60MBC6: Discussion time!
Join us next Tuesday 24 June to discuss Toni Morrison's only ever published short story: Recitatif.
Happy Friday everyone,
I’ve been musing a lot on Generative AI these last months, as I feel more and more of a split between how I use Gen AI for my professional work, and not for my creative.
Day-to-day, AI tools are speeding up the ‘bumpf work’ in a way I am LOVING. You know, the tasks that mount up and creep into your evenings because they’re not so important to prioritise, but need to be done (think meeting prep, reviewing notes, creating spreadsheets or workshop boards).
On the other hand, I can tell it’s slowing me down creatively. I can feel it every time I sit down to write for a precious hour, and realise I already forgot what I wrote yesterday. It’s every time I grapple for a word that I swear was easier to recall three months past.
Every day I work more with Gen AI I feel a little more like I have a split personality. On one side, I want to reject the robot, on the other, I want to embrace it.
When I started using Gen AI more in my professional life, I noticed a curious thing. My reading behaviour was shifting. I’d always been a very fast reader (I speak more on that here), with a reading style I can best explain as the text absorbing into my brain at a glance.
But since using more AI tools, I’ve noticed I often scan texts for keywords, my brain filling in the blanks - and sometimes short-circuiting, as this recent post I wrote explains…
So thank GOD then for reading.
More than ever I find myself grateful I started the Sixty Minute Book Club.
A space which has forced me to slow down and READ - often two or three times through - some of the best stories of our (pre-gen AI) times.
A space which has let me explore these texts with other human beings, face-to-face, and talk about all the difficult, tricky, sad and wonderful things that make us human, and not computers.
And this month, as we hit the six month mark, we are reading a story which could never be written by AI (it wishes!) ‘Recitatif’ by Toni Morrison.
It was her only ever published short story - and, as you can imagine, it delivers.
No matter how much you use AI, I’m more and more of the opinion that we need to make space for what makes us human. We need to be reminded of what makes us feel joy, what makes us feel pain, but more importantly, what other realities our fellow humans may be living, fighting, battling every day.
For that reason, let alone everything else going on in the world, I can’t think of a more important story to read right now.
We meet next Tuesday 24 June to discuss it. I hope you’ll join us!
Not quite finished yet? Don’t worry. It will take you just around thirty minutes to read ‘Recitatif’, so you still have plenty of time to read it before next week comes along.
And if you’re planning to come, just reply to this email, drop me a comment, or let us all know in the subscriber chat, it’s always lovely to know who’s coming.
📆 60MBC6: ‘Recitatif’ discussion
When? Tuesday 24 June 2025
What time? 6:00 PM CEST (9am PST / 12pm EST / 5pm BST)
NB: I may have to start 5 minutes late, will let you know via the chat if this will be the case. Thanks for understanding as I wrap up another call just before.
How? We'll connect via Google Meet. For privacy reasons, the link will be shared in our subscriber chat only. If you have any trouble finding it, please reply to this email directly.
Not subscribed yet? Join now for free, you don’t need to be a paid subscriber to participate.
What to expect: Sixty minutes of informal chat about the story, with no prior analysis needed. I do my best to make these sessions a fun and friendly space to talk about the story, how it made us feel and what stood out to us about the work.
Here's an idea of what we’ll discuss this time:
I’m very curious to know: did you feel like discovering the characters’ races was of importance to you as you read the story, or did it fade into the background in favour of other questions?
Do you think it’s of relevance or importance that almost all of the featured characters in the story are women?
How did Morrison’s choice of physical place impact the tension as the story continued?
Morrison spoke about how intentional she felt her writing was. With this in mind, what do you think a title like ‘Recitatif’ could be trying to tell us?
What do you think really happened to Maggie?
Feel free to bring your own questions, comments or favourite parts - this is always what makes the sessions sing!
And don't forget to join the chat for the Google Meet link.
See you then.
Emma x
I can’t meet this week but hope the discussion goes well. Look forward to the recap. 😘
I do think it’s great you can increase efficiency with AI. I don’t use it much but my work has an internal one and when I’m double checking numbers or trying to search for articles on our portal to cross reference, AI has helped speed up that process for me. I’m not clever enough to use AI for more sophisticated uses so I fear I’ll become a tech dino too early. 🙈