Challenge 633

Who’s You?

In John Wright’s “Things Could Be Worse,” do Alan and Helen really need to be in “Purgatory”? How might they reconcile in a real-life setting?
In Ron Van Sweringen’s “When You Come for Me,” who might “you” be?
In Richard King Perkins, II’ “The Sleeper’s Requiem”:
1. What is the “Blue Rose”?
2. A scientist has “implanted the concealed answers.” Need he worry that the character “you” will divulge them?
3. At the end, the “death rays” seek “orientation.” Does “you” know or understand what is going on?
In Bill Kowaleski’s “Living Standards”:
1. Are all the female characters prostitutes in some way?
2. In what way does Jiri’s mother indicate she suspects that her son has been singled out from all the other boys in the neighborhood to serve as the Wealthies’ sex slave?
3. Does the Wealthies’ pornography concentrate on pedophilia?
4. In what way might the story have avoided seeming to exploit the canard “homosexuality = pedophilia”?
5. At the end, the narration says, “Jiri felt sure that he could exploit that love, encourage it, and milk it to get what he wanted.” In a sequel, how might Jiri exploit the governor? What does he want or might he want?