Miriam W.
asked
Michael Finkel:
Hi Michael, I just finished your excellent book, The Stranger in the Woods. I thoroughly enjoyed it and particularly love your writing style. I appreciated your insights and details regarding isolation and the role of suffering which were woven into the story so beautifully. I am recommending your book to my book club and wondered if you could suggest a few questions for our discussion? Miriam
Michael Finkel
Hi Miriam. Thank you for the kind words! Reactions like your give me the energy to continue working. Here are some book club questions:
-- How do you feel about Knight? On the North Pond camp owners' scale of "Lock Knight up forever" to "Let him go immediately," where do you reside?
-- By the rules on listed on the top of p.132, what is the longest you have ever been alone? Do you know anybody who has lasted a week?
-- Knight felt, when reading "Notes from the Underground," that Dostoyevsky was reaching through time and speaking directly to him. What books have made you feel that way?
-- Discuss Knight’s childhood and family. How does the idea of rugged individualism and self-reliance color his upbringing? The value of privacy? Consider his absence in their lives, and sudden return to it. Does he feel any guilt about his decision to disappear? How does his family interpret his return?
-- On page 112, Knight wonders if “modern society, with its flood of information and tempest of noise, was only making us dumber.” Reflect on this statement. What are the pitfalls of technology in relation to modern living? How does our reliance on technology undercut some of the most essential human functions?
-- How do you feel about Knight? On the North Pond camp owners' scale of "Lock Knight up forever" to "Let him go immediately," where do you reside?
-- By the rules on listed on the top of p.132, what is the longest you have ever been alone? Do you know anybody who has lasted a week?
-- Knight felt, when reading "Notes from the Underground," that Dostoyevsky was reaching through time and speaking directly to him. What books have made you feel that way?
-- Discuss Knight’s childhood and family. How does the idea of rugged individualism and self-reliance color his upbringing? The value of privacy? Consider his absence in their lives, and sudden return to it. Does he feel any guilt about his decision to disappear? How does his family interpret his return?
-- On page 112, Knight wonders if “modern society, with its flood of information and tempest of noise, was only making us dumber.” Reflect on this statement. What are the pitfalls of technology in relation to modern living? How does our reliance on technology undercut some of the most essential human functions?
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