Philosophical Fiction Book Club

This event is supported by The Royal Institute of Philosophy’s Local Partners Programme.

This meeting will be held in person in the Prince of Wales pub near Covent Garden. There is also an online session held on Thursday if you are not in London or are unable to attend in-person.

This month, we're going on a mission of persuasion with Genly Ai - an envoy of a galactic civilisation as he tries to understand the inhabitants of the planet he has been sent to recruit. Differences of biology, gender, religion and philosophy separate Genly from the Gethenians and all feature as just some of the themes we will explore when discussing this book.

The meeting starts at 7pm with drink breaks at 8 and 9. The discussion will end around 10pm, but leave whenever you need to.

Here's the blurb from goodreads.com:

A groundbreaking work of science fiction, The Left Hand of Darkness tells the story of a lone human emissary to Winter, an alien world whose inhabitants spend most of their time without a gender. His goal is to facilitate Winter's inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the completely dissimilar culture that he encounters.

Embracing the aspects of psychology, society, and human emotion on an alien world, The Left Hand of Darkness stands as a landmark achievement in the annals of intellectual science fiction.

This event is supported by The Royal Institute of Philosophy’s Local Partners Programme.

This month, we're going on a mission of persuasion with Genly Ai - an envoy of a galactic civilisation as he tries to understand the inhabitants of the planet he has been sent to recruit. Differences of biology, gender, religion and philosophy separate Genly from the Gethenians and all feature as just some of the themes we will explore when discussing this book.

The meeting starts at 7pm with drink breaks at 8 and 9. The discussion will end around 10pm, but leave whenever you need to.

Here's the blurb from goodreads.com:
A groundbreaking work of science fiction, The Left Hand of Darkness tells the story of a lone human emissary to Winter, an alien world whose inhabitants spend most of their time without a gender. His goal is to facilitate Winter's inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization.

But to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the completely dissimilar culture that he encounters.
Embracing the aspects of psychology, society, and human emotion on an alien world, The Left Hand of Darkness stands as a landmark achievement in the annals of intellectual science fiction.

This event is supported by The Royal Institute of Philosophy’s Local Partners Programme.

Quest as obsession, revenge and the struggle between will and nature this month. Set sail with a single-minded Captain with a talent for rousing speeches, a cannibal you might not mind sharing a bed with and a whole host of peculiar characters as we hunt for the White Whale upon The Pequod.

The meeting starts at 7pm with drink breaks at 8 and 9. The discussion will end around 10pm, but leave whenever you need to.

Here's the blurb from goodreads.com:

"It is the horrible texture of a fabric that should be woven of ships' cables and hawsers. A Polar wind blows through it, and birds of prey hover over it."

So Melville wrote of his masterpiece, one of the greatest works of imagination in literary history. In part, Moby-Dick is the story of an eerily compelling madman pursuing an unholy war against a creature as vast and dangerous and unknowable as the sea itself. But more than just a novel of adventure, more than an encyclopaedia of whaling lore and legend, the book can be seen as part of its author's lifelong meditation on America. Written with wonderfully redemptive humour, Moby-Dick is also a profound inquiry into character, faith, and the nature of perception.

This event is supported by The Royal Institute of Philosophy’s Local Partners Programme.

This meeting is online. An in-person discussion of the same book will be held on Wednesday, the 9th of December in central London.

Please note that this is taking place slightly later in the month than usual. Hopefully, this will give people a little longer to read the book.

Quest as obsession, revenge and the struggle between will and nature this month. Set sail with a single-minded Captain with a talent for rousing speeches, a cannibal you might not mind sharing a bed with and a whole host of peculiar characters as we hunt for the White Whale upon The Pequod.

The meeting starts at 7pm with drink breaks at 8 and 9. The discussion will end around 10pm, but leave whenever you need to.

Here's the blurb from goodreads.com:

"It is the horrible texture of a fabric that should be woven of ships' cables and hawsers. A Polar wind blows through it, and birds of prey hover over it."

So Melville wrote of his masterpiece, one of the greatest works of imagination in literary history. In part, Moby-Dick is the story of an eerily compelling madman pursuing an unholy war against a creature as vast and dangerous and unknowable as the sea itself. But more than just a novel of adventure, more than an encyclopaedia of whaling lore and legend, the book can be seen as part of its author's lifelong meditation on America. Written with wonderfully redemptive humour, Moby-Dick is also a profound inquiry into character, faith, and the nature of perception.