Innocents and Others (Spiotta) - Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions
We'll add the publisher's questions if and when they're available. In the meantime use these LitLovers talking points to kick off a discussion for Innocents and Others...then take off on your own:

1. "This is a love story," reads the opening line of Innocents and Others. How does that line apply to the novel as a whole? What is meant by the term "love"? Does it refer to intimacy or friendship or obsession...or something else?

2. The book opens with Meadow, one of the main characters, lying about an affair with Orson Welles. Why does Meadow fabricate the relationship? And why might Dana Spiotta have chosen to open her novel with a lie?

3. Talk about Meadow Mori and Carrie Wexler. How are they different from one another? Consider their childhood backgrounds, as well as the choices they made in their personal and professional lives.

4.  Follow-up to Question 3: Discuss the long-term friendship at the heart of the novel. How do Carrie's and Meadow's career paths strain their relationhip? What continues to bind them together?

5. Consider Meadow's reaction when she sees Carrie's new film—the "funniest film of the summer." After seeing it, Meadow wonders, "What was wrong with her? Why was she like this, so ungenerous?" Is Meadow normally "ungenerous"? She also wonders, "Why couldn't she be better?" Have you ever had similar concerns about how you react to friends' successes (or failures...schadenfreud, anyone)? Is resentment or jealousy part of human nature?

6. One of the concerns of the novel has to do with artistic integrity. Whose career path is more authentic...and whose is less? Is Carrie a sellout because her films appeal to popular audiences? Or in an industry—and a society—that rewards escapism, is Carrie's choice inevitable, even blameless? Has Meadow remained true to her goals? Or is she following her own egotistical drive for acclaim among the art house crowd?

7. Is Meadow's film "Inward Operator" a betrayal of Jelly, or even a betrayal of her own standards?

8. Talk about the hollowness at the heart of the lives of the three women in this novel: Carrie, Meadow, and Jelly. Why are their lives not more fulfilling?

9. What about Jelly, who finds intimacy through her "pure calls"? Jelly says, "I was always happy to reach an inward operator." What is an "inward operator"—and who else might be searching for one in this novel?

10. Meadow believes that people reveal themselves in front of a camera whether they intend to or not. Do you believe cameras have a revelatory quality to them? Can we come to know others, even ourselves, through the lens of a camera? If so, how does that happen? When you see yourself on video, or hear your voice on tape, have you ever been surprised at how you look and sound?

11. Dana Spiotta avoids straight forward, linear story telling; instead, she intersperses her narrative with interviews, scene transcripts, webpages, film theory dissertations, and more. What affect does this have on your reading of the book? Why might the author have chosen this interruptive mode?

12. This book is concerned about the impact of art on human consciousness. What is art's purpose or intent? Is it to entertain? Is it to enable us to see what we often overlook—about the world, about ourselves? What are your thoughts on how art affects us? When we view art (an image, say, on film or otherwise), what are we connecting with—art itself, nature, ourselves, or something transcendant and divine ?

(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)

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