What would it be like to live through an apocalypse? It's not a pleasant question. But Emily St. John Mandel's bestselling novel Station Eleven (Vintage, 2015) uses this ominous "what if?" to contemplate the importance of art in society, and what it means to remember and be remembered. The novel is the subject of the Lake County Library's Big Read, a National Endowment for the Arts program that turns a book into a source of community-wide conversation on a variety of topics. The library and its partners are holding a number of activities associated with the initiative. Here are the few of them:
Forgotten Skills Fair: October 7, 1 p.m., at the Lake County Courthouse Museum in Lakeport. Just like the novel's characters, you can learn about survival skills such as the art of spinning and washing laundry with a washboard in a stream.
Graphic Novel Playshop: October 8, noon-5 p.m., at the Middletown Art Center in Middletown. Find out how a graphic novel, such as the one used in Station Eleven, tells a story, and begin to make your own book.
Travelling Symphony: Shakespeare from Station Eleven, October 21, 2 p.m., at the Soper Reese Community Theatre in Lakeport. In honor of the novel's roaming Shakespeare troupe, the Travelling Symphony, see a performance of the Bard's work, including violinists from the Lake County Symphony.
For more information about the wide array of Big Read events throughout Lake County, see lakecountybigread.com/events.html.