What Kind of Paradise

Discuss this book’s depiction of extremism. How does the novel explore the nature of extremism through Saul/Adam’s trajectory? How does it gesture toward more subtle forms of potentially extreme thinking, such as in the “futurist” values that Tess espouses?

Research one of the philosophers whose work Saul/Adam or Jane/Esme quotes. How do their ideas underpin this book?

Analyze the importance of setting in the novel, such as Jane/Esme’s childhood cabin or the Signal headquarters in San Francisco. How is this setting described? What is its wider significance in the text?