Had any good conversations lately?
Concerning, for example, the similarities between the movies ”Barton Fink” and ”Prince of Tides,” and how they both deal with a descent into hell, but in radically different ways? Or how the Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas hearings last year are affecting the workplace this year or, perhaps, the question of whether the major difference between women and men lies in the configuration of their brains?
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Well, if you`re longing for stimulating conversations, maybe you need to join a salon.
Yes, that`s right, salons are back, thanks in large part to an idea published last year in the Utne Reader, a Minneapolis-based magazine with a circulation of 270,000.
”We devoted the March-April issue on how to bring back the endangered art of conversation, how to start a conversational revolution in your living room,” says Griff Wigley, who now bears the title of Salon-Keeper for the magazine. ”We said, `Let us hear from you if you`d like to get together with folks near you.`
”We expected to hear from maybe 500 to 1,000 people. We`ve heard from 13,000 so far. We were floored at the response. What it says, I think, is that we just don`t have the structure that allows us to gather for deliberate conversation. We know where to go for 12-step programs, but to converse? And cocktail parties don`t do it.”
With Utne serving as a clearinghouse and using ZIP codes to put people in touch with other salon-minded folks, more than 200 salons are now convening throughout the country, according to Wigley. The Chicago area already has nine salons, and another five are being organized.
And Utne, which charges $12 for its salon services, has published ”The Salon-Keepers Companion,” a guide for starting and running a good salon, and will soon launch a quarterly newsletter.
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”What`s for dinner, honey?”
For more information, call Utne at 612-338-5040 or write to Neighborhood Salon, Utne Reader, 1624 Harmon Pl., Minneapolis, Minn. 55403.