#ReadingTheStone

We didn't quite manage to chat at length about Persuasion as we had planned, but we definitely shared a few stories for Kate! Original grapes Eily, Jen, Yazmin, and Eileen were back, but a few of Kate's favorite Lowellians also joined us: Tina, Ona, Ned, and Howard! We gave Howard a bit of grief for not having seen us in so long (and we gave him a lot more grief for his freakishly youthful Dorian Gray self). We shared tales of Mass Hall and Lowell House and freshman expos and sophomore tutori...

13 Sep 20231h 16min

The grapes return for another episode of 'Stories for Kate.' This time we do a deep dive into Martha Coolidge's 1983 indie classic Valley Girl, starring a young Deborah Foreman and Nicholas Cage. We talked about aspects of the film that we still love (eileen: still the way NC kisses, swoon; Jen: the storytelling; Yaz: the character of Julie), and aspects that make us cringe now; and, a surprising revelation from Eily. Plus the music! the music! Still one of my all-time favorite soundtracks, f...

9 Sep 202355min

#ReadingTheStone Season 3: We have ventured a bit far afield from Story of the Stone and 18th century Chinese mansions for now, as Season 3 will be stories for (and about) Kate - in which we talk about her favorite books and films and men - and eagerly await her emendations and rebuttals. Episode 1 Our Foundational College-era Romances, from Room with A View to Valley Girl to Pride and Prejudice to Dirty DancingThanks for listening! Find us at readingthestone.com or @ReadingTheStone on Twitter.

5 Sep 202336min

[Originally recorded on March 25, 2023]"The Fellowship of the Stone" (thank you to one of the episode guests for our new sobriquet!) reconvened for a post #ReadingTheStone wrap-up episode. We welcomed a panoply of new-to-the-group friends - all Hongloumeng scholars and teachers - Paola Zamperini, Canaan Morse, I-Hsien Wu, Carlos Rojas, Emily Wu, Steve Durrant, Scott Gregory who dropped in to discuss their own origin stories and current research interests in Story of The Stone. We heard from s...

26 Mars 202359min

[Originally recorded on 3-11-2023] We recorded our first #ReadingTheStone Saturday chat on April 2, 2022, and now nearly 12 months later, we say farewell to Story of the Stone, as we reach Chapter 120 together. In this episode we explore the various 'happy endings' presented at the end of the fiction, and wonder how and if they responded to the questions posed by the text at the very beginning.But we're not quite done with #ReadingTheStone! - next Saturday we will livestream from Boston,...

12 Mars 20231h 3min

[Originally recorded on 3-4-23]“Before one disaster is over, here’s another!” Pretty much sums up all the chapters lately. - DaniOur heroic trio Waiyee, Ann, and Eileen are reunited (thank you Shelly!) for the penultimate episode discussing Chapters 110-115, alongside the rest of our #ReadingTheStone community. A wide-ranging conversation today from Hou Hsiao-hsien's City of Sadness to Everything, Everywhere All At Once - but also a deeper dive into the notion of qing 情 as we encounter it in ...

12 Mars 20231h

[Originally recorded on 2-25-2023]Waiyee and Eileen had other commitments this week, but Ann led the #ReadingTheStone group in a rich discussion of Chapters 105-109, on the dual plot strands of Baoyu's marriage and also of the Fall of the House of Jia, and whether, even for those with power and money and connections like the Jia family, there might be an limit-point to their ability to evade the justice system of their time. Many fascinating and overlapping strands this week on the exorb...

11 Mars 202356min

[Originally recorded on 2-18-23]As #ReadingTheStone enters its final dozen chapters, we find ourselves ruminating over the postlapsarian state of things: the scattering and banishment of most everyone from Grand Prospect Garden, Xifeng's decline and Baochai seemingly being groomed to be the next Xifeng, the ethics of appeasement in a large social structure, and the desultory state of the Jias after Daiyu's death and Baoyu and Baochai's coerced union. We also finally give the paterfamilias Jia...

27 Feb 202352min