Reference no: EM133489160

This Town Sleeps is by Ojibwe gay author, Dennis E. Staples. It is his first novel. Staples utilizes the fictional genre to fluctuate between a love story (sort of), a deep look at lasting ramifications of colonization and the ways colonization haunts the town of Geshig and haunts the Indigenous people there, Gothic Horror ( who does NOT love a ghost dog as a messenger?), and a mystery (sort of).

And apologies if I go into the weeds a bit. I have now read this book 5 times since it came out because I have an article on this book that will be published in a volume entitled Words With The Dead that is a project coming out of the University of Macau in China.

1. What are the ways that colonial hangover i.e. the insidious and lasting effects that colonization has had and continues to have on the characters in this book?

2. Discuss Staples's writing style. Can you argue his writing style, itself, is attempting to break western eurocentric white molds of what is 'acceptable' and 'outstanding' literature? How? (Please think back to Stein and the ways that she queered language - I mean, yeah she came out of a Western tradition but she also stood that tradition on its head). Maybe you don't buy this at all - that is totally fine, too! Write about that. What do you think of his writing style?

3. Discuss the complexities and nuances of the relationship between Marion and Shannon. And discuss the ways that Staples grapples with masculinity and stereotypes about masculinity. "Hey, Lumberjack!" (You will understand this reference after you have read the book)

4. Discuss the ongoing significance of the Revenant (ghost dog) - and while you're at it, what is the significance of the rusted out merry-go-round?

5. Discuss the relationship between Kayden and Marion.

6. You knew this was going to come - find a passage of the novel and conduct a close reading of it. What do you see there? What is Staples doing? What is he telling us?

7. You probably have much cooler questions and ideas about what you want to address with this book - go for it!

8. What is the significance of the jawbone? And how do you read the scene with Marion's mother giving the jawbone to Shannon - and then how do you read what Shannon does with the jawbone? What is the significance of Shannon's act?

9. What is Staples telling us about being in the closet? And what stereotypes is he working with and/or working against?