WRIT 4230/5230
Stroupe
Reading Guide:
Accidental Billionaires 2 (85-159)
Open this Word file and type your answers below each item. If working in some other digital format,
be sure to label your answers with the question numbers.
1. Digital and Physical / Inside and Outside Again
The Harvard of this book is a physical “geography of power”—based on money, family,
culture, race, physical access, age, gender, sexuality, etc. Identify at least two passages (with
page numbers) where any of these forms of power, privilege, or status are visible.
Write a short paragraph answering the following question: Do digital spaces like Facebook
(and the online environment generally) redistribute power and reconfigure relationships of
power? Or do online spaces eliminate the distinctions of power enforced in the structures of
physical space? Or Hide them? Or Perpetuate them? If possible, cite a passage from the
book that supports your view about digital space and power.
2. Reputation, Honor, and Fame
Note two passages, with page numbers, where the ideas of “reputation,” “honor,” or “fame”
are mentioned or suggested. For one of these, write a short paragraph describing whether
the passage suggests that “virtuality” redefines or complicates these ideas, changes the
relationships among them, or makes them obsolete.
3. Ownership and Property
List two instances, with page numbers, where issues of ownership and/or property come
into play. For one of these instances, write a substantive sentence saying how “virtuality”
changes or complicates these issues.