By Cara Jepsen
SATURDAY 16
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The local chapter of the Jane Austen Society has some 300 members who get together several times a year to discuss Austen’s life and novels; they also donate money to high schools to help them purchase Austen novels and videotapes. Whether they’ll include money for Clueless, which is based on Emma, has yet to be determined. Today they’ll show the five-hour BBC production of Pride and Prejudice, which recently ran on A & E, without commercials from 11 to 5 at Wright College, 4300 N. Narragansett. There will be two breaks, and viewers are advised to dress comfortably and bring their own lunch. Call 334-7644 for more.
Jewish and Muslim scholars and community leaders will explore the commonalities between their religions at the second annual Jewish-Muslim interreligious conference. Participants will break into groups from 10 to 5 today to discuss specific issues like historical intersections between the two faiths, at Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies, 618 S. Michigan. It’s $30, $15 for students, and includes lunch. Call 322-1769 for more.
Yale University professor and writer Stephen Carter believes that this country is experiencing an integrity crisis–that Americans care more about winning than playing by the rules and that we are losing essential values and ideals. Funny, I always thought winner-takes-all was de rigueur in a capitalist country. Carter will discuss his views and sign his new book, Integrity, tonight at 6:30 at 57th Street Books, 1301 E. 57th. It’s free; call 684-1300.
The period between the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and the Pullman Strike of 1894 was one of the most vibrant in Chicago’s history, as people reevaluated how they thought about cities. They tended to fall into two camps: one saw Chicago as having a transcendent purpose confirmed by the ordeal of the fire, while the other saw the American city as the center of social conflict and disorder. Northwestern University professor Carl Smith, author of Urban Disorder and the Shape of Belief: The Great Chicago Fire, The Haymarket Bomb and the Model Town of Pullman, will give a free talk today called “Urban Renewal on the Grandest Scale: The Imaginative Rebuilding of Post-Fire Chicago” at 5:30 at the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington. Call 744-6630.
