The Eleventh
Code of Conduct

1. I.

   Preserving tradition.

   The salons of 18th-century Paris were created to keep ideas, inspiration and imagination flowing through a world full of uncertainty and chaos. The Eleventh restores that Enlightenment tradition. It is an intimate space where habitués come to converse, debate and reflect: a room for people who want more from life, who want to think, to question, and to share what they find with others.

2. II.

   Richness lies in variety.

   We are not looking for the hyper-intellectual. We are looking for the curious, from different industries, cultures and lives. For those who carry a quiet question around with them, turning it over on long walks home, wishing someone would ask them about it.

3. III.

   Everyone here is equal.

   In our salons, we do not talk over each other, mansplain, offend or belittle. A twenty-three-year-old and a sixty-year-old professor sit at the same table, and both of their thoughts carry the same weight.

4. IV.

   We value privacy.

   What is said in the room stays in the room, and phones stay away. People can only be honest where they feel safe, so share the ideas freely, but never the people who had them.

5. V.

   Leave your titles at the door.

   No one will ask what you do, where you studied or who you know. For one evening you are not your job; you are only what you think, and that is far more interesting.

6. VI.

   Listen to understand, not to reply.

   The best salons are not won by whoever speaks the most. Let a thought land before you answer it. Sometimes the most generous thing you can bring to a conversation is your silence.

7. VII.

   Disagree generously.

   We want disagreement; a room where everyone nods is a wasted evening. But challenge the idea, never the person, and stay open to the possibility that you might leave having changed your mind.

8. VIII.

   Speak from where you stand.

   You don’t need to quote Kant to be heard. Your own life, your upbringing, your failures, the thing your grandmother used to say, is as valid a source as any book on the reading list.

9. IX.

   Photograph the room, never the people.

   If you want to keep something from the evening, keep the candle stubs, the empty glasses, the open book on the table. The faces belong to the night.

10. X.

    Invitations are personal.

    Each invitation is written for one person and one salon, so it cannot be passed on. If you have a friend who belongs here, tell them to apply; we would love to meet them.

11. XI.

    Stay for the eleventh hour.

    The best conversation always comes at the end, when the formal questions are finished and the real ones begin. Don’t rush home. That last hour is what we are named after.