What is a beginning? In The Hour of the Star, Brazilian novelist Clarice Lispector asserts that the universe began with a molecular “Yes,” suggesting that creation isn’t a single moment of origin but an ongoing act of affirmation (and negation). In Beyond the Narrative Arc, Jane Alison questions the conventional narrative geometry of the “dramatic arc” and imagines stories that resemble organic shapes like spirals, webs, and branches. 

In this study, we'll think about beginnings not as linear points but as living processes: acts of attention, affirmation, and emergence.

Text: Clarice Lispector's The Hour of the Star & Jane Alison's Beyond the Narrative Arc

Date: Thursday, November 6th at 7pm

Location: Long Island City with Alice and Ethan