.

Senior English major Patty Maguire was excited about the meeting when she heard it was about Salinger, because she was a fan of his famous work “The Catcher in the Rye.” She liked the tone of the novel and wanted to share her opinion with others.

“I think it’s important to study literature and it definitely goes with our goal of getting a liberal arts education,” Maguire said.

The former secretary of the guild from two years ago even came back to visit. GCSU alumnus Josh Lavender remembered what the meetings used to be like.

“People brought in a lot of genre fiction for discussion, but I always brought in poetry and literature,” Lavender said.

Lavender also recalled that recruiting new members was always hard because students already read a lot in class, but Duckworth hopes to make the club appealing to more students this time around.

The discussion at this week turned from Salinger’s works to whether or not “The Catcher in the Rye” would make a good movie.

Differing opinions are welcome which was evidenced by a disagreement between Whitaker and Maguire on the book. Whitaker and the main character of the novel, Holden Caulfield, were not friends, whereas Maguire liked him and his teen angst.

Duckworth wants to continue the Literary Guild’s meetings and hopes to get the group together twice a month. She is very excited about following in Flannery O’Connor’s footsteps.

Posted by Danielle Paluga on Feb 12 2010. Filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry