Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin

NOTE: This novel had many words new to me.  There is a vocabulary quiz at the end!

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin

Characters

Games

Samson Mazer - Harvard Anna Lee – mother George Masur – father Bong Cha – grandmother Dong Hyun – grandfather   Sadie Green Sharyn – mother Alice – sister, childhood leukemia, Dr. Alice Green Freda Green – grandmother   Dov Mizrah – Sadie’s professor at MIT   Marx Watanbe – Sam’s roommate, partner in Unfair Games   Naomi Watanabe Green – Sadie and Marx’s daughter   Unfair Games Sam and Sadie Marx Dov – producer and equity partner Zoe Cadogan – composer Simon Freeman Anthony Ruiz “Ant” Gordon, receptionist

Sadie’s class project games: Emily Blaster Solution   Ichigo: A Child of the Sea   Ichigo II: Go, Ichigo, Go   Both Sides Mapletown – Alice Ma, cancer (two worlds – hospital and outside the hospital) Myre Landing – Rose the Mighty   The Maplewood Experience – MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) Free – money earned from maintenance   Mayor Mazer – Sam’s avatar in Mapletown   Counterpart High – four games, one for each year of high school   Master of the Revels Master of the Revels: The Scottish Expansion (Had an Easter Egg of Marx hidden by Sadie)   Oregon Train Dr. Edna Daedalus Emily Alabaster Brown

 

For Discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from the hardback edition.

1.       When you first started the book, what were your thoughts – confusion, stepping into the unknown, pleasant anticipation, or something else?

2.       Was it right for Sadie to consider the time she spent with Sam in the hospital as community service?  Her grandmother, Freda Green, did not think so.  She told Sadie that is might hurt Sam’s feelings “if he thinks he is charity to you, and not a genuine friendship” (page 23).

3.       In Sadie’s class, Dov said that the game designer had to think about the player at all times and that, “There is no artist more empathetic than the game designer” (page 44).  What did you think about this?

4.       Could anything have been done to heal the divide between Sam and Sadie?  Starting with the release of Ichigo II, Sadie felt that Sam was always taking the credit.   Also, they each felt they moved to California for the other one, not themselves.

5.       As you were reading, did you think that Sam and Sadie would somehow end up together?  Would that have worked? 

6.       Discuss the various characters.  Were there any you did not like at all?   Did the author do a good job of describing each person?

7.       Section VII when Marx is killed (The NPC) and section IX (The Pioneers), were written in different styles that the rest of the novel.  Did you like this? Was it effective?  Did the different writing styles help you understand the shooting and death from Marx’s point of view and the video game differently.

8.       The novel had many thoughts on life and success in general, such as:

a.       Page 80 – “How your sense of self could change depending on your location.”

b.       Page 219 – Dov to Sadie about failure: “You take advantage of the quiet time that a failure allows you…You try again. You fail better.”

c.       Page 247 – “The most successful people are also the most able to change their mindsets.”

Do you agree with these statements?  Were there other ideas in the book that you thought insightful?

9.       Did reading this book cause you to think differently about computer and video games?  For example, on page 18 Sam said playing video games requires hand-eye coordination and observing patterns.   And when Sadie was going to visit Sam in the hospital to play games, the author wrote that to play with another person, “means allowing yourself to be open, to be exposed, to be hurt” (page 21).

10.   Also, Marx’s mother, Mrs. Watanabe who taught textile design, told Sadie, “Computers are great for experimentation, but they are bad for deep thinking” (page 230).  Do you agree?

11.   Why was this book on the New York Times hardcover best seller list for almost a year?

12.   What were your thoughts about the book when you were finished?   Would you recommend it to a friend?  Do you think different age groups would read the book differently?

 

 

 

 

 

Vocabulary Quiz!!!

(Answers are at the bottom of the page.  No peeking!)

 

_____ 1. grok (page 77)                         

_____ 2. cicerone (page 65)                                

_____ 3. tautology (page 41)                              

_____ 4. collogue (page 131)                              

_____ 5. auteur (page 132)                                 

_____ 6. palimpsest (page 214)                         

_____ 7. turpitude (page 215)                            

_____ 8. susurrus (page 283) 

 

a.                  needless repetition of an idea

b.                  confer secretly

c.                   a soft murmuring or rustling sound

d.                  a guide

e.                  to understand completely and intuitively

f.                    depravity, a shameful act

g.                   filmmaker with distinct individual style

 

Answers:

1-e     2-d     3-a     4-b     5-g     6-h     7-f     8-c