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Sitaram
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Joined: 14 Sep 2005
Posts: 1079
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 Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2006 11:29 am Post subject: That Old Ace in the Hole: Questions for Discussion |
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http://www.annieproulx.com/forum/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=2195#2195
| Patriciabike wrote: | Does anyone have book group questions for That
Old Ace in the Hole.......I need them for our book club meetiing on March
4 |
Out of curiousity, and a desire to help others, I am searching google for
study questions, and I have come across this link which is so unusual, in
that it seems to be a public library which sells "packages" for reading
study groups, which include 10 copies of the book as well as study
questions. "That Old Ace in the Hole" is one of the many books they
offer. I shall continue to search for a while, and shall post here anything
additional that I might find.
http://www.bayside.vic.gov.au/library_book_packs.htm
also see
http://www.clpgh.org/locations/fi...kgroups/bookgroupconnections.html
Here is a discussion group on-line forum which has posts regarding
TOAITH (That Old Ace In The Hole).
http://www2b.abc.net.au/rn/arts/a...rchive1/newposts/3/topic3186.shtm
Here is an interesting project which occurs to me. We might seek out
study questions on many different novels, and try to abstract from the a
list of questions to ask ourselves as we read any novel, to construct study
questions specific to that novel.
I noticed that my paperback copy of "The Life of Pi" by Yann Martel
included a list of questions in the back. I suppose it would be a clever
marketing technique for a publisher to include such an appendix in
editions of novels that lend themselves to discussion groups.
I went through four years of St. John's College in Annapolis, reading the
so-called hundred great books of the western world. Twice a week we
would gather in groups of 30 with two professors (they call them tutors at
St. John's). One tutor would ask an "opening question", and we would
spend the next several hours, as a group, discussing that question, and
other questions which would arise. One opening question which sticks in
my mind, regarding Vergil's Aenead, is "Why does Aeneas exit Hades
through the gate of false rather than the gate of true dreams
(one being constructed of horn, the other of ivory, and at the moment I
cannot remember which is which.)
Here is a choice sentences from the above links, rephrased as study
questions:
| Quote: | The great shame is that with Proulx's chronicles we are just
acknowledging our rural selves at the same time as we are destroying
them.
Does Proulx’s rambling nature, so willfully digressed and diverted, please
you or frustrate you, the reader. In what ways does such a style add to
or enhance a work.
Discuss the theme of corporate landgrabbing in order to sneak hog farms
into unsuspecting communities.
|
Perhaps, we might begin to assemble more generic questions that might
be useful with many authors and novels:
| Quote: |
How does the author portray nature in relation to mankind?
What does this book teach us about human nature?
Which character is the most evil?
Which character seems the most selfless?
What is the greatest mistake that anyone makes in this story?
|
I suppose a careful reading of all the sparknotes.com study guides would
inspire a number of generic questions useful for our purposes.
How vigorously the old owners will hold on to their land, even though their
children want no part of it. Why are people sometimes selfish to the
point that they ignore practical realities?
http://www.simonsays.com/content/...9&isbn=0684813076&agid=10
| Quote: |
Reading Group Guide for That Old Ace in the Hole
1) What techniques does the author use in the first sentence of this novel
to bring the rich world of the Panhandle alive? Similarly, how do the vivid,
meticulous descriptions that characterize the first chapter acquaint us not
only with Bob Dollar, but with the complex and often contradictory images
that dot the Texas landscape?
2) Bob Dollar describes the Panhandle by saying, "it seemed he was not
so much in a place as confronting the raw material of human use." How
does this quote, which comes early on in the story, set the stage for the
struggle that happens between the people of Woolybucket, and the Hog
industry? How does the Panhandle give Bob the impression that it is not a
place, or a home, but a landscape made for human consumption?
3) Martin Merton Fronk, Cy Frease, Rope Butt, Tater Crouch. These are
just a few examples of the sometimes humorous and always original
names Proulx gives to the characters who inhabit That Old Ace in the
Hole. How much importance should we, as the reader, give to these
names? In what ways does the author use names, not only to highlight
specific aspects of characters' personalities, but to show where people are
coming from and where the plot might be going?
4) Is this a story about small town history and interpersonal dynamics
between country folk? Is it a fictionalized account of the dangers of
industrializing farmland? Or is it about the constant and inevitable struggle
between tradition and modernity? What do you consider to be the central
theme of this novel? What theme resonates most strongly for you? Why?
5) There is clearly tension between the ways different characters view
animals in this story. While Global Pork Rind considers hogs to be nothing
more than "pork units," native Panhandlers like Ace argue that pigs are
"intelligent...gregarious animals." Which do you agree with? Is this a
moral issue? Does it matter how humans treat animals when they are
destined for slaughter anyway? Did this novel make you re-consider any
of your personal choices or your view of meat production and
consumption in this country?
6) On page 86, LaVon tells Bob about the time period when barbed wire
was becoming widely used on the Panhandle, but neglects to say that "in
fencing the land a certain balance shifted. Now Harshberger felt that the
land was servant to him and owed him a living, owed him everything he
could get from it." How does dividing up the land change the way
residents relate to it? Although some characters, like Harshberger, make
their living from the land they own, what have they lost in their attempts
to control it?
7) After the cockfight, Bob comes to understand that "the cocks represent
their owners, that the grossest lout, the skinniest Asian, mingled his
psychological identification with that of the sleek, beautiful and dangerous
birds." In what other ways do the characters in That Old Ace in the Hole
project personal desires and insecurities on both animals and inanimate
objects?
8) Why do Uncle Tam's plastic trinkets mean so much to him? Discuss
value. Why are some things valuable to one person and useless to
another?
9) At one point, LaVon says to Bob, "Forget that Pioneer and first-settler
stuff...Who do you think settled the west? No, not pioneers. Business! First
the traders...then the army posts...then the railroads. It's all about
business in this country. Has been from day one." In what way does this
view challenge the traditional, romanticized image of the Wild West? Do
you agree that it was industry and not pioneers that settled places like the
Texas Panhandle? Using this quote discuss Global Pork Rind's enterprises
in the Panhandle.
10) Given the great demand for large amounts of cheap, quickly produced
meat in this country, do you think there is a way to resolve the conflict of
interests between the farmers and the meat industry? Does the book
suggest a way to solve this intricate problem? Do you think there is a
solution?
11) Try to imagine these characters in ten years. Where does Bob Dollar
end up? What changes come to Woolybucket?
|
Here is a most excellent reading group post!
http://www.niobraracountylibrary.org/wch/series014/bdtalk.php
I have rephrased various sentences into questions for discussion.
| Quote: |
Discuss the moral issues raised in the book, such as conflicts between
personal values and economic and other interests; degradation of our
Wyoming surface and subsurface landscapes by extractive industries,
including the deep irrigation wells into the Arikaree aquifer below us, CBM
development, oil and coal extraction, and the history of cattle and sheep
grazing.
Discuss the frequent theme in our rural culture of "the good old days" that
is reflected in the book. An interesting point made by one of those
present was that the "good old days" of our own small towns is not unique
to them, but is also present in urban areas, where neighborhood small
businesses have been replaced by mega-malls and mega-stores such as
Wal-Mart and Home Depot, and multi-generation homes by more transient
residences.
Contrast life in a rural area which involves all its residents in interacting
with a cross section of personalities, values and behaviors, versus urban
life.
Discuss the except for the everybody-knows-everybody quality of small
towns.
How do you feel about the issue of small ranchers being squeezed out by
big corporations and out of state, out of touch , wealthy people looking for
a tax break.
What do you find in the book that is humorous?
Annie Proulx does not write “page-turners”: discuss.
Discuss ideas presented by Ace about the rights of people born in a
certain area.
What is there in the life and personality of Annie Proulx that particularly
comes out in “The Old Ace in the Hole?”
Pick out passages relating to anything smacking of "liberalism" like NPR
and health food advocates (both immediately associated with
Communists).
What did you learn from your reading that is new for you, either
vocabulary words, or history, or facts?
Discuss this book’s treatment of sexuality.
Do you agree or disagree regarding typical prejudices people assume
rural people have, presented by Ms. Proulx; NPR, liberals, communists
and gays.
Was Bob Dollar a weak central character? Just and observer through
which we learn about the panhandle and its characters? Was he
dishonest? Did his lack of integrity make him a weak center for the book?
Discuss the conflict of values between those with deep roots in a place,
and those who would seek to uproot others and exploit a place for their
own gain.
Discuss Bob's involvement in the community, his interest in the people,
his feeling that he is scamming people, his desire to help the people, and
his final loathing for his lies and his job.
Discuss the characteristics of rural communities, protection of their own
and hesitancy about outsiders, shared prejudices, long time feuds and so
on.
|
Does reading “That Old Ace in the Hole” make you want to go and live
there? If so, why? If not, why not?
I should mention in passing that, during my google search, I came across
this link, which may fuel the interests of members here who are
literary-minded.
http://www.listology.com/content_show.cfm/content_id.9204
This is a list of books which people became interested in after reading
about them on-line. Many books have links to the on-line information.
http://www.januarymagazine.com/fiction/thatoldace.html
a review by Margaret Gunning
Discuss the following sentence in terms of the novel, the author, and your
own life:
| Quote: |
"If time had to pass, let it pass with meaning. He wanted direction and
reward."
|
How do you feel about the dozens of cartoonish character names that
sometimes threaten to topple the novel's sense of reality.
If Annie Proulx had been a philosopher writing at the time of Plato, then
outline what you feel her philosophy would state, based on all of her
novels and stories.
Discuss the following sentence as if you were Sartre and you had just
published “Being and Nothingness”:
| Quote: |
"In the early years Bob often felt he was in fragments, in many small
parts that did not join, an internal sack of wood chips."
|
Discuss the following sentence as if you were the Greek philosopher
Heraclitus:
| Quote: |
"The world was on casters, rolling away as he was about to step into
it." |
What is the pleasure of rebellion? Do you see any “rebels without a
cause?”
Read up on Proudhon’s notion of “Property as Theft” and discuss Proulx’s
works from that perspective. How does this relate to what you know of
various Native American tribal cultures prior to the arrival of the
European?
What sorts of experiences give someone a compulsion to finish
something.
Discuss:
| Quote: | Ruby Loving's huge, pendulous ears were so wrinkled and knotted
they resembled strings of dried mushrooms. He was toothless, but his
shirt was unbuttoned to the waist and beads of sweat sparkled in a lawn of
white chest hair as he shouted, 'Don't let the stars get in your
eyes...' |
Why do you personally read novels and short stories. What do you hope
to gain from this activity? What is your most favorite Proulx story or
novel, and why? What is your least favorite? How does “The Old Ace in
the Hole” rank with her other works? Can you imagine a movie version of
this novel?
It occurs to Sitaram that the lyric beauty of narrative sentences cannot
easily translate into cinematography, yet talent in crafting such sentences
is and important ingredient in certain genres of literature.
Here is a photo of Annie Proulx reading from “The Old Ace in the Hole”
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/arts/atbooks/s883519.htm
TOAITH nominated best foreign novel in China:
http://english.people.com.cn/200312/18/eng20031218_130659.shtml
| Quote: |
"That Old Ace in the Hole" is the latest novel by US Pulitzer Prize winner
Annie Proulx. It follows a swindler's attempt to find a tract of land in the
Texas Oklahoma Panhandle for his employer to turn into an industrial hog
farm.
"Her narrative line revolves around regional history, colourful tales and
grotesque characters. The author succeeds admirably in creating a new
literary territory. Amid humour and jokes, the novel poses questions
about environmental abuse, morals, lifestyle and the meaning of
existence," said the screening committee, which also offered high praise
for the other five works. |
Sitaram can easily see how various aspects of this novel would appeal to
a communist society such as China. It is interesting how other cultures
will view a work of literature very differently than an American reader.
Islamic as well as communist cultures read “The Great Gatsby” and see a
portrayal of the great satanic society of capitalism and immorality. Asar
Nafisi points out how impressed the women students were with the bold
and outspoken nature of women as depicted in “Daisy Miller” by Henry
James. I read that novel in high school, and never gave a second thought
to the outspoken nature of the women characters since my own mother
had so much chutzpah and bravado that she made such women seem
tame by comparison.
For discussion: How do you imagine that other cultures might interpret
The Old Ace in the Hole?
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