The library is sponsoring a series of discussions with Denis Sweet, a former teacher at Bates College, investigating our current moment by making use of contemporary and classic writings in literature, social criticism, biology and philosophy. Meetings will be Tuesday mornings at 10am in the library's Howard Room. The September 24 and November 12 meetings will be held in the library's Bass Room.

Kairos: a time for profound realignment of fundamental principles and for parting from collective illusions. How should we live our life as individuals - and as a species- in a conscientious way that responds to the time that we live in now? The course is structured in modules, and the second module is Society. The works that will be covered in the module are listed below. 

• Byung-Chul Han, Psychopolitics (2017)
  • Describes a regime of technological domination that has discovered the productive force of the psyche - thus representing a fundamental expansion of capitalist control. 
• Byung-Chul Han, Non-Things (2022)
  • The terrestrial order is giving way to digital order, the world of things is being replaced by a world of non-things.
• Michael Houellebecq, The Possibility of an Island (2005)
  • What is the world that lies ahead for us? The bad boy of contemporary French literature peels away the dreams invested in technologies of control.  

This module will meet once a week from September to December. To facilitate discussion, the number of participants is limited to twelve. Registration can be done through the library's online calendar. For more information, please email Assistant Director Kayleigh Thomas at kayleigh.thomas@bhpl.net or call 374-5515.