Book Club Discussion Questions
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Introduction to Something Rotten
With her Lorem Ipsum-spouting son, Friday, in tow, Thursday returns to her
Swindon home to resume her quest to reactualize her husband, Landen Parke-Laine.
As a final favor to her Jurisfiction colleagues, Thursday also escorts
Shakespeare's Hamlet on a public relations field trip to the real world so he
can ponder why he has been misrepresented as a "ditherer."
Much has changed in Swindon since she left—the Goliath Corporation has
branched out from corporate domination into religious domination, rogue book
character Yorrick Kaine has mysteriously risen to power as right-wing chancellor
of England, and thirteenth-century saints are resurrecting themselves all over
the country. Swindon's very own patron saint, the foulmouthed St. Zvlkx, returns
to Swindon in front of a shopping center just as he predicted in his Book of
Revealments. St. Zvlkx's uncannily precise Revealments also predict that the
downfall of the mighty Goliath corporation is inextricably linked to a seemingly
impossible Swindon Mallets win at the upcoming SuperHoop championship.
Upon her return, Thursday finds herself at the wrong end of a sniper's rifle.
Her would-be assassin turns out to be a deadly hitwoman who goes by the name the
Windowmaker and also happens to be her good friend Spike's wife. Thursday
suspects that Yorrick Kaine has contracted for the Windowmaker's services,
because Thursday is one of the few people in the real world who can reveal his
true identity and deport him back to the BookWorld. Kaine seems to have the
entire country under his spell, and even Thursday finds herself being charmed
into confusion by his unnatural charisma. Kaine and his conniving pals at
Goliath will stop at nothing to make sure St. Zvlkx's prediction doesn't come
true. As the octogenarian President of England's death draws near, Thursday must
find a way to take Yorrick Kaine back to fiction before the Windowmaker takes
her out of action.
Reading Guide
- After two years of being head of Jurisfiction, Thursday decides that she
needs to return to the real world. What are her reasons for returning to the
real world? What does the real world have to offer her that the BookWorld
does not?
- Is Hamlet a "ditherer"? Is he the most indecisive character in
Shakespeare? Why do people find him so fascinating? What are his "inner
motivations"?
- Thursdsay explains the imaginotransference technology of books to Hamlet
by saying, "Well, each interpretation of an event, setting, or
character is unique to each of those who read it because they clothe the
author's description with the memory of their own experiences." Do you
agree with this statement? What characteristics do the best novels have in
common? Is the readers' ability to connect the characters to their personal
lives the most important aspect?
- In this alternate reality, the politically ambitious Yorrick Kaine chooses
Denmark as the totally improbable scapegoat for all of England's ailments,
in order to deflect attention from the real issues plaguing the country.
Politicians have faux debates on a show called Evade the Question Time. Is
this satirical bit an overly cynical view of government or a social
commentary based on truth?
- Why does Granny Next decide to serve her sentence living in young
Thursday's time? Without her help, how would Thursday's life have played out
differently?
- Why do Stig and his Neanderthal comrades agree to play for the Swindon
Mallets? What does the Neanderthal community have at stake? Why is this
important to them?
- Goliath has become a corporate religion, complete with professional
apologists. Is this more or less frightening than its previous incarnation
as a multinational, omnipotent corporation? What does Goliath gain from
re-actualizing Landen Parke-Laine, Thursday's previously eradicated husband?
- In a character battle such as the one that Kaine and the Cat formerly
known as Cheshire fight, the battling possibilities are endless. What
characters would you call upon to fight for you?
- Though Thursday and her father are in very different lines of work—he's
a ChronoGuard officer and she's a Jurisfiction officer—both police the
progression of time and fiction in order to preserve the integrity of the
outcome. Are time and fiction linear? What are the similarities and
differences between their two lines of work?
- Does Thursday have the right to escape death by trading places with Cindy?
Is there such a thing as fate in Thursday's world, a world in which
ChronoGuard officers police history and the almost dead may escape "the
way station of Southside"?
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