Q1: On the Traveling Symphony’s banner, it reads “Because survival is insufficient.” Though we’ll find out later what this means, why do you think it’s appropriate based on what we know about the Symphony and the people who perform in it? Why isn’t survival enough?
Q2: In Chapter 10, the author writes, “People left the
Symphony sometimes, but the ones who stayed understood something that was
rarely spoken aloud” (48). What is it that they understood? And why don’t they
speak it aloud? What is the reality of Year Twenty that makes the Symphony so
important to the performers who stay?
Q3: What makes Shakespeare strangely appropriate for a group
of traveling players in the second decade after the collapse? What connections
does Mandel hint at between Shakespeare’s world and the world of this
science-fiction “present”? In other words, why might people get Shakespeare
even more than we do in a post-apocalyptic society (besides just the nostalgia
factor)?
Q4: Why do you think the novel opens in the present with
Jeevan’s experiences? What does he observe or reveal about the past that is
important to the reader? In other words, why is he our first ‘hero’ in the
novel? (Also be sure to note who he meets in the opening chapters as a child—and
where we see her again!)
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