The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer

Discuss the influence of caste/class, gender, and phyle on the evolution of Nell’s identity. What epiphanies must she have to fully claim an identity?

Carl Hollywood observes that unlike many other engineers and users, only Hackworth seems capable of bridging the divide between Feed and Seed. What is it about Hackworth that makes him the ideal Alchemist? At what point in the novel did you begin to suspect that he was the Alchemist, and why?

Is the use of technology more likely to lead to alienation or connection between users? Discuss how characters like Nell and Miranda, Fiona and Hackworth, and Nell and her clients at Madame Ping’s use technology.

Compare and contrast the notions of virtue in the novel. How do Confucians like Judge Fang and Dr. X conceive of virtue? What does virtue mean to Finkle-McGraw and Hackworth? Is it better, as Finkle-McGraw claims, to have morals even if one fails to live up to them, or is this simple neo-Victorian hypocrisy?

Is the Feed inherently authoritarian and the Seed inherently liberating? Or is the Feed a welcome source of order and the Seed a damaging source of chaos? Using evidence from the book, make an argument for one of these positions.

Discuss the evolution of the Primer as a symbol in the novel.

One of the feminist critiques of genres like science fiction and fantasy is that they rarely represent the quests of feminine figures and that sexual violence so frequently appears as a key coming-of-age moment for those female protagonists when they do appear. Is The Diamond Age a feminist text? In what ways does gender shape Nell and Princess Nell’s quest? Does Stephenson present the rape of Nell as a moment of coming of age?

Research the Boxer Rebellion of 1900, then discuss how this historical and cultural context shapes the plot of the second part of the novel.