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Severance

Questions About Severance

by Ling Ma (Goodreads Author)

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Answered Questions (14)

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Jessica The way I interpreted it, the sleepwalking was a precursor to becoming fully fevered, but it hadn't yet been triggered because he was too fixated on e…moreThe way I interpreted it, the sleepwalking was a precursor to becoming fully fevered, but it hadn't yet been triggered because he was too fixated on efficiency to really give way to nostalgia. Then, when Candace is talking with him over tea, she asks him what it's like to be "back," and it's clear he hadn't really thought about it before. Once he starts thinking about it, he says it even smells like it did when he was a kid. My thought was that in the few hours after their conversation, he starts thinking more and more about his fond memories of being in the mall as a kid, and it's that nostalgia that makes him fully succumb to the fever.(less)
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If you became fevered tomorrow, what routine would you likely find yourself repeating until you withered away?
Jeri Paull Heh, exactly what I'm doing right now, being sucked into the internet. Heh, exactly what I'm doing right now, being sucked into the internet. Heh, exa…moreHeh, exactly what I'm doing right now, being sucked into the internet. Heh, exactly what I'm doing right now, being sucked into the internet. Heh, exactly what I'm doing right now, being sucked into the internet. Wait - what was the question? (less)
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Sara Roberts
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How religious is this book?
Petergiaquinta At first I was waiting for those mass-produced Gemstone Bibles made in the Shenzhen Economic Zone to somehow be connected to the spread of the Shen fe…moreAt first I was waiting for those mass-produced Gemstone Bibles made in the Shenzhen Economic Zone to somehow be connected to the spread of the Shen fever.

Then I realized that connection didn't really need to be made explicit or made at all because Ling Ma is helping us come to the understanding that globalization itself is like a virus spreading infection across the planet...and you know what else is? Religion too!

Ling Ma really does something interesting here by having Candace oversee the production of cheap Bibles made by Asian wage slaves for Evangelical American tweener girls. Things don't get much more cynical than that!(less)
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I was confused by the chapter in which reference is made to Obama as President -- twice. It sets the novel in the past, not the future. Even if it took several years to get published, in 2018, I would think this chapter would have been revised if the events were supposed to be in the future. Am I missing something?
Sarah Perhaps these details were meant to raise the question: how many of us are fevered right now, going through the motions of our usual routines while th…morePerhaps these details were meant to raise the question: how many of us are fevered right now, going through the motions of our usual routines while the world falls apart around us? She may be suggesting that this isn't an imagined apocalyptic future at all, but the present reality in which we are now living. (less)
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