Challenge 582

Flattenedland

In Abha Iyengar’s “The Man with Heart”:
1. What may have caused the people depicted in the story to have become so emotionally deaf that they need a machine as a surrogate?
2. What consequences other than boredom would such people incur?
In Kim Bussing’s “All-Stars”:
1. Why does the narrator remain unnamed?
2. What is the narrator’s history with Joe? Is it real or is it wishful thinking? Why might she have continued to love him despite his indifference to her?
In Sarah Ann Watts’ Winter Ship, “Ash and Blood”:
1. Why is Kyran out cold for three days? He is the victim of a plot, but what is it?
2. Why does Mireio take Kyran with her? Can’t she rescue the child princes on her own?
3. Why does Kyran not shape-shift into his falcon form more readily than he does, especially when it seems convenient?
4. Why doesn’t Majvaz kill Kyran outright rather than cripple him and leave him to die in the fire?
5. To what extent can Kyran be characterized as a “passive hero”?
In Natan Dubovitsky’s “Without Sky”:
1. The military and political situation is practically identical to the one described in George Orwell’s 1984. What modern touches does Dubovitsky add?
2. How does the narrator seem to feel about his parents?
3. What symbolic function do “height” and “sky” seem to have?
4. What causes the narrator to become “two-dimensional”?
5. What intellectual and emotional capacity have the “two-dimensionals” lost?
6. Are the “two-dimensionals” clear-headed idealists or are they merely revanchistes, revenge-seekers?

Responses welcome!