1. The philosopher Dunyasha Bernadettesdaughter reappears several times in the story and might be considered the closest thing to a main character. How is she representative of Whileaway?

2. Sections of the story read rather like encyclopedia entries; is this an effective way to revise the reader's internalized cultural encyclopedia, or megatext?

3. The story includes two standbys of utopian fiction: the visitor from utopia in our world and the traveler from our world to there. How do the two sections differ in tone and why?

4. How does Etsuko Belin, hang-gliding above the lakes of Old Dirtyskirts, add to the sense of Whileaway as a utopia?

5. In what way is the story within a story, of the child raised by bears, about the narrator? Is it also about the reader?