For Book Clubs or environmental circles interested in discussing Legacy in greater detail, the following questions are suggested by the author.
Roles
* Steve discusses Change Agents, Transformers, Iconoclasts at p. 79; Alan AtKisson's discussion of these terms is online here:
AtKisson, Alan, "Chapter on Innovation Diffusion from Believing Cassandra"
* Identify which role the following Legacy characters play: Ari, Rick, Steve, Edie, Lori, Cassandra, Lauren, Doug, Annis.
* Consider environmental/social activists within your local community and discuss the roles they play in local action. What role would you like to play within your community, and what will it take to bring this to fruition?
Timeline
* Legacy is not completely fiction nor nonfiction. The timeline presented is the author's postulate of how certain future events will unfold. Discuss how you agree or disagree with the book's timing of various events: the U.S. adoption of the Kyoto Protocol; a U.S. energy plan focused on renewable energy sources; reductions in atmospheric CO2 concentrations; an environmentalist in the White House; the decrease in dependence upon the personal automobile.
Heroes
* Chapter 7 is filled with instances of heroicism. Find them, compare and contrast.
* How is Ari heroic, and how is he the anti-hero? Why do Annis' barbs hurt him so badly? Whom does Ari consider heroic?
* How do we gain an environmentalist hero in today's society, given the issues brought out in chapter 7.
Images
* The cover photo image is reflected in the text in several places. What is the significance of this repeated image to the characters? Why is this an important theme?
Legacy
* What Legacy did Cassandra leave, to Tia, to humanity? What Legacy did Rick leave? What Legacy did Anton Damek (Ari's father) leave to his children? What Legacy did Mark leave, to Ari, to Seth? Ari to Tia, to Barry, to Kegan, to Annis, to Gavin? What was the Legacy of Barry's Presidential Administration? What social/environmental Legacy do you want to leave to future generations?
Choices
* p. 282 "We may think our choices are all ours ..."
* How did Annis' choices affect Gavin? affect Ari? How did Jana's youthful choices affect Ari?
How did Ari's choices affect Annis?
* reread p. 244 - How did Alden's choices affect the country? the world? How do the Resistor's choices affect the children of future generations?
Mission
* Consider how the following characters evolve and change throughout the story: Ari, Lori, Tia, Kegan, Annis, Seth, Gavin. What are they like early in their story (what drives them in their choice of actions) and what are they like later in the story? How and why did each decide to take up the environmental fight? With which character's charted course do you most identify?
Religion
* Religion holds a subtle presence in Legacy, with only a brief overt discussion. How does religious background influence the choices and actions of the characters: Matthew, Ari, Esperanza, Barry. What belief system is Cassandra likely to hold? Rhus?
* Download a copy of the Gary Gardner paper "Invoking the Spirit," WorldWatch Institute Paper #164, December 2002. How are the partnership views expressed by Gardner and by Legacy character Matthew reflected/not reflected in the operations of the environmental movement? Your discussion circle? Your personal actions?
Mentoring
* Ari mentored both Kegan and Gavin. Compare the attitudes of these two young men as they entered the cast of characters, and as they evolved into mature careers. Which was the more successful mentorship? What other examples of mentorship are there in the story?
Permaculture Principles
* David Holmgren outlines 12 Permaculture Principles in his book Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability. These are briefly described on his website. At p. 41 of Legacy, Jana describes these principles as truisms that "run so deep that they could as easily be applied to layout of a site and selection of a crop, as to selection of a waste disposal method, or creation of a community network." Can you find each of these principles at work within Legacy?
Sustainability
* p.55 "Sustainability. It has become a big buzz word. What does it mean? ... Sustainability can mean a wide variety of things, and can mean different things to different listeners."
* Consider the various uses of the term "Sustainability" in Legacy, together with the definitions below. What do they have in common, and how do they differ? What does Sustainability mean to your group?
"Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."
-- United Nations Division for Sustainable Development
"improving the quality of human life while living within the carrying capacity of supporting eco-systems."
-- United Nations Environment Programme
"Sustainability encompasses the simple principle of taking from the earth only what it can provide indefinitely, thus leaving future generations no less than we have access to ourselves."
-- Friends of the Earth Scotland
Ecocriticism
* Additional questions about environmental literature can be found on this website, an extract of a book by Cheryl Glotfelty and Harold Fromm.
Comparisons
* For a comparison between Legacy and Duane Elgin's Promise Ahead, contact us.
* For a comparison between Legacy and David Holmgren's Permaculture: Principles & Pathways Beyond Sustainability, contact us.
Photo credits: Hands by Andy Stafiniak, Geneve, Switzerland.
