Challenge 1043

Naturally New

In Humphrey Price’s Reunited: Both Scott and Karyn are surprised by exiting at the red or “step” pyramid in Egypt. How do the different reasons for their surprise advance the narrative? Why are the two explorers not completely baffled by the turn of events?
In Tannara Young’s Beneath the Ink: How does Lucas’s and Adrin’s relationship reveal a difference between the autocracy of the fairy kingdom and those of Earth in the 20th and 21st centuries?
In Cate Gallivan’s Down the Drain: How does the conclusion satirize the opening premise of the story?
In Ásgrímur Hartmannsson’s Future Hair: Why have human beings evolved to have less hair than other primates? In this story, does a particular kind of vaccine cause people to become hairy? Could colonies of anti-vaxxers remain relatively hairless, if they survived?
In Charles C. Cole’s The Stetson Peace Accords:
1. It is obviously unrealistic that the two diplomats have to settle a childhood quarrel before signing a peace treaty between the countries they represent. What does the story satirize?
2. The story is not a classic fable because no animals or plants substitute for human characters. If it is considered a modern fable, what would its moral be?
In B. K. Mox’s Eternally Recycling: Does the poem differ from or echo Antoine Lavoisier’s summary of nature: “Nothing is lost, nothing is created. In nature, everything is transformed”?