May 2016 Book Selection
The
Fairfax Library Book Discussion Group will meet Thursday, May 12th at 7 p.m. in
the meeting room of the Fairfax Library to discuss our May book Euphoria
by Lily King.
Discussion
questions are below.
Here
are some links for additional background and information:
Brief
bio of
Margaret Mead and longish obit of
Gregory Bateson
Four
minute audio interview with Margaret Mead about anthropology
Coming
up, we have the following book to look forward to reading:
Thurs.
June 9th Mary
Coin by Marisa Silver
Thanks
for reading with us. I look forward to seeing you at the Fairfax Library.
Beth Bailey-Gates
Friends
of the Fairfax Library
DISCUSSION
QUESTIONS
Euphoria by Lily King
1. Set
against the lush tropical landscape of 1930s New Guinea, this novel charts
British anthropologist Andrew Bankson’s fascination for colleagues Nell Stone
and her husband, Fen, a fascination that turns deadly. How far does the setting
play a role in shaping events? Is there a sense that the three have created
their own small universe on the banks of the Sepik River, far removed from the
Western world? If so, by whose rules are they playing?
2. “She
tried not to think about the villages they were passing…the tribes she would
never know and words she would never hear, the worry that they might right now
be passing the one people she was meant to study, a people whose genius she
would unlock, and who would unlock hers, a people who had a way of life that
made sense to her” (p. 8). In the light of this quote, discuss Nell Stone’s
passion and need for anthropology and find ways in which they differ from
Bankson’s and Fen’s. Talk about the significance of her childhood dream of
being carried away by gypsies.
3. Continue
your discussion by considering Nell’s statement: “If I didn’t believe they
shared my humanity entirely, I wouldn’t be here…I’m not interested in zoology”
(p. 55). Find instances in the novel in which she demonstrates this. How far do
you agree, as Nell states, that it is an anthropologist’s role to encourage
self-analysis and self-awareness in the tribes he/she studies?
4. Over the
course of the novel we learn a great deal about Bankson’s childhood and young
adulthood. Talk about the reasons and life events that brought him to
anthropology. What has led him to the brink of suicide? How seriously do you
think he views his statement: “The meaning of life is the quest to understand
the structure and order of the natural world --- that was the mantra I was
raised on. To deviate from it was suicide” (p. 32).
5. Given his
upbringing and his father’s passion for “hard” science, Nell’s focus on
humanity instead of zoology must hold great appeal for Bankson. What else draws
him to Nell, leaving him with “Fierce desires, a great tide of feeling of which
I could make little sense, an ache that seems to have no name but want. I want”
(p. 86). What exactly does Bankson want?
6. Discuss
the ways in which Bankson’s attitude toward his work changes as he gets to know
Nell and her research methods. Consider his acknowledgment of the limitations
of an anthropologist’s work and discuss how far it is possible to ever get to
know another’s culture. Take into account Bankson’s interest in the objectivity
of the observer.
7. Take your
discussion of the previous question a step further by considering whether it is
ever possible to truly know another person. Apply your observations to
Bankson’s views of Nell and Fen.
8. The theme
of possession, of ownership, runs throughout the novel, twisting like the river
Sepik itself through the relationships and conversations of the protagonists.
Talk about Nell’s search for “a group of people who give each other the room to be in whatever way they need to be” (p.
88). Has she found this kind of freedom in any of the tribes she has studied?
In any of her relationships? Talk specifically about Fen and Bankson.
9. Further
your discussion by focusing on the idea of words and thoughts as things to be
owned --- as Nell states, “once I published that book and my words became a
commodity…” (p. 91). How has this impacted her relationship with Fen? Consider
her statement “I only know that when F leaves and B and I talk I feel like I am
saying --- and hearing --- the first wholly honest words of my life” (p. 198).
10. On
several occasions during the novel, Nell refers to an Amy Lowell poem,
“Decade.” Why do you think the poem holds such meaning for her? How does the
poem’s central idea --- of feelings for a lover changing from the sweet, almost
painful intensity of red wine into the blissful satisfaction of bread ---
relate to her and her own relationships?
11. While
Nell declares later that “He is wine and bread and deep in my stomach” (p.
247), do you believe that Bankson was able to give Nell the freedom she was
looking for? How or how not? Could it have led inevitably to her death?
12. How far
would you consider Nell to be the epitome of a young, independent accomplished
woman? Talk about her character, her personality, work habits and motivations.
Then discuss her disturbing relationship with Fen, and her inability to escape
his harm. How did she end up in such an untenable situation?
13. In one
journal entry, Nell writes: “I am angry that I was made to choose, that both
Fen & Helen needed me to choose, to be their one & only when I didn’t
want a one & only” (p. 92). Consider Nell’s relationship with Helen as
compared to her relationship with Fen and talk about the reasons she may have
chosen Fen over Helen. Do you think that she made this decision or it was made
for her?
14. Set
against a distant backdrop of a Western world mired in doubt and economic
depression, the novel can be seen to depict a search for understanding, for a
sense of order. Look at the ways in which the study of the tribes of New Guinea
reflects the protagonists’ desperate search for meaning --- a search that can
lead to a sense of failure or instead to Nell’s euphoria when “at that moment
the place feels entirely yours” (p. 50). Find instances of despair and
disillusionment for Nell, Fen and Bankson in their various work experiences.
How do they react?
15. What do
the three of them really see in the tribes of New Guinea? To what extent, when
unlocking the puzzles of the Kiona and the Tam, are they searching for meaning
within themselves? How important is it to impending events that the Tam tribe
appears to be female-dominated?
16. In the
context of the previous two questions, talk about the significance of the Grid
to the three anthropologists. What does it represent to them? Why does Bankson
refer to a “shift in the stars” caused by the Grid?
17. Discuss
the glimpses the novel gives into the world of 1930s colonialism --- in the
conversations with Westerners in New Guinea and in Australia; and in Bankson’s,
Nell’s and Fen’s attitudes to the tribes they study and the Western society to
which they must eventually return. How, if at all, do Nell, Fen and Bankson
take colonial approaches toward their research practices and anthropological subjects?
What is the role of Xambun as he rejoins his tribal village after being
recruited by a Western company? Is it possible to live between the two worlds?
18. Fen
briefly mentions a dark family secret, then continues the conversation to
discuss the primitive world versus the “civilized world”: “Nothing in the
primitive world shocks me, Bankson. Or I should say, what shocks me in the
primitive world is any sense of order and ethics. All the rest --- the
cannibalism, infanticide, raids, mutilation --- it’s all comprehensible, nearly
reasonable, to me. I’ve always been able to see the savageness beneath the
veneer of society” (p.137–38). What does this say about Fen? How far do you
agree with his comment, especially in the light of events that follow in the novel?
19. For all
of Nell and Bankson’s heartfelt conversations, and Bankson’s keen observations
of her at work, there are many important things left unsaid. Nell states: “You
don’t realize how language actually interferes with communication…how it gets in
the way like an overdominant sense” (p. 79). Should Bankson have understood
further Nell’s sadness within her marriage, Fen’s physical abuse? As a reader,
do we miss the clues too?
20. Discuss
Fen’s obsession with the flute, and the reasons why it ultimately leads to the
destruction of so much: the anthropologists’ relationship with the Tam tribe,
Fen’s relationship with Nell and Bankson. If Xambun had not been killed, would
it have been acceptable for Fen to take the flute?
21. Continue
your discussion to consider whether an anthropologist must always betray in
some way the tribes he/she works with. How does Nell writing books about the
people she studies differ from Fen selling the flute to a museum? Was Nell’s
work in the field beneficial to the Tam or to the children of Kirakira? Are her
reasons for working with them ultimately as selfish as Fen’s need to profit
from the flute? How morally responsible are Bankson and Nell for Xambun’s
death?
22. Fen
justifies taking the flute so that he can restore balance to his relationship
with Nell: “There has to be a balance. A man can’t be without power --- it
doesn’t work like that” (p. 238). Contrast this with Nell’s thoughts on
balance: “[P]erhaps a culture that flourishes is a culture that has found a
similar balance among its people” (p. 144). Do you think they are talking about
the same thing? Does balance always need to rest on power?
23. Trace
Bankson’s emotional and intellectual development throughout the course of the
novel, ending with his visits from his biographer. How do you think his
experience with Nell and Fen affected and changed him? Talk about what may have
kept him going after Nell’s death. Why did he not revert back to his suicidal
path? Consider the quote that holds so much meaning for him from war poet
Edward Shillito’s “Hardness of Heart”: “Tears are not endless and we have no
more.”
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