Reading series continues into ‘Eternity’

OKLAHOMA CITY — The Let’s Talk About It, Oklahoma book discussion series continues at Oklahoma City University with James Jones’ “From Here to Eternity” at 7 p.m. Feb. 15. The discussions will be held in Walker Center room 151 near Florida Avenue and N.W. 26^th Street.

“From Here to Eternity” is a tumultuous novel about World War II soldiers and the women they love. It explores man and violence, rage and glory, idealism and despair with a tale that became a popular movie starring Burt Lancaster in 1953.

The reading series theme is titled “What America Reads: Myth Making in Popular Fiction.” The myth-making theme explores why readers respond so powerfully to certain novels that they become bestsellers.

“Perhaps their mass appeal comes from the combination of mythic characters and realistic, historically identifiable settings,” said Harbour Winn, director of OCU’s Center for Interpersonal Study through Film and Literature. “Characters like Scarlett O’Hara and Huckleberry Finn have a timeless cultural attraction and seem to be as popular now as when they were created. The settings of these novels also recall kernel events in our national psyche, from the Civil War to the American West.”

Humanities scholars make half-hour presentations to open each session. Small group discussions follow before the groups reunite for closing remarks.

Participants are encouraged to pre-register and read the selected literature before its discussion session. They may borrow the reading selections at the OCU Dulaney-Browne Library room 211 or 207. The library is west of the Walker Center.

For more information call Winn at (405) 208-5472 or e-mail hwinn@okcu.edu. Information is also available at the website www.okcu.edu/film-lit/.

The final book in the series is John D. MacDonald’s “A Tan and Sandy Silence” March 1.

Books, services and other materials for this series are provided by Let’s Talk About It, Oklahoma, a project of the Oklahoma Humanities Council with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Funding for this series was provided by a grant from the Inasmuch Foundation.