Collapse: How Societies Chose to Fail or Succeed, by Jared Diamond

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Chapter	Important Points
Prologue	Controversy:  We don’t want to admit that past people have contributed to their own fall Five-part framework: 1. The damage people inflict on the environment 2. Climate change 3. Hostile neighbors 4. Decreased support of friendly neighbors 5. Society’s response to problems
Chapter 1 Montana, Bitterroot Valley	Six problems: 1. Mining and toxic waste 2. Logging and deforestation 3. Soils 4. Water 5. Native and non-native plants and animals *All cause economic problems 6. Polarization between various population groups  (i.e., old-timers and newcomers)
Part Two – Past Societies
Chapter 2 Easter Island	Causes of collapse: 1. Human impact on environment (deforestation and loss of bird population) 2. Political, social and religious factors behind the above two problems Vocabulary:  moai =  statues, ahu = platforms, pukao = red head piece
Chapter 3 Pitcairn and Henderson Islands	Mangareva declined due to environmental problems Pitcairn and Henderson (depended on Mangareva for trade) unable to survive on own
Chapter 4 Anasazi	Causes of collapse: 1. Deforestation and water problems 2. Climate change – rainfall amount and temperature 3. Internal trade with friendly trade partners – too interdependent 4. Society’s response
Chapter 5 Maya	1. Damaged environment (deforestation and erosion) 2. Climate change 3. Hostile neighbors 4. Political and cultural factors
Chapter 6 Vikings
Chapter 7 Norse – Greenland I
Chapter 8 Norse – Greenland II
Chapter 9 Paths To Success
Part Three – Modern Societies
Chapter 10 Rwanda	1. High population 2. No soil management 3. Inequality in land ownership Other: Hutu/Tutsi, economic crisis, falling coffee prices, displacement of young men, political fighting for power
Chapter 11 Dominican Rep. & Haiti
Chapter 12 China
Chapter 13 Australia
Part Four – Practical Lessons
Chapter 14 Why Bad Decisions?	1. Failure to anticipate problem before it occurs 2. Failure to see a problem that is already present 3. Failure to try to solve a problem 4. Failure to actually solve a problem
Chapter 15 Big Business
Chapter 16 Polder	Polders – Reclaimed land in Netherlands Problems facing world today: 1. Destroying natural habitats 2. Humans eating too much wild foods (esp. fish) 3. Wild species becoming extinct and more becoming extinct 4. Soil being eroded by wind and water 5. Fossil fuels last only for few more decades 6. Freshwater being depleted 7.More people use more sunlight and not much will be available for plant growth 8. Toxic chemicals being released into soil, air and water 9. Plants and animals being transplanted to new places 10. Gases damage ozone layer > global warming 11. Population growing 12. More people having more impact on environment
Chapter 17 Angkor
Further Readings	Author’s suggestions for what we can do: 1. Vote 2.Use power of purchasing 3. Draw attention to company’s policies and procedures regarding the environment 4. Talk to others 5. Invest time and money in local environment – set example for others 6. Donate to environmental causes

 

For discussion:

1. On page 507 of the paperback the author wrote, “…First World citizens show no interest in eating less, in order that Third World citizens could eat more.”    Did your parents tell you to clean your plate because of staring children elsewhere in the world?   How can we help others have enough to eat?

2. Given the four reasons explained in Chapter 14 about why groups make bad decisions, can you think of any examples in our society or personally that illustrate one of more of these reasons?

3. Apply the 12 problems in chapter 16 to your local community.  Which of the counter-arguments have you heard?  Which has the most validity?

4. Would you be willing to pay more for products from an environmentally proactive manufacture?  Do you now?

5. What are we/you currently doing to protect the environment?  What more could we/you do?

6. What (if anything) have you learned through reading this book that is making an impact on how you are living?

7. Discuss your reading experience.  Were you able to follow the writer?  How did you proceed through the book?

The Rich Part of Life, by Jim Kokoris

Characters
Pappas Household	Others
Father Amy – mother –d deceased Teddy – narrator Tommy – The Nose Picker Aunt Bess Uncle Frank   Maurice – bodyguard   Sylvanius	Bobby Lee Anderson – Teddy’s biological father Carl – Bobby’s brother   Dr. Spiral – Teddy’s therapist   Mrs. Wilcott Benjamin   St. Pius Miss Grace – Teddy’s teacher Ergu – Teddy’s Christian pen pal Charlie Governs – friend who liked to draw Johnny Cezzaro

 For discussion:

1.            Why did Aunt Bess wait until they won the money before she stayed with them?  Obviously they needed help earlier.

2.            Discuss the various characters, their actions and their motivations.

3.            Did you relate to one character more than the others?

4.            Discuss Mrs. Wilcott.  What do you think were her motivations?

5.            Should mom and dad have told Teddy about his father sooner?

6.            Discuss the father.  Should he have been more open with Teddy about the custody battle?  Were you surprised that he was giving money away all along?

7.            Do you think Bobby would really have hit Teddy outside the bar?   Discuss Bobby’s motivation – was he interested in the money or his son?

8.            Was Teddy a believable character?

9.            What was your reading experience with this book?  Positive, negative or mixed?

The Tiger's Wife, by Tea Obreht

Stories and Characters
Natalia’s narrative	The Deathless Man	The Tiger’s Wife
Natalia Stefanovic Grandfather – kept illness a secret Bako – grandmother The Jungle Book – always in grandfather’s possession Shere Khan – Tiger in book Mother Vera – grandfather’s mother Zora – friend and fellow doctor Zdrevkov – clinic where grandfather died Brejevina Fra Antun – Franciscan monk Barba Ivan – Antun’s father and the mora at end of novel who takes coins from graves Arlo – deceased brother Bis – Arlo’s dog Dure and family – digging for body in vineyard	Gavran Gaile	Town – Galina Grandfather – 9 years old at time Luka Amana – Luka’s intended, ran away Deaf-mute – other daughter who Luka married unknowlingly Jova – Luka’s friend Darisa the Bear – taxidermist The Apothecary

For discussion:

NOTE:  All page numbers refer to the paperback edition.

1. Natalia and her grandfather visited the zoo every day.  When she was 13 she no longer enjoyed this ritual and did not realize that the trips were not only for her. (page 34)  What was her grandfather’s purpose for these visits?

2. Do you think Grandfather was right to keep his illness a secret from all but Natalia?  Why?

3. Discuss the effect of the closing of the zoo on the people in the city and their reactions.

4. Why did the people in Brejevina continue to paint pictures of Bis? (pages 269-270)

5. What is the importance of our daily rituals?  The author wrote that, as the grandfather aged, “there was a difference between the rituals of comfort and the preventative rituals that come of the end of life.”  (page 276)  What rituals do you have that are important to you?

The Tiger’s Wife:

6. Where you surprised that the apothecary poisoned the Tiger’s Wife?  Why do you think he did so?  (page 320 – 323)

7. How did the tiger’s wife affect the people of Galina?

8. What was the effect of the tiger’s wife on the grandfather?

The Deathless Man:

9. The deathless man said that his work was “to give peace” and that he was there to do penance for his uncle.   (page 177)  Also, he said that what he did was “not some gift…..It’s punishment.”  (page 179)  What do you think about this character and his place in the story?

10. When the grandfather and Gaile were in Sarobar they ate dinner at an old hotel.  Gaile knew that the waiter was going to die the next day but did not tell him because he did not want to deny him the pleasure of serving the meal and the night with his family.  Do you think they should have told the waiter or not?  Why?

11. What do you think is the point of this story?  Why did the author include it in the novel?

In conclusion:

12. Consider the two stories, “The Tiger’s Wife” and “The Deathless Man” as well as the other stories in the novel (for example, the Mora who collected the coins from graves and Dure and his family digging up the body in the vineyard).    What was real and what was myth? 

13. On page 32, the Natalie states, “Everything necessary to understand my grandfather lies between two stories: the story of the tiger’s wife, and the story of the deathless man.”  What did we learn and understand about the grandfather through these stories?

14. How do the three stories fit together?  What do we learn about the grandfather from the stories?  Why was he fascinated by tigers?

15. Discuss your reading experience.  Did you get lost at parts?   Did the novel give you any insights into life?

The Marriage Plot, by Jeffrey Eugenides

Characters and Locations
Brown University	Pilgrim Lake Laboratory	Europe	Prettybrook, NJ
Madeleine Hanna Parents: Alton and Phyllida Sister: Alwyn Leonard Bankhead Parents: Rita and Frank Sister: Janet Mitchell Grammaticus Abby and Olivia – Madeleine’s roommates Semiotics 211 - Prof.  Michael Zipperstein	Madeleine and Leonard Diane MacGregor – Nobel Prize for Physiology Vikram Jaitly & Carl Beller – other 2 research fellows Phyllida and Alwyn visit	Mitchell Larry – traveling companion Claire – Larry’s girlfriend in Paris Calcutta: Home for Dying Destitutes Salvation Army Guest House Madeleine and Leonard on honeymoon – Leonard hospitalized in Monaco Phyllida came to help	Madeleine and Leonard living with her parents Mitchell Alton and Phyllida
Semiotics:  The theory and study of signs and symbols, especially as elements of language and other forms of communication.

 

Books listed in novel
Semiotics 211	Madeleine	Mitchell	Leonard
Balzac - Sarrasine Barthes Jonathan Culler – On Deconstruction Derrida – Of Grammatology, Writing and Difference Umberto Eco The Role of the Reader Peter Handke – A Sorrow Beyond Dreams Zipperstein – The Making of Signs (fictional book)	Books for research paper: Jane Austen – Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion, Sense and Sensibility Dreiser – Sister Carrie George Eliot – Middlemarch Henry James – Portrait of a Lady Private selections: Barthes – A Lover’s Discourse (book thrown at Leonard) Powell – A Dance to the Music of Time (read on train going home for Thanksgiving) Read at home: Bemelman – Madeline James Fennimore Cooper Colette novels Longfellow – Hiawatha Madeleine would stop and read for awhile in parents’ library “to make the sad old books feel better.”	Private selections: Meister Eckhart Kempis - The Imitation of Christ Thomas Merton Ira Progoff – The Cloud of Unknowing Books taken to Europe: The Cloud of Unknowing The Imitation of Christ The Confessions of St. Augustine Sister Teresa – Interior Castle Merton – Dark Night of the Soul Tolstoy – A Confession and Other Religious Writings Pynchon – V God Biology: Toward a Theistic Understanding of Evolution Hemingway – A Moveable Feast Mother Teresa – Something Beautiful for God Charles Colson – Born Again (bought with parent’s credit card)	Read in high school: Stephen Jay Gould – Ontogeny and Phylogeny Ever Since Darwin

 For Discussion:

NOTE:  All pages refer to the hardback edition.

1.            When Leonard was first in the hospital during graduation, his friend warns Madeleine not to get involved with Leonard.  He states that he is, “Just someone who knows from personal experience, how attractive is can be to think you can save someone else by loving them.”  (page 123)  Was this good advice?  Why did Madeleine not even think of heeding it?

2.            Leonard’s parents bought the house where the murder had occurred because it was cheap.    Would you live in a house where a murder had occurred?

3.            Did the description of Leonard’s disease (starting on page 233) give you some insights into mental disease?  If so, what?   Do you think Leonard could or should have done anything differently?  What do you think will happen to Leonard in the end?

4.            Discuss Leonard’s family and their influence on Leonard and their reaction to his illness.

5.            Discuss Mitchell’s quest for religious understanding.  Do you think he was or will be successful?

6.            Did you understand Semiotics?  Is it important to the book?

7.            Discuss the relationship between the reader and the writer.  Madeleine felt that the semiotic theorists thought the reader was the more important of the two while she wanted the writer to do more work than the reader.  (page 42)

8.            Consider the various couples in the novel and their relationship:

• Mitchell and Madeleine
• Leonard and Madeleine
• Leonard and Mitchell (meeting at the end of the novel)
• Mitchell and Larry

9.            What were the redeeming qualities of each character?  Did they have any negative characteristics?

10.          Did you like the ending of the book?

11.          What was the best part of the book?

12.          How does the title, The Marriage Plot, relate to the story?