At Doreen's - October 2018

Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - discussion questions

1.Who did what with the Henrietta Lacks's tissue cells? Who benefited, scientifically, medically, and monetarily?
2. What are the specific issues raised in the book—legally and ethically?
3. Should patient consent be required to store and distribute their tissue for research? Should doctors disclose their financial interests? Would this make any difference in achieving fairness?
4. What are the legal ramifications regarding payment for tissue samples?
5. What are the spiritual and religious issues surrounding the living tissue of people who have died? How do Henrietta's descendants deal with her continued "presence" in the world...and even the cosmos (in space)?
6. Were you bothered when researcher Robert Stevenson tells author Skloot that "scientists don’t like to think of HeLa cells as being little bits of Henrietta because it’s much easier to do science when you dissociate your materials from the people they come from"? Is that an ugly outfall of scientific research...or is it normal, perhaps necessary, for a scientist to distance him/herself?
7. What do you think of the incident in which Henrietta's children "see" their mother in the Johns Hopkins lab? How would you have felt? Would you have sensed a spiritual connection to the life that once created those cells...or is the idea of cells simply too remote to relate to?
8. Is race an issue in this story? Would things have been different had Henrietta been a middle class white woman rather than a poor African American woman?
9. Author Rebecca Skloot is a veteran science writer. Did you find it enjoyable to follow her through the ins-and-outs of the laboratory and scientific research? Or was this a little too "petri-dish" for you?

Handmaid's Tale discussion questions

1. The novel begins with three epigraphs. What are their functions?

2. In Gilead, women are categorized as wives, handmaids, Marthas, or Aunts, but Moira refuses to fit into a niche. Offred says she was like an elevator with open sides who made them dizzy, she was their fantasy. Trace Moira’s role throughout the tale to determine what she symbolizes.

3. Aunt Lydia, Janine, and Offred’s mother also represent more than themselves. What do each of their characters connote? What do the style and color of their clothes symbolize?

4. At one level, The Handmaid’s Tale is about the writing process. Atwood cleverly weaves this sub-plot into a major focus with remarks by Offred such as "Context is all," and "I’ve filled it out for her…," "I made that up," and "I wish this story were different." Does Offred’s habit of talking about the process of storytelling make it easier or more difficult for you to suspend disbelief?

5. A palimpsest is a medieval parchment that scribes attempted to scrape clean and use again, though they were unable to obliterate all traces of the original. How does the new republic of Gilead’s social order often resemble a palimpsest?

6. The commander in the novel says you can’t cheat nature. How do characters find ways to follow their natural instinct?

7. Why is the Bible under lock and key in Gilead?

8. Babies are referred to as "a keeper," "unbabies," "shredders." What other real or fictional worlds do these terms suggest?

9. Atwood’s title brings to mind titles from Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. Why might Atwood have wanted you to make that connection?

10. What do you feel the historical notes at the book’s end add to the reading of this novel? What does the book’s last line mean to you?

courtesy Penguin Random House

At Joanna's July 2018

Hillbilly Elegy discussion questions

1. In what way is the Appalachian culture described in HillBilly Elegy a "culture in trouble"? Do you agree with the author's description of the book's premise:

The book is about what goes on in the lives of real people when the industrial economy goes south. It’s about reacting to bad circumstances in the worst way possible. It’s about a culture that increasingly encourages social decay instead of counteracting it.

2. Follow-up to Question 1: Vance suggests that unemployment and addiction are self-inflicted and that the Appalachian culture is one of "learned helplessness"—individuals feel they can do nothing to improve their circumstances. Do you agree with Vance's assessment? What could individuals do to improve their circumstances? Or are the problems so overwhelming they can't be surrmounted?

3. What are the positive values of the culture Vance talks about in Hillbilly Elegy?

4. The author's mother is arguably the book's most powerful figure. Describe her and her struggle with addiction. How did the violence between her own parents, Mawaw and Papaw, affect her own adulthood?

5. To What—or to whom—does Vance attribute this escape from the cycle of addiction and poverty?

6. Talk about Vance's own resentment toward his neighbors who were on welfare but owned cellphones.

7. Follow-up to Question 6: Vance writes

Political scientists have spent millions of words trying to explain how Appalachia and the South went from staunchly Democratic to staunchly Republican in less than a generation.... I could never understand why our lives felt like a struggle while those living off of government largess enjoyed trinkets that I only dreamed about.

Does his book address those two separate but related issues satisfactorily?

7. Critics of Hillbilly Elegy accuse Vance of "blaming the victim" rather than providing a sound analysis of the structural issues left unaddressed by government. What do you think?

8. What does this book bring to the national conversation about poverty—its roots and its persistence? Does Vance raise the tone of discourse or lower it?

(Questions by LitLovers. )

At Joanna's June 2018

Chronicles of Terror

On the occasion of the 41st Session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee (2-12 July 2017, Kraków), the Witold Pilecki Center for Totalitarian Studies published its first book – Chronicles of Terror. Warsaw – in both Polish and English language versions.
This is the first volume in a series presenting the testimonies of Polish citizens who were the victims of both German and Soviet totalitarianism. The objective of the series is to bring to light the experiences of thousands of Poles – eyewitnesses to the events of the Second World War – and of their families and loved ones. The vast majority of the testimonies published in the current volume were given before the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland (the Commission was established in 1945, and in 1949 renamed as the Main Commission for the Investigation of Nazi Crimes).
Chronicles of Terror is the main project of the Witold Pilecki Center for Totalitarian Studies. Its online database contains the depositions of the witnesses and victims of both totalitarian regimes: scans of original documents accompanied by Polish transcripts and English translations. The first volume of the Chronicles of Terror series contains testimonies submitted by the inhabitants of Warsaw and its environs.
The book opens with the accounts of Professors Jan Zachwatowicz and Stanisław Lorentz. During the War they documented the damage inflicted on Warsaw by the occupiers, while after the conflict ended they became involved in the reconstruction of the capital (85% of left-bank Warsaw lay in ruin). In his capacity as member of the Warsaw Reconstruction Office, Prof. Jan Zachwatowicz pushed through a plan calling for the meticulous reconstruction of the Warsaw Old Town.
The following parts of the publication contain a selection of testimonies concerning individual elements of the German terror. Direct witnesses inform us about German racial policy and recount the extermination of Poles in the Pawiak, Szucha and Gęsiówka prisons. The book Chronicles of Terror. Warsaw includes moving accounts given by those who lost their relatives in street executions, and also depositions depicting the extermination of Jews – among the latter the incredible account of Łazarz Menes, a participant and a miraculous survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
The volume closes with testimonies devoted to the Warsaw Uprising. In a matter-of-fact, seemingly emotionless way, civilians recount the fate of the city – condemned to death by the Germans. The last chapter contains shocking accounts of the massacre of the Wola district.
Despite the horrendous material damage and high human losses, Warsaw quickly rose from the ruins. The rebuilding effort was duly recognized by UNESCO, which in 1980 entered the city’s Old Town in its World Heritage List – even though the entire district is only a reconstruction.
The publication contains a preface penned by Deputy Minister of Culture and National Heritage, Prof. Magdalena Gawin. The unique case of Warsaw as the city that survived its own death has been described by Dr. Wojciech Kozłowski (Program Director of the Witold Pilecki Center for Totalitarian Studies) and Tomasz Stefanek (Head of the Program Department of the Witold Pilecki Center for Totalitarian Studies), while Prof. Piotr Madajczyk has written the section outlining the historical background to the creation and workings of the Main Commission for the Investigation of German/Nazi Crimes in Poland. Each group of depositions, pertaining to specific aspects of the German occupation, has been preceded with a brief historical introduction.