Q1. What do you think the writing on the side of the Travelling Symphony caravan, "Because survival is insufficient" means? How do you feel about this statement?
Q2. Does the novel have a main character? Who would you consider it to be?
Arthur or Christian
Q3. This section traces the creation and development of Station Eleven, a writing project by Miranda. How does this "graphic novel-within-a-novel" resonate with you, and the other storylines of Mandel's novel? Miranda's art
Q4. When Miranda is writing Station Eleven, her artist boyfriend Pablo mocks it, suggesting she is "squandering her talent" (page 87). What is your opinion of graphic novels, manga, etc? Which arts do people consider to be more "classy/intellectual" and which arts are considered "less prestigious"?
Q5. Shakespeare's plays, like Midsummer Night's Dream and Hamlet, often contained a play-within-a-play. What parallels do you see between Shakespeare's works, and this novel by Mandel?
Q6. Arthur Leander dies while performing King Lear, and the Traveling Symphony performs Shakespeare's works. On page 57, Mandel writes, "Shakespeare was the third born to his parents, but the first to survive infancy. Four of his siblings died young. His son, Hamnet, died at eleven and left behind a twin. Plague closed the theaters repeatedly, death flickering over the landscape." How to do Shakespearean motifs coincide with those of Station Eleven, both the novel and the comic.
Q7. What do these scenes, detailing the relationship between Miranda and Arthur, tell the reader about these two characters?
Q8. Who is the stowaway, and why is she with the Symphony?
Q9. In this section, the symphony talks of many things from the "before times" that some people have begun to forget. Find a passage about a lost technology, and then contemplate why Mandel includes this memory.
Q10. Through Chapters 22-23, Dieter and Sayid disappear, and then the entire Symphony, leaving Kirsten and August behind. a) What do you think has happened to these missing members? b) What do you think Kirsten means by "Hell is the absence of the people you long for?"