Move over, Oprah! There’s a new book club in town! We are pleased to announce the kick off the inaugural season of The 40 Foot Book Club. This quarter we will be reading seminal texts from three different genres – satire, autobiography/political ideology and philosophy. First, we’ll start off with an appetizer of Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal.” Second, we’ll struggle through Adolph Hitler’s Mein Kampf. And finally, we’ll do some navel-gazing with Jean-Paul Sartre’s entertaining Being and Nothingness.  Meetings we’ll be held on the last Wednesday of every month. Refreshments will be served. Below is the discussion guide for the first three books. Happy reading!

Month 1 - “A Modest Proposal: For Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland from Being a Burden to Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Public”

In 1729, Irish cleric, satirist, essayist, pamphleteer and poet, Jonathan Swift proposed in his now canonical  pamphlet that poor Irish families sell their children to the rich for eating in order to raise money for their families. The pamphlet was written as an attack on the landlords for the lack of concern for the living conditions of their tenants and to mock the tedious calculations of the proposals by political economists to raise money.

1. How do you think Swift’s proposal was received? Do you think the readers “got it”?

2. Do you think poor Irish children taste good? Would your answer change if the meal of poor Irish children was prepared by an English chef or French chef?

3. Swift writes that “[a] young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee, or a ragout.” How would you prepare a child to eat? What kind of wine would you serve?

4. To solve the Social Security problems of the United States some experts have proposed the eating of senior citizens that are no longer productive members of society. With the aging of the baby boomer generation in the coming years there should be plenty of senior citizens to feed all of the underfed in the US along with several sub-Saharan African countries. Do you agree with this plan? If not, then think of all of the savings in medical costs and the joy of not seeing any more planning-for-retirement commercials with baby boomers enjoying their retirement by sailing or opening a winery or being in situations that call for Viagra. Now do you agree with this plan? No? Then what, Smart Guy, are your ideas for solving the catastrophic problem of an overburdened social security and medical system?

5. The subject of the novel Make Room! Make Room! was the dangers of overpopulation and depletion of natural resources, primarily fuel and food. This novel in turn inspired the movie Soylent Green. In the dystopia portrayed in the both the book and movie, government-rationed synthetic foodstuffs – in tasty red, yellow and green varieties – created by the Soylent Corporation provide the primary sustenance for most people. In the movie Charlton Heston melodramatically exposes the secret that “Soylent Green is people!” What other societal ills could be solved by eating large segments of the population? Crime? Illegal immigration?

6. Look around at your fellow book group members. Who would you eat? Why?

Month 2 - Mein Kampf

While serving a five-year sentence in jail in 1925 for conspiracy to commit treason as part of the failed Beer Hall Putsch, a 36-year old Adolph Hitler began composing the first volume of Mein Kampf (or “My Struggle”). The book is one part autobiography and one part political ideology. In it one can find the foundations of the brutal policies of the Nazi party.

1. Hitler wanted to defeat the “twin evils” of Judaism and the Soviet Union’s Communism in order to give Germany Lebensraum (“living-space”) to the east. Discuss the impact of Hitler’s tiny one-bedroom, cold-water flat that he shared with an obese, Jewish plumber with Communist sympathies on this desire for more “living space”. Also, would you share an apartment with Hitler, a known neat freak? How about sub-let?

2. Do you think Hitler just needed a hug?

3.  Hitler styled himself as an Ubermensch (or “Superman” or “Overman”), who would be the leader in the effort to overcome “evils” of his time. He stole the term from Friedrich Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra even though Nietzsche was neither political nor anti-Semitic. Would Hitler look good in blue tights? Would blue tights and a red cape help you overcome any “evils” in your life?

4.  Hitler was a failed painter, was rejected twice by the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and lacked the necessary education qualifications to fulfill his artistic dream of becoming an architect. He eventually ended up briefly in a homeless shelter. On whom did Hitler blame these failures? Do you think his anger and hatred of Communism and Jews also stemmed from his belief that Communists were behind his failure, despite many attempts and professional help, to grow a full mustache? Discuss. How have you reacted to failures in your life? Would a hug have helped Hitler at this point?

5. After reading Volume 2, “The National-Socialistic Movement”, complete the rest of this joke. “Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini walk into a bar . . . “

6. Throughout history several seminal works were written or at least conceived while the author was in prison - Martin Luther King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, several of the books of the New Testament written by the Apostle Paul, Machiavelli’s The Prince, Cervantes’ Don Quixote, some of Ezra Pound’s Cantos and some of O. Henry’s humorous short stories. What kind of book would you write if you were incarcerated?

Further Discussion for Advanced Readers: Would world history be different if, while in jail, Hitler had written one or two screenplays for the Women-in-Prison B-movie genre (e.g., Caged Heat or Reform School Girls)? Also, discuss how the movie Ilsa: She-Wolf of the SS (1974) may or may not have been influenced by Mein Kampf.

7. In the book, Hitler blames a lot of Germany’s ills on its parliamentary form of government. How do you feel about parliamentary form of government? How do you think George W. Bush and Dick Cheney feel about the parliamentary form of government?

8. Would you like to see Mein Kampf adapted for an “on ice” performance?

Month 3 - Being and Nothingness: An Essay on Phenomenological Ontology

This 1943 treatise by French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre laid the foundation for 20^th century Existentialism.

1. In a bar fight would you bet money on Sartre’s notion of being-in-itself or his notion of being-for-itself? Why?

2. The main tenant of Sartrean Existentialism’s is that “existence precedes essence.” This is the opposite of the Aristotlean notion that “essence precedes existence.” To put it in more simple avian terms: What came first – the chicken or the egg? This is the greatest of all eggistential questions. Discuss. Also, what is your favorite omelet recipe?

3. Which had the greatest impact on Sartre’s notion of Nothingness - the inability to get a really good croissant after the Vichy government took power in France during World War II or Simone de Beauvoir’s refusal to “put out” until their 17^th date?

4. How much would you tip the Waiter in the book?

5. Based on your experience, by what percent does wearing a beret and turtleneck while sitting in a Left Bank café increase your level of Existential angst? Show your calculations.

Further Discussion for Advanced Readers: Shouldn’t those suffering from Existential angst just get laid? For the women and non-traditional men in the group: Who would make a better lover - Camus or Sartre?

6.  Can you tell I didn’t really read this entire book? Good. My brain started oozing out of my eyes by the third page. Let’s go watch Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. I got the unrated version for Christmas.