Wednesday night discussion in July

We have about 35 participants tonight. We're having a good discussion about freedom and other themes from the book.

• The line on page 590 is telling, where Moses thinks, "He had found out that no man may make another free. Freedom was something internal."

• Some participants felt that Aaron and Miriam were more sympathetic characters others did.
• Of them, if being a leader means that you get the trappings of leadership, shouldn't Miriam and Aaron have been given those trappings, or isn't it unreasonable to condemn them for wanting these trappings?
• Wilderness versus desert: Moses appreciates the wilderness, it brings him closer to God. The desert is punishment.
• The hero has to go through times of uncertainty, the 
• What is the role of a prophet?:
• Incentivize us to think, require you to use the most precious thing you have, your brain.
• Someone giving you a blueprint to find God.
• A prophet is one who foretells.
• Miriam grew up with the Egyptian Gods and couldn't know the Hebrew God, couldn't  have prophecies for new god. 
• Who was Hurston's intended audience? Did she intend Moses for an African-American audience?
• Hurston was a preacher's kid
• Hurston wrote this in 1939, on the eve of World War II
• History repeats itself as a theme.
• What did the image of crossing over, crossing water, which are repeated frequently in Moses, Man of the Mountain, and in Jonah's Gourd Vine, mean to Hurston?
• You bring your baggage with you when you cross over and change.
• The characters of Jonah and Moses changed in different ways in these two books. 
• Many of the characters in Moses regret the change to freedom and long for a past where things were certain, even if they were awful.
• Was Hurston well-received in the African-American community with the idea of many characters espousing a return to slavery?
• Looking at the group dynamics
• Did Hurston have a lot of detractors in the African-American community because of her characters and the way she presents Moses? 
• Miriam and Aaron believe they were chosen by God, and were disappointed to find that Moses had chosen them.
• Why did Hurston choose to say of Miriam that she had never been loved by a man? Why was this the label that Hurston chose?
• How did Mentu and Jethro influence Moses?
  
  • Mentu and Jethro both poured knowledge into Moses
  • Both cared about Moses
  • Both saw him as a leader, as a "chosen one."
  Moses learned from the priests, "tricks," "hoodoo"? The Egyptian priests did not like having Moses around, fearing  that they would lose power if he learned their tricks.
  

The Many, Many Hats of Zora Neale Hurston

As we know from our reading guide, Zora Neale Hurston was well known for her "audacious hats."

Indeed, a Google image search for "Zora Neale Hurston hat" turns up not only lots of images of the author and her hats, but also plenty of other people wearing impressive chapeaus. (Also among the results? A Zora Neale Hurston finger puppet.)

Want to see more photos of authors in audacious hats? Check out this Flavorwire gallery of "30 Photos of Famous Authors in Epic Hats. Because Why Not?" Why not indeed! Zora's in there; do you think she'd approve of the other authors' toppers?

 We stopped by the Eatonville Town Hall, the Zora Neale Hurston National Museum of Fine Arts (they host a Zora Neale Hurston Festival every January), and the Eatonville Branch of the Orange County Public Library.



We brought copies of Jonah's Gourd Vine, Their Eyes Were Watching God and the book Hurston co-wrote with Langston Hughes, Mule Bone.

We're hoping that the staff at the Eatonville Branch Library and the staff at the Zora Neale Hurston National Museum of Fine Arts will blog about Zora Neale Hurston this summer.