Severance

PROLOGUE-CHAPTER 3

Reading Check

1. Needling, Illinois (Prologue)

2. Bibles (Chapter 1)

3. Divine Selection (Chapter 2)

Short Answer

1. Unlike popular media, the characters are not all individualistic survival types who come together for the greater good or to have a better chance at survival, but instead are woefully unprepared city dwellers. They overcomplicate their efforts to get by and fall back on corporate-style self-improvement initiatives to adapt, such as Googling and discussing Maslow’s hierarchy. Their togetherness is also less about a greater good and more about maintaining a semblance of the routine, order, and hierarchies they are used to. (Prologue; Chapters 1-3)

2. The Gemstone Bible encapsulates the absurdity of unchecked consumerism and Candance’s identity as a complicit facilitator of the systems that enable unchecked consumerism. In the already-saturated Bible market, where there are thousands of versions available, the Gemstone Bible does not need to exist; without Candace middle-manning the operation, the Bible would not exist. Considering that Candace has no interest in the Bible, will not get the profits, and is horrified that the gem production process is killing workers, she wonders why she is invested in a product so unnecessary. This forces her to grapple with the reality that she makes a living by facilitating exploitive relationships that produce meaningless items despite having only an abstracted stake. (Chapter 1)

3. NY Ghost simultaneously gives Candace an identity and anonymity; she can belong and connect without committing. The blog allows people close enough to feel like they know her but not close enough to really know her. It also enables her to be defined by the city she “haunts” rather than creating a definition of herself from the pieces of her own past and experiences. If she does not like the persona, she can easily cast it off and distance herself from it, as she does when she tells Jonathan her work is nothing special. (Chapter 3)  

CHAPTERS 4-7

Reading Check

1. The Torn Curtain death scene (Chapter 4)

2. Corporate divisions and hierarchy (Chapter 4)

3. Belonging/Identity (Chapter 6)

Short Answer

1. On one level, the nonlinear plot’s movement between past and present explores the role of memories in surviving the present moment; this is seen with the flashbacks providing Candace a respite from the monotony of the present and contextualizing her present actions and motivations. It also allows the distinction between past and present, pre- and post-apocalypse to blur, so that the ultimately meaningless efforts in both past and present parallel one another and the question of what separates the fevered and unfevered becomes more difficult to answer. (Chapters 4-5)

2. Though the climate, cuisine, language, and architecture are different, creating different atmospheres for Candace, the underpinnings of both cities are alike in that their function is to facilitate consumption of goods through more choices in the next mall or market. (Chapter 7)

3. Candace feels nostalgia for both cities as spaces encapsulating some of her most formative experiences, but being an outsider in both cities, she avoids the trap of identifying directly with her nostalgia because she cannot ignore the truth that her memories or idea of each city and the actual place are not the same. (Chapter 7)

CHAPTERS 8-12

Reading Check

1. Cosmetic procedures (Chapter 8)

2. Nostalgia (Chapter 10)

3. A black hole (Chapter 10)

Short Answer

1. Ashley’s fever symptoms surface only after she reveals the regret of dropping contact with her parents and returns to her childhood home, indicating that memory and nostalgia are prisons or traps. Even the unfevered like Candace spend much of their time in the past, in memory, to escape the monotony and hardship of the present, and in that way, memory is also about survival. Trying to go back and physically inhabit the spaces in memory (or otherwise getting too close emotionally) leads to the “severance” from the present the fever induces. (Chapters 10 and 12)

2. As both an immigrant and American citizen, Candace finds herself on the outside looking in whether in New York or Hong Kong, feeling moved by her surroundings but never quite belonging. The Rust Belt art represents this aspect of her character as, like her, the camera bears witness to an environment of which it is not really a part. (Chapter 11)

3. Candace is the only character who has not fully assimilated to the group. In a gesture that symbolically comments on the power dynamics and the social costs to immigrants and others who cannot and/or will not fully assimilate in the United States, Bob determines to punish her severely as an example to the rest. Candace is an easy target and scapegoat because she lacks allies, and her agency has been curtailed since the newcomer must adapt to the group. Her punishment becomes Bob’s tool for controlling the rest. (Chapter 12)

CHAPTERS 13-17

Reading Check

1. Memory/Nostalgia/Routine (Chapter 15)

2. Deer Oaks Mall (Chapter 15)

3. Exodus (Chapter 16)

Short Answer

1. The Shen Fever FAQ serves as another iteration of the many products available in consumerist society that fail to live up to the promises of the fictions they peddle. Like the idea of Manhattan in media, or the promise of eternal youth and glamour using beauty products, or the heavenly taste of shark fin soup, the FAQ publication speaks with authority and assurance about protecting oneself from Shen Fever; the reality of Shen Fever, however, shows there is no protection available. Consequently, the FAQ relates to central questions, such as why people continue to consume fantasies rather than face reality; it also symbolizes the extent to which consumption becomes so routine it drives apocalyptic events like Shen Fever—and how these events persist despite helpful guides. (Chapter 13)

2. That the Facility is simply a mall comes as a disappointment to Bob’s group, though they are unable to show it. Not only is this endpoint in their journey a pastiche an iconic moment in the zombie apocalypse genre, but it encapsulates the absurdity of consumerism. They might have stopped at any other mall and had the same set-up, yet they refuse to acknowledge their disappointment or voice their anger to Bob, who led them there with false promises. This point comments on the internalized frustration and abusive dynamics of consumerism. That the Facility becomes a prison for Candace also symbolically confirms the entrapment of consumerism and how even when one becomes aware of its false promises, it is difficult to break the relationship. (Chapter 15)

3. Immigration to the United States from China required for her parents a complete upheaval of cultural norms, food, peer groups, and language to adapt to a new language and context; since language and culture tie intimately to a person’s identity, choosing to live in the United States as an immigrant requires one to cut ties and become someone new even in the best of circumstances. Regarding Candace’s father, his parents rejected him, and he has had an ideological “severance” after witnessing the student protest massacre in Tiananmen Square. Candace’s mother, who stays unwillingly, is cut off from her family, loses her relationship with her own daughter, and is unable to continue at her profession, another way in which she is severed from her professional identity. (Chapter 16)

CHAPTERS 18-22

Reading Check

1. Work (Chapter 19)

2. A childhood safe place (Chapter 21)

3. NY Ghost Blog (Chapter 22)

Short Answer

1. The “severance” from the present reality for those who contract Shen Fever is obvious, but Candace also experiences “severance.” Candance becomes further severed: from her family in China because of travel bans and communications breakdown, from her coworkers as they abandon their posts, from her job as production in China ceases, and from any sense of truth, as information varies wildly from source to source. The only thing stopping the complete severance from her life as she knew it is the stubborn way she sticks to her routine. (Chapter 18)

2. Though she tells herself and others it is to collect the payout money, Candace stays because she is unattached and because the routine of work, whether for Spectra or as NY Ghost, is the only thing that gives her life context and normalcy. (Chapter 20)

3. NY Ghost fulfills a promise Candace made to Jonathan, facilitates connections with people still living, and gives her days purpose. Candace has always been drawn to both New York City and places in decay, like the Rust Belt, but has never felt like these places belonged to her. By staying and documenting, she creates an active relationship with Manhattan, and this helps her integrate her experience of the place with her idea of what it represents. (Chapter 22)

CHAPTERS 23-26

Reading Check

1. Her mother (Chapter 23)

2. Overdose (Chapter 24)

3. Nostalgia/Shen Fever (Chapter 25)

Short Answer

1. Her parents’ immigration to America required a break with them during Candace’s formative years. Her previously amiable relationship with her mother is replaced with a difficult relationship. By the time she is old enough to want to reconcile their differences, her mother has Alzheimer’s and later dies. The nocturnal visits reveal an adult understanding of her mother’s perspective, that her tough expectations came from a place of love and a desire for Candace to succeed. Though she resents her mother’s “tough love” advice to escape Bob and use her intelligence, the nocturnal visits give Candace a chance to reconcile she never had. (Chapter 23) 

2. Candace’s story is one of the frustrated search for meaning in work; she continues working in increasingly terrible conditions because it is comforting to have routines. Though the rewards of her work at Spectra are meager and ultimately meaningless, as she receives her payout after commerce has collapsed, it keeps her occupied and calm, a consolation in her increasingly desolate and isolated existence. (Chapter 24)

3. Her particular realities and experiences as an immigrant make Candace more adaptable, as she has had to readapt throughout her life. They also work to inoculate her from Shen Fever even as they have worked against her ability to feel at home, make lasting relationships, and fully assimilate in the places she has lived. Because her parents are dead and because she has always been in the margins of social groups and has not felt rooted to any locale, Candace is detached from the kind of nostalgia that may trigger Shen Fever. (Chapters 23-26)