The Book Club

Recently, the Phantom's wife had to develop a list of books for her new book club. Making lists, creating Excel spread sheets, planning in general--itineraries with clip art for trips and even for weekends in New York City--keep her happy, so the Phantom paid little heed, at first. 

But then, the Phantom began to consider, what literature would the Phantom choose?  The Phantom has never been part of a book club, and in fact, the idea of sitting around listening to other people talk about books he holds dear strikes him as a recipe for disaster. 

But what if the townspeople of Hampton, New Hampshire appeared before his door with torches and pitch forks demanding The Phantom lay out a course for high school seniors, based on the imperative that before these kids leave town, they be equipped with a broader range of experience than Hampton  was able to provide.  What would the Phantom present to these teenagers?  

For fiction, West With the Night, The Bell Jar, Peyton Place, A Farewell to Arms and the Stuart translation of The Stranger, and, of course, "The Wire," all five seasons, start to finish.

Non fiction would include A Stillness at Appomatox (Bruce Catton) , The American Past (Roger Butterfield), A People's History of the United States (Howard Zinn), Battle Cry of Freedom (James McPherson), Omnivores Dilemma (Michael Polan), Moneyball (Michael Lewis) Only Yesterday (Frederick Lewis Allen) and Parachute Infantry (David Webster.) We might throw in "Band of Brothers, " just to be balanced.

These are just the off the top of the head choices--likely The Phantom is forgetting many equally important and worthy choices.

But these experiences, which is what literature really is--an experience--would provide at least some guarantee that eighteen year olds left the protected shire with a sense of the the dangers, the wonders and the adventures out there in the rest of the world. And it would provide American teenagers a sense of where they came from. 

Of course, ultimately, none of us know where we came from or where we are heading. We are just living out our 60 to 80 turns around the Sun with no real idea about the ultimate mysteries. 

Every now and then, The Phantom closes his eyes and tries to remember where he was before his first memory.  Or, more recently, where he went when he was sent off to Never never land by general anesthesia. Where is that black void-y place? And where was The Phantom when he visited that there or that nowhere?

These questions are too large. Better stick to the answers provided by those works listed. That's enough for a start.