This guide for NOW. THEN. TO COME includes questions aimed at enhancing your conversations, journaling, and/or other ways you may choose to interact with this book. This guide is intended to engage you in thought about the different topics and themes introduced in each chapter. Hopefully, these ideas will further enrich your book club conversations, journal entries, and/or enhance your enjoyment of the book and the JOURNEY ACROSS GENES saga.
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PART ONE: NOW
PROLOGUE
This episode opens to a scene in which the protagonist is dreaming that she is flying through a field where the grass is as big as trees, at least from her perspective. She calls an underground bunker her home, and ,in this glimpse of her life, she is concerned with collecting the water that leaks through the cracks of her dwelling. She seems to isolated from other humans since her community was decimated by cruel, murderous pillagers over 700 days earlier. The scene ends with her preparing to exit the bunker to collect water from a nearby source.
1. The first sentence reveals the focal character of this chapter. Who do you think she is? What is she like physically and otherwise? What is she doing in the dream and where is she? What might be the significance of her dream?
2. How would you describe the space/time of the setting in the prologue?
2. What challenges do the focal character and other people mentioned so far face?
3. What are marauders and why do you think marauders pillaged her village?
4. Water collection and what that entails for the protagonist is a main theme throughout the prologue. Why may water collection be a salient issue for her?
JOURNALING PROMPT(S)
5. Consider your own water access. Can you easily just turn on a faucet at home? Do you have to rely on bottled water for “safer” drinking water? Now, imagine a scenario in which you have to take drastic measures just to get access to potable, drinkable water.
CHAPTER ONE: THE ÁTMENETI
In this episode, you meet yourself just as you are waking up and remembering a recurring nightmare that plagues you ever since the raid on your camp that resulted in the abduction of your daughter, Ursula. As you begin what seems to be your quotidian routine, you interactive with other members of your community, including one of your partners, as you prepare to receive a number of younguns who are coming to plant seeds for a future garden. One of the young gardeners, Makk, agrees to retell a story that has seemingly been passed down amongst your people from the perspective of someone named Tele. The episodes end with Scrip’s journal entry recounting a moment during the formation of a free zone known by several names: SzabadPest, Anarres II, and SzabadZóna.
1. Who are the Átmeneti? What do we know about them based on what we’ve read? Who do you think they originated from?
2. From the narration perspective, who might “you” be? Why might the author have used the 2nd person to introduce the Átmeneti?
3. Apart from what you learned in the prologue, what other challenges do the contemporary people from the novel face? And, what kinds of advantages do these people enjoy, especially in regards to communication?
4. Toward the end, Makk recounts stories from the perspective of Tele and Scrip. Who might Tele and Scrip be? And why would Tele and Scrip’s stories be important?
5. How does the author play with language thus far?
JOURNALING PROMPT(S)
6. You get a glimpse at peacemaking councils. Is this a familiar concept? Do you have any examples of this type of conflict resolution in your own societies?
7. Tele mentions three books that survived: The Dispossessed (Ursula K Le Guin), The Parable of the Sower, and The Parable of the Talents (Octavia E Butler). Have you heard of or read these books? Why might the author have chose these books to be the only physical books that have survived?
CHAPTER TWO: WATERFETCHERS
A series of short scenes makes up this chapter. The first one is a forward glimpse into an urban area turned forest that the sixteens encounter on their journey to fetch water. Then, there is a flash back to the weeks or months prior to Makk and their fellow sixteens’ journey as Old Mester recounts her own waterfetching journey some five decades before and warns of the dangers that the sixteens might encounter. And, before the next major scene shift, Makk, out of desperation, shares a vulnerable moment out to ether, longing for the ability to telepathically communicate like the majority of the people in their community. The scene changes again, and the narrator gives you a lesson on the Átmeneti convention for dividing up the year. Another shift in scenes takes you on a walk through the edge of camp as Old Mester and her dog Bobi forage for breakfast. Upon discovering a patch of fiddlehead ferns, Old Mester announces that Reawakening is upon the community and the time for the Turning festival has arrived. Before setting off on their journey, the community comes together to send off the sixteens with Old Mester as master of ceremony. Another change of scenes takes the waterfetchers to their first resting spot as Nap takes is place high in the late-morning sky. After an argument ensues over some bullying behavior from certain group members, the sixteens realize that they are in some kind of danger. The three house dogs come to the rescue and any serious injury or fatality is avoided as the entire group combines its strength and fends of the would-be abductors. The last scene end as Makk discovers that the weapon that the marauders used on the waterfetches had no affect on them and that is a reminder to them that they is truly an outcast amongst their own peers.
1. You’ve met a few members of this particular Átmeneti encampment, so far. What are your impressions of these people?
2. At one point, Makk mindspeaks to anyone who may be listening in a desperate attempt to find a telepathic connection. What insights do you learn from that sharing experience?
3. You’ve learned about the important ways in which the Átmeneti navigate the year and divide it up with regard to food security, weather patterns, and the earth’s relation with the sun. How do their practices differ from your own?
4. You meet non-human members of Makk’s community. What are your impressions of them? How are the communication practices of dogs different from or similar to that of their human counterparts?
5. Makk and the others find themselves in possession of a technology that seems to be used as a weapon. Do you think its creator meant for it to be a weapon or might its original purpose have been more benign, more harmless than that?
JOURNALING PROMPT(S)
6. You meet even more members of Makk’s community, especially their peers who are also turning sixteen. They are partaking in the right of passage to fetch water for the festivities. When danger presents itself, the group of sixteens along with their házikutya companions is able to work together and overcome obstacles without the intervention of other humans from their community (for example, neither older community members nor a public safety force). What might be the underlying reason for practicing a right that potentially puts vulnerable people in harms way? In other words, why would the community risk putting their young members in danger to continue a tradition?
7. Another right of passage is choosing a pronoun that others will then identify each waterfetcher by. You don’t know much about this rite of passage yet, but based on what you know so far, what might be the function of pronouns in this community? In your own experience, what are some of the functions of the pronouns you use for yourself and others around you? What are those pronouns based on? Did you choose your pronouns yourself or were they chosen for you?
CHAPTER THREE: OLD RIVER
The waterfetcher arrive at the old river, bathe in its refreshingness, and, then, some of the sixteens share their new pronoun or that they will keep the ‘they’ pronoun. As everyone is packing up to head back to camp where the Turning festivities await them, Makk decides to go back to the river and investigate where the singing they is hearing is coming from. Makk then realizes that they is sharing or merging with a long-lost relative, Takver, who turns out to be their twin sister from a different encampment. Makk and Takver then meet in-person before being forced to find shelter to hide from the marauders who use the same river as their watering hole. Finally, Makk convinces Gomba to agree to Takver joining them on their trek back to the camp, whilst the other waterfetchers are kept in the dark regarding the newcomer.
1. You learn about the pronouns and names that the waterfetchers have chosen or obstained from changing. What have you learned about pronouning practices among these people? How are the practices similar or different from your own?
2. Makk discovers that they can share, communicate telepathically with Takver. What do you think Makk and Takver’s relationship is?
3. After sharing/merging/mindspeaking for their first time, Makk describes a feeling that forms at the chest when they connects with Takver, the “sudden appearance of something like a rope that their entire being was holding onto.” What might this be a metaphor for?
4. You get a closer look at some marauders. What are they like according to the narrator? How are Makk and Takver able to go seemingly undetected?
5. Gomba hesitates to Takver’s joining the group. Why? Why do you think Gomba and Makk struggle to be open to strangers? And, why does Gomba quickly agree to the plan after meeting Takver in person?
JOURNALING PROMPT(S)
1. Makk has been led to believe that they has a disability because they can’t mindspeak with any of their family members in the community. But after meeting Takver, they realizes that they do have the ability after all. Imagine thinking your whole life that you have an impediment and then realizing one day that your life has been a lie in some ways. How might you respond?
2. Makk has poor eyesight from a distance, yet when they and Takver are hiding from the marauders at the river, Makk can clearly see the color of the marauders’ eyes: green. How do you think it’s possible for Makk to be able to see their eyes from such a distance having such poor vision. Do you think the green eyes are someone how artificial? Why might that be?
CHAPTER FOUR: TURNING
This chapter begins with the waterfetchers’ return to their encampment where the Turning-Sixteen festivities are in full swing. Takver is able to successfully sneak into the camp without alerting anyone to the presence of a stranger, which, for a xenophobic people, could put Takver in danger. Moments after arriving, Old Mester appears on stage in front of the entire community to recount the story of the trials and tribulations of 5 of the original 7 founders of their people before their arrival at the present-day territory. The theatrical performance is interrupted by a gang of raiders who break into and set fire to the encampment before systematically abducting Makk’s people. The scene ends as Makk and Takver are escaping from the camp that is now engulfed in flames, leaving everyone behind, but not before Makk is able to get a glimpse of the weapon being used: a ring like the one used on the waterfetchers on their journey to Old River.
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JOURNALING PROMPT(S)
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PART TWO: THEN
CHAPTER ONE: THE BUNKER
CHAPTER TWO: HELL
CHAPTER THREE: THE MISSING RING
CHAPTER FOUR: GLASS MOUNTAIN
INTERLUDE
CHAPTER FIVE: BEDAP
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PART THREE: TO COME
CHAPTER ONE: TRELL
CHAPTER TWO: OLD TÁTOS
CHAPTER THREE: PRISON LETTERS
CHAPTER FOUR: THE WAY
EPILOGUE
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