For group discussions, the most accessible point of entry to The Revolt of Aphrodite, and the concern with the most promise for lively and stimulating discussion, is Durrell's theme of the "decline" of culture and civilization. This discussion might usefully begin with Caradoc's lecture at the Parthenon, with his evocation of "Mobego" (or Mob-ego?) the "god of today," with his assertion that most people "are mere vegetables, malingerers," and that "human sloth" is the cause of the ruin of civilizations and "all the great cosmologies." The discussion could branch out from there to examine Durrell's various presentations of the causes and symptoms of "decline" and his prescriptions for renewal. How pertinent and timely is Durrell's diagnosis, his prognosis?

Another angle of approach for discussion likely to find broad response is through Durrell's image of "the firm," the "international corporation that seeks to control the destinies of...