Literary Clubs--and Literary Pressure Groups

Reading is, by its nature, a solitary activity. At least it is in its initial stages. Having been a reviewer for such a long time now, I no longer feel that I’ve actually read a book until I’ve written something about it. Composing a review or an essay seems the final stage of reading, a way of summarizing my experience of the novel, biography or work of history.

Many people enjoy belonging to book clubs, where a monthly discussion elicits a similar kind of focused attention. A class—whether formally at a local college or more informally at a local bookstore—can also be away of deepening one’s engagement with a book, while also discovering other people’s views of it. In recent years, online forums, typically focused on a literary subgenre of one sort or another, allow such conversations to go on continuously

For the most part, I’ve never thought of myself as a joiner of groups, even bookish groups. But I am a member of The Baker Street Irregulars, devoted to the celebration of Sherlock Holmes, the North American Jules Verne Society, and of The Ghost Story Society for enthusiasts of classic supernatural fiction. I’ve also been a member of the P.G. Wodehouse Society, the Arthur Machen Society, and, briefly, two online groups devoted to the works of E.F. Benson (chiefly the Lucia books) and Patrick O’Brian (the Aubrey-Maturin naval adventures). I have friends in the Lewis Carroll Society and have been thinking of joining them. I do like the Alice books. Lately, I’ve been following an online forum devoted to popular fiction in magazines between the 1880s and the 1960s.

But I also belong to two more specialized groups—two local dining clubs with literary interests. Members of the Washington-area Baker Street Irregulars meet for a monthly lunch under the rubric the Half Pay Club. Another sodality, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, adopted this name in a drunken moment and it has stuck. It consists of a dozen or so people with unusual areas of expertise. Such as? A leading forensic pathologist (dead bodies), an authority on films about antiquity, an expert on inks, paper and other matters of forensic science, a specialist in English romanticism, the leading authority on library research, and several others. The League meets at the discretion of its chair and its biggest blowout of the year is this Sunday.

Do other members of the Reading Room belong to literary societies or clubs, meet regularly with other aficionados of one genre or another, follow closely any online groups? Would you suggest any of them to other members of DRR? What is the most exclusive club you belong to? What intellectual rewards or pleasure do you receive from belonging to such groups? Is the experience the same as following a noted writer’s Facebook page or tweets? What is the best thing about being in a specialized sodality? Please share some of your thoughts.

But let me also ask: Is there a negative side to such groups? When a book like the Sherlock Holmes novel, “A Study in Scarlet” is banned, as it was recently in Virginia (for it unflattering portrait of Mormonism), isn’t there often some sort of pressure group, society or coterie behind the action? Are there dark sides to literary clubs and forums? How does one keep the conversation civil, avoiding extremism and even nuttiness? Can you think of any literary societies that are also literary pressure groups? Again, please share your thoughts.

- Michael Dirda