Shakespeare Night Presents: Plato's MENO (continued)

November 9 is the second Monday of the month. Since it is an even-nubered Monday, it is a "Peter Monday". But Peter is away ... so (with his blessing) I (Tom) will continue with MENO, which we (mirabile dictu) actually started last Monday.

THIS READING

Since I love math, MENO -- featuring a detailed discussion of a geometry problem -- holds a special place in my heart among Plato's dialogues. In particular, there is a blow-by-blow description of how to construct a square with twice the area of a given square. (Challenge: can you do this, with the classic straightedge-and-compass method?) Socrates prompts a household slave (uneducated in math) through the requisite steps, thereby demonstrating that the slave knew all this, all along. (Or are you perhaps not persuaded by Socrates' argument?)

Here's a link to the Focus Philosophical Library editon of MENO. It has helpful footnotes, plus ample diagrams to help us navigate the geometry section:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Zh4MPAr7gNqgkTpv6rcMgS53VK9ZVY_3/view?usp=sharing

IF YOU ARE NEW...
At these Zoom meetings, we take turns reading aloud, paragraph by paragraph if it's a prose work, speech by speech if it's a play. (That is, we don't assign parts.) If it's a poem, we make a decision based on the poetic form.

If you have not read with us before, RSVP on the Meetup.com page and click that you will attend online. Then please log into the zoom call by 7. If you are not on the RSVP list or you arrive too late, you will not be allowed in.

CURRENT SHAKESPEARE-NIGHT SCHEDULE
We generally read one work on the first and third Mondays and another work on the second and fourth Mondays.

• On the first and third Mondays of each month, Tom Frenkel will host.
• On the second and fourth Mondays of each month, Peter Shenkin will host.
• On the fifth Monday of a month (if there is one), we sometimes hold an "open mic", where participants are encouraged to sing a song, tell a joke, read a poem, or whatever. Sometimes we continue reading a work. And sometimes we take a vacation.

GENERAL INFORMATION
If you RSVP "Yes" to a Meetup, the Zoom link will be visible on the meetup.com event page.

We often have an informal discussion preceding and following the reading.

FUTURE READINGS

• 1st and 3rd Mondays: TBD
• 2nd and 4th Mondays: TBD
• 5th Mondays: Next is 30 Nov 2026: TBD.