Challenge 1001

Dark Alleys

In Shauna Checkley’s A New Friend at the Office:
1. Whose “political correctness” does Kristy complain about? Does she ever specify what side she takes in her culture war?
2. Who seems to be working harder: Kristy or Karinna?
3. Why is Karinna’s complaint by its very nature more interesting to both Kristy and Karinna than Kristy’s is?
In Mitchell Waldman’s A Karmic Questioning:
1. Whatever the interrogator’s intentions or actions may be, how does the scenario differ from what one would have expected in 1938?
2. As it stands, the story is a vignette by Bewildering Stories’ definition. One possible conclusion: The court-appointed therapist is actually the vengeful brother of a former employer, a betrayed mobster. Can you think of alternative conclusions? Do you want to?
In Ralph S. Souders’ The Lonely Young Lady: How does the narrator seem to feel about his treatment of the “lonely young lady”? Regretful? Insouciant? Gloating? Some combination? What’s your opinion of him?
In Brian Yapko’s Crime and Punishment: Absalom Pound writes a vengeful, threatening letter to Adrian Marlow for not letting 15-year old Devon Quindes hang along with the other Red Daggers. Pound says he furious. But why? Is his “fury” appropriate, or is it an overreaction to what might be seen as a difference of legal opinion? Why must the boy be disposed of at all costs? What covert emotion might Pound be inadvertently revealing in his diatribe?