R. A. Lafferty

English 3840 Online: Reading Guides

"There is an Indian story--at least I heard it as an Indian story--about an Englishman who, having been told that the world rested on a platform which rested on the back of an elephant which rested in turn on the back of a turtle, asked (perhaps he was an ethnographer; it is the way they behave), what did the turtle rest on? Another turtle. And that turtle? 'Ah, Sahib, after that it is turtles all the way down.'"
Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures.
Nine Hundred Grandmothers
Discussion Questions
1. The Proavitoi aging process is certainly different from the human one, but are there any ways in which their old age might be an extrapolation from elements of ours?

2. Does the Proavitoi way of speaking suggest anything about their view of the world?

3. At what point does Ceran begin to fail in his quest? Why?

4. What do you think the Proavitoi would think of Manbreaker's hope of obtaining their secret to eternal life?

5. Does Ceran's description of his own gradual suspension of disbelief match the reader's experience? Are we boiled lobsters?

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