The Dinner Party
Who remembers a TV show or a movie with a dinner party theme?
Hear me out ok… The basic idea I have about this Dinner Party is to host a quite small, nonconventional dinner party with carefully selected guests and a clarified agenda or theme. I often think about this, and if I have to put something on a Bucket List it would be to realize my interpretations of this idea. It will make sense, don’t worry...
I think what really inspired me to think deeper about hosting an imaginary dinner party with X number of (famous) guests, naming them and the reason why they’re invited, came from an interview or article. It’s very possible it was the lecture Gad Saad, Ph D, talks about in his article "Which Ten Historical Figures Would You Invite For Dinner?" in Psychology Today (Dec. 19, 2014). I know I had watched a movie with the theme years earlier, see below, but this was probably the first time I thought about it as a serious question:
Which Ten (Historical) Figures Would You Invite For Dinner?
As for other influences and inspirations regarding this idea I would consider the British short film The Dinner Party (2007) as one of the best short film style versions, it’s definitely the most dramatic one. The film “The Dinner Party” (2020) isn’t nearly as good as other dinner party themed movies but got some attention for its blood and gore content. But the movie that I am mainly thinking about as an inspiration and that ‘planted the seed’ of interest for the theme is “The Last Supper” (1995) and it is a really, really good, dark movie.
There’s also the TV show “Come Dine With Me,” originally a Channel 4 UK reality/game TV show (First episode in 2005) that is about a group of people that invite each other to dinner and compete about who cooks the best meal. It’s a great show with an entertaining version of the theme.
Then there’s the well known short novel “The Dinner Party” written by Mona Gardner. It has the message that both men and women are courageous but in different ways - a low key, right on point feminist novel. If you’re interested in digging in deeper, there’s a great little analysis of it on 123helpme.com.
There’s also a quite famous art installation named “The Dinner Party” by the artist Judy Chicago, unveiled in 1979 and hailed as one of the great feminist art works of the era. For more information about the installation I suggest you read this article on nastywomenwriters.com .
“The Dinner Party” is also the name of an online based community "of 21-45 year olds who have each experienced the loss of a parent, partner, child, sibling, other close family member, or close friend." I deeply respect this initiative, it’s a beautiful thing.
So who would I invite for dinner? I keep switching the invitees around but this is my current guest list, as of May 2024:
★ Charles Spencer Chaplin
★ Robyn Rihanna Fenty
★ Arnold Schwarzenegger
★ Karin Boye
★ Jordan Peterson
★ Norma Jeane Baker
★ Carl Jung
★ Gretchen Whitmer
★ Albert Einstein
★ Olle Vavare — my father
Imagine the discussions we would have!
How about you, who do you invite?
/Annalogue75
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