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My book club in Denver completely imploded over a single line in 'The Overstory' last month.
We had a 45 minute screaming match about whether a character's action was selfish or selfless, which ended with Sarah throwing her wine glass (empty, thankfully) into my fireplace and three people, including me, vowing to never read literary fiction again, so has anyone else's group recovered from a blow-up that bad?
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miaw101mo ago
That book club fight sounds epic, but I have to say, throwing a glass is a step too far. My old group in Boulder once had a silent standoff for two weeks after a fight about an unreliable narrator.
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wrenwilson18d agoMost Upvoted
Our Seattle group had a three-meeting cold war over whether a certain plot twist was clever or cheap. What finally fixed it was borrowing a page from @theawest, but with a physical prop. We passed around a "maybe" rock. If you had the rock, your point had to include a "maybe" statement about the other side's view. It sounds silly, but holding that smooth stone made people slow down and actually listen. It forced us out of our dug-in positions. We still have the rock, and it comes out whenever a debate starts to feel personal.
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theawest1mo ago
Our group in Portland nearly split over a Cormac McCarthy book. We instituted a "no absolutes" rule for the next meeting. Nobody could say a character was purely good or evil, or that an action was completely selfish. It forced people to talk about the messy middle ground, which calmed things down a lot. We still argue, but now it's about the book and not each other.
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