Location and Discussion

Hello everyone!

It's been a while since I have communicated via phillybookclub.org so I figured it was high time I got back into it! As we have already established, the meeting for this month will be this Tuesday, October 26th at 8:00pm. The location will remain the same as last time. For those of you who were not there, the destination is a coffee house at 19th and Walnut:

Empyrean Coffee
1921 Walnut St
Philadelphia, PA 19103

The way we situated ourselves last time did not lend itself entirely too well to discussion, so maybe this month we can arrange the tables differently. Either way, the place is really cool and not generally too crowed which makes for easy access to the necessary seating.

As I usually do, I have some discussion questions for you to ponder. The Barnes and Noble reading guide seemed to have it all covered, so here are a few good ones I picked from their list. You can visit here to see them all. For our purposes, I am going to pull five.

1. Describing his own conception, Cal writes: "The timing of the thing had to be just so in order for me to become the person I am. Delay the act by an hour and you change the gene selection" (p. 11). Is Cal's condition a result of chance or of fate? Which of these forces governs the world as Cal sees it?

2. "To be honest, the amusement grounds should be closed at this hour, but, for my own purposes, tonight Electric Park is open all night, and the fog suddenly lifts, all so that my grandfather can look out the window and see a roller coaster streaking down the track. A moment of cheap symbolism only, and then I have to bow to the strict rules of realism, which is to say: they can't see a thing" (pp. 110-11). Occasionally, Cal interrupts his own narrative, calling attention to himself and the artifice inherent in his story. What purpose do these interruptions serve? Is Cal a reliable narrator?

3. How does Cal's experience reflect on the "nature vs. nurture" debate about gender identity?

4. When Tessie and Milton decide to try to influence the sex of their baby, Desdemona disapproves. "God decides what baby is," she says. "Not you" (p. 13). What happens when characters in the novel challenge fate?

5. How is Cal's experience living within two genders similar to the immigrant experience of living within two cultures? How is it different?

So ponder away and be sure to bring some of your own questions with you to the meeting!

If any of you have suggestions for next month's book, please bring them as well.

If anyone has any questions or needs directions to the coffee house, please email me!

See you Tuesday.