Famesick
Cut along the dashed lines and pass the cards around the table.
Before you opened the first page, what did you already feel about Lena Dunham, and did reading her in her own voice soften or shift that at all?
Where did you read this one, and was it a book you picked up in little snackable pieces or one you curled up with in a single sitting?
The title puts a word to a specific kind of hunger. When in your own life have you felt a small, quiet version of famesick, wanting to be noticed for something you made?
Dunham is very willing to say unflattering things about herself. Did that honesty feel like a comfort to you, or did you sometimes want to put a hand on her shoulder and tell her to be kinder to herself?
Which passage made you feel the most tenderly toward her, and what was it about that moment that got through to you?
She writes about creative work as something that both fed and drained her. Is there a creative thing you have loved and then had to put down for a while, and how do you feel about it now?
By the end you can feel her relationship to being watched changing. Without giving anything away, what did she seem to be reaching for instead, and have you ever wanted that same quieter thing?
If she were sitting on this couch with us tonight with a mug in her hands, what would you most want to gently ask her, and what would you want to tell her she got right?