The Past
- What significant events in Connie's life has brought her to this
point?
- How have her experiences been tainted by racism, sexism, and poverty?
- What kinds of relationships has she had with other people? With men?
With women?
- What did she want from life? What has she gotten instead?
- Why did she lose custody of Angelina?
The Present
- What is the immediate cause of Connie's institutionalization?
- In what ways is Connie's commitment paradoxical?
- Would a sane person be able to talk their way out of the asylum?
Why or why not?
- Who fails Connie in her present life? What is behind these failures?
- Dolly says that every woman "sells it" (31). Do you think this is
true?
- Why is Connie selected for the experiment? What is its goal?
- Is this experiment a violation of human dignity? Why or why not?
- Who are her fellow subjects, why are they there, and what happens
to them?
The Future
- What is Connie's first impression of Luciente? Of Mattapoisett?
- When
is Mattapoisett? Is this a definite future? Why or why not?
- What does Luciente think of Connie's own time? What do they call
it?
- Why does Luciente pick Connie? What makes her receptive? Why contact
the past at all?
- How does Connie come to feel about Mattapoisett? What makes up her
mind?
- Is this place a utopia? What is utopic about it? Does it include
dystopic aspects?
- How is Mattapoisett similar or dissimilar to the other imagined futures
we have examined?
- How has the future dealt with the issues of racism, sexism, and inequality?
- How is being a woman different here? What has become of gender stereotypes?
- How has even the language changed with this in mind?
- How are they governed? How do they respond to criminal acts?
- Does private property exist? How do they deal with "luxuries?"
- How has the family changed? For what reasons were these changes made?
- How do they use technology? Which technologies do they reject and
why?
- How is the Shaper/Mixer debate significant?
- Who are "they?" What is the cause of the war?
- Would you want to live in such a place as Mattapoisett?
The Other Future
- Who is Gildina? What does she look like?
- Where does Gildina live?
What characterizes her world?
- What is a contracty? How are their lives proscribed?
- How does race, class, and gender figure here?
- What characterizes the films watched in this version of New York?
- Why can't Gildina see the city through her windows? Through the viewing
port?
- What are "woolies," "Cybos," and "duds?"
- What elements of the present are extant in Gildina's New York though
not in Mattapoisett?
- How is this future related to Luciente's
The War
- When does Connie decide that she is also at war? Is this a valid
decision?
- What does she claim would have stayed her hand?
- How does she go about waging this war?
- Is this war's validity dependent on the truth of her visions?
- What does it mean if the burning floater isn't real?
- Do her actions make the future of Mattapoisett more or less probable?
Why?
- Is it significant that she is no longer receptive? Is this a good
or a bad thing?
- Why end the book with Chapter 20? What might this say about the narrative
as a whole?
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