I think about Jonestown all the time too. I don't think it's cultural significance can be underestimated and I can only imagine how it dominates the Bay Area's consciousness four decades on. I learned a lot from Jeff Guinn's book The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and People's Temple including the connection of Jim's wife Marceline to Quakerism (I grew up Quaker) and the couple's early days in the very Quaker city of Richmond, Indiana (home to Earlham College and a lot of other important Religious Society of Friends institutions). I also really liked A Thousand Lives: The Untold Story of Hope, Deception, and Survival at Jonestown by Julia Scheers.
As I have a four-day holiday to consume the amount you have dumped on me here, I will counter with this: I saw The Life and Death of the People's Temple at the LA Film Festival. Man, it was packed. Gripping doc. Alas, even then, there was a troll in the audience grilling the members of the Temple who survived the suicide by either just not happening to be there that day or running into the jungle to escape the madness on why he should believe them. I've never wanted to punch someone so much. Until, you know, 2016. Great documentary. Highly recommend it. Was, I can't really say a 'treat' to see it on a big screen, but was important to see it in that setting.
I think about Jonestown all the time too. I don't think it's cultural significance can be underestimated and I can only imagine how it dominates the Bay Area's consciousness four decades on. I learned a lot from Jeff Guinn's book The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and People's Temple including the connection of Jim's wife Marceline to Quakerism (I grew up Quaker) and the couple's early days in the very Quaker city of Richmond, Indiana (home to Earlham College and a lot of other important Religious Society of Friends institutions). I also really liked A Thousand Lives: The Untold Story of Hope, Deception, and Survival at Jonestown by Julia Scheers.
As I have a four-day holiday to consume the amount you have dumped on me here, I will counter with this: I saw The Life and Death of the People's Temple at the LA Film Festival. Man, it was packed. Gripping doc. Alas, even then, there was a troll in the audience grilling the members of the Temple who survived the suicide by either just not happening to be there that day or running into the jungle to escape the madness on why he should believe them. I've never wanted to punch someone so much. Until, you know, 2016. Great documentary. Highly recommend it. Was, I can't really say a 'treat' to see it on a big screen, but was important to see it in that setting.