Questions for Parts 4 and 5 for Station Eleven

Remeber that you can respond to these questions and get credit for them if you're a bit behind on your daily responses (part of your Participation grade!). You can also respond to other Part 4 questions if you want, even though we wrote about Q1 in class. 

Station Eleven: Part 5 Questions (Canaan & Madison)

Q1: In Chapter 36, When Jeevan is walking in the snow, he starts off repeating biographical facts about himself to “anchor himself to this life, to this earth.” but just a few lines later, the only words he repeats are “Keep Walking.” Is this Jeevan forgetting his identity, or representative of something more? Moreso, if Jeevan is losing his identity here, do you think that identity is dependent on one’s world and context within it?

Q2: Even after months after the Georgian Flu, Franklin still refuses to tell Jeevan who the philanthropist in the memoir is because he ‘signed a contract’. Is this the real reason that Franklin won’t tell Jeevan? Consider the lens Culler posits in Chapter 8, about how ‘the fundamental identity of characters emerges as a result of actions.’ What does this say about Franklin’s relationship to the philanthropist, and his refusal to name him?

Q3: Why are we as a culture so obsessed with celebrities, to the lengths that we climb trees to get pictures of them? Shouldn’t Arthur be flattered by this, instead of complaining? Similarly, what do you think “drives and moves” the paparazzi? Is it really a paycheck, or “truth and beauty,” like Jeevan says, or is it something else? Why are they so passionate?

Q4: Near the end of part 5, Kirsten says it was easier for children during the pandemic, because “the more you remember, the more you’ve lost.” Do you think this is true? Is this why it is so hard for Jeevan at the end of the chapter, and why Frank clings to his ghost-written memoir until his eventual suicide, because they are unwilling to let go of their past identities to resort to lives of survival? How might this relate to the Symphony’s motto: “Because survival is insufficient?” 

 Station Eleven Questions, Part Four (Christine & Joshua)  

In class writing: Culler tells us on page 115 “identity is the product of a series of partial identifications, never completed.” We see throughout the book that people are either called by their name or by what they do, specifically on page 128 when we are reading about Viola “She’d had a different name when she was younger, but had taken on the name of her instrument after the collapse.” Is there anything wrong in finding your identity in what you do? Is that really who they are? Does the pandemic have an influence on that?  

 

Question 2: On page 120, Kristen is trying to imagine watching a Star Trek episode with her family based off Dieter's description of the episode alone. If that image/ memory gives her comfort, does it make it less valid if it may not be real for her or if it never happened? 

 

Question 3: Because we are curious, there’s a lot of imagery to skeletons in part 4; do you think this is a reference to the phrase “skeletons in the closet” meaning someone has dark secrets/ baggage they’re carrying (Arthur has a TON of skeletons in his closet). Or is it just to paint a better picture of the world 

Question 4: On page 155 in the “Dear V” sections, Arthur writes “the instructor told me he felt I was a little flat, which is his way of saying he thinks I’m a terrible actor.” As English majors, how do you relate to this? When people critique your writing, do you take it as constructive or as them tearing you down?