What we’re about
(Update: This group is transitioning to a new location. In the meantime check out the Toronto Philosophy Meetup for daily events, both online and in person!)
This group is being rebooted! Here we facilitate casual, good-natured conversations on anything under the sun that's of interest to members, including social and political issues, current events, local culture, international culture, ideas, books, music, art, movies, television, hobbies, sports, and more.
Our members come from around the world.
We meet in person and online!
Anyone is welcomed to start a conversation here, big or small, light or serious! Collaborations with other groups are also welcome.
Why "Reboot"?
Many years ago this was a reading and conversation group (Read Out Loud Toronto) that was improperly converted to a real estate group by someone who took over. This was against Meetup rules.
Since that individual has left, I want to restore this group to something like its original purpose. If you have any further ideas for the group please send them my way or leave a comment below!
In the meantime check out the Toronto Philosophy Meetup for daily events, both online and in person! - https://www.meetup.com/The-Toronto-Philosophy-Meetup/
Raymond Carver was one of America’s preeminent short story writers during the 1970s and 1980s — a time that witnessed a great renaissance of the art — and an accomplished poet publishing several highly acclaimed volumes. Carver was born into a poverty-stricken family at the tail-end of the Depression. He was married and the father of two before he was 20, and held a number of low-paying jobs: he “picked tulips, pumped gas, swept hospital corridors, swabbed toilets, [and] managed an apartment complex,” according to a profile by Bruce Weber in a New York Times Magazine. Not coincidentally, “of all the writers at work today, Carver may have [had] the most distinct vision of the working class”.
Rejecting the more experimental and postmodern fiction of the 60s and 70s, he pioneered a style of stark, precisionist realism in American literature, heading the line of so-called "dirty realists" or "K-mart realists". Set in trailer parks and shopping malls, they are stories of ordinary working-class people that turn on seemingly insignificant details. Carver writes with unflinching exactness and meticulous economy, suddenly bringing a life into focus in a similar way to the paintings of Edward Hopper.
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This is a series of occasional meetups (hosted by the Toronto Philosophy Meetup) to discuss short stories by various authors. We started in 2023 and generally meet every other Sunday evening. Authors we have read include Haruki Murakami, Anton Chekhov, Alice Munro, James Baldwin, Feng Menglong, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and James Joyce.
This time we will discuss the first 3 short stories from Raymond Carver's celebrated 1981 collection What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, "a haunting meditation on love, loss, and companionship, and finding one’s way through the dark." We will read other stories from the volume, including the famous title story, at future meetups.
In “Why Don't You Dance?”, a man sells his furnishings on his front lawn, attracting the attention of a young couple. In “Viewfinder”, a man with prosthetic hooks for hands visits a grieving man's home to sell photographs. And in “Mr. Coffee and Mr. Fixit”, a man recalls the breakdown of a relationship in a fragmentary, disjointed manner.
Please read the 3 stories in advance (~20 pages in total) and bring your thoughts, reactions, queries, and favourite passages to share with us at the discussion. A pdf of the text will be posted on the main event page.
Note: We'll be joined by many other participants from the Toronto Philosophy Meetup at this meeting – https://www.meetup.com/the-toronto-philosophy-meetup/events/308741043/
Upcoming events (4+)
See all- Short Film Discussion: The Red Balloon (1956) by Albert LamorisseLink visible for attendees
Rarely has the spirit of childhood been evoked as exquisitely as in this Academy Award–winning cinematic fable, a nearly wordless fantasy with the texture of reality. On the streets of 1950s Paris, a young boy is launched on a miraculous adventure when he’s playfully pursued by a shiny red balloon that seems to have a mind of its own — until the harsh realities of the world interfere. Shot in beautifully muted Technicolor, this beguiling, deceptively simple allegory of innocence and transcendence has inspired generations of viewers to let their imaginations take flight.
"A tender, humorous drama of the ingenuousness of a child, and a poignant symbolization of dreams and the cruelty of those who puncture them..." (New York Times)
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Join the Toronto Philosophy Meetup to discuss the short film The Red Balloon (1956) written, directed, and produced by the French filmmaker Albert Lamorisse. The film is often cited as one of the greatest short films ever made and won numerous awards, including the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay (the only short film to have ever done so) and the Palme d'Or for short films at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival. The film's influence can be seen in the work of many later filmmakers, from Steven Spielberg to Pixar Studios.
Please watch the movie in advance (34 minutes long) and bring your thoughts, reactions, and queries to share with us at the meeting. You can stream it with a viewing link to be posted on the main event listing here.
We'll be joined by many other participants from the Toronto Philosophy Meetup at this meeting — https://www.meetup.com/the-toronto-philosophy-meetup/events/305237213/
Check out other film discussions in the group every Friday and occasionally other days.
- Melville: Fashioning in Modernity - Stephen Matterson (week 2)Link visible for attendees
This meetup is hosted by Wisdom and Woe. For more details and to RSVP, please go to to: https://www.meetup.com/wisdom-and-woe/events/307250029
Melville: Fashioning in Modernity (2014) provides a radically fresh approach to Melville studies, focusing on the symbolic functions of clothing in his writing: its relationship to private and public identity, class, power, justice, authority, uniformity, transgression, civilization, and savagery.
Through close readings of both major and minor works, supplemented with historical context, Matterson elaborates on the crisis of modernity using the recurring themes of social and existential alienation, the malleability and rigidity of identity, and clothing as representative of writing itself.
Schedule:
- Week 1: Introduction - Chapter 2
- Week 2: Chapters 3 and 5
Wisdom and Woe is a philosophy and literature discussion group dedicated to exploring the world, work, life, and times of Herman Melville and the 19th century Romantic movement. The group is free and open to anybody with an interest in learning and growing by "diving deeper" into "time and eternity, things of this world and of the next, and books, and publishers, and all possible and impossible matters."
- Raymond Carver: “Why Don’t You Dance?” and other storiesLink visible for attendees
Raymond Carver was one of America’s preeminent short story writers during the 1970s and 1980s — a time that witnessed a great renaissance of the art — and an accomplished poet publishing several highly acclaimed volumes. Carver was born into a poverty-stricken family at the tail-end of the Depression. He was married and the father of two before he was 20, and held a number of low-paying jobs: he “picked tulips, pumped gas, swept hospital corridors, swabbed toilets, [and] managed an apartment complex,” according to a profile by Bruce Weber in a New York Times Magazine. Not coincidentally, “of all the writers at work today, Carver may have [had] the most distinct vision of the working class”.
Rejecting the more experimental and postmodern fiction of the 60s and 70s, he pioneered a style of stark, precisionist realism in American literature, heading the line of so-called "dirty realists" or "K-mart realists". Set in trailer parks and shopping malls, they are stories of ordinary working-class people that turn on seemingly insignificant details. Carver writes with unflinching exactness and meticulous economy, suddenly bringing a life into focus in a similar way to the paintings of Edward Hopper.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
This is a series of occasional meetups (hosted by the Toronto Philosophy Meetup) to discuss short stories by various authors. We started in 2023 and generally meet every other Sunday evening. Authors we have read include Haruki Murakami, Anton Chekhov, Alice Munro, James Baldwin, Feng Menglong, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and James Joyce.
This time we will discuss the first 3 short stories from Raymond Carver's celebrated 1981 collection What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, "a haunting meditation on love, loss, and companionship, and finding one’s way through the dark." We will read other stories from the volume, including the famous title story, at future meetups.
In “Why Don't You Dance?”, a man sells his furnishings on his front lawn, attracting the attention of a young couple. In “Viewfinder”, a man with prosthetic hooks for hands visits a grieving man's home to sell photographs. And in “Mr. Coffee and Mr. Fixit”, a man recalls the breakdown of a relationship in a fragmentary, disjointed manner.
Please read the 3 stories in advance (~20 pages in total) and bring your thoughts, reactions, queries, and favourite passages to share with us at the discussion. A pdf of the text will be posted on the main event page.
Note: We'll be joined by many other participants from the Toronto Philosophy Meetup at this meeting – https://www.meetup.com/the-toronto-philosophy-meetup/events/308741043/
- Designing The Perfect Society – 1on1 philosophical & political WORKSHOP (COH)Link visible for attendees
IMPORTANT NOTICE:
To be the speaking participant you must RSVP via Calendly.
The link to my Calendly calendar is available in my Egora profile:
Egora-ILP.org/philosopher/Cezary_JurewiczAll others are welcome to join to listen, use the chat, use the breakout rooms, and comment at the end.
About Citizen Office Hours:
If the Citizen is to be the highest authority in democracy, should we not have office hours to make ourselves available and accountable to our fellow citizens? The answer is YES – yes, we should.Also, in a democracy, there is no power without responsibility. If the citizens do not accept the responsibility of being citizens, then we do not really have any power – the power we might think we have is illusory. Therefore, all responsible citizens should make themselves available at their own "Citizen Office Hours".
This event is a publication of my Citizen Office Hours. I am making myself available to discuss any of my or your ideas published in Egora. Please be already registered for Egora before our meeting and at least somewhat familiar with my Ideological Profile so we can have a proper and thorough discussion. If you share your Ideological Profile in the comments in advance, i will take some time to study it before our meeting (ideally, the audience will do so too).
