For Thursday and Next Week: Beautyland, "Supernova (New York)"

 

For Thursday/Tuesday: Beautyland, “Supernova (New York)”

For the next few days, we’ll be reading the longest section of the book, which follows most of Adina’s adult life in New York City. Don’t worry about finishing this section until next week, but at least start reading through it for Thursday’s class,. The questions below are for either Thursday or next Tuesday—just get to them as you complete enough of the reading to answer them. And as you read, keep Paper #3 in the back of your head, since Adina is doing the same thing you’re being asked to do.

Answer TWO of the following:

Q1: What does Adina seek in her “Other” (or “Possible”)? Who are potential candidates, and do you feel she’s looking for the right (or wrong) things? What makes her think she’s actually found one?

Q2: Even though Adina thinks of herself as a satellite of sorts, she is gradually becoming more and more ‘human,’ and less and less ‘alien.’ How is she growing throughout this chapter? What makes her more recognizably ‘human’ to others or to herself? Does anyone else notice this?

Q3: Why does her book, Alien Opus, become some surprisingly popular and attract a large fan base? Is it for the same reasons that we might like Beautyland ourselves (if you do)? What do people seem to respond to, even though she wasn’t writing to humans—she was writing to abstract alien beings? (and why might this be important)?

Q4: What do you feel is the most profound thing she learns about human beings in the heart of a big city like New York? Could she have learned this anywhere, or is it something you can only find in the biggest “forest” of people? Can you personally relate to this—and have you witnessed it in your own life?