Challenge 728

Undeceiving Looks

1. In Gary Clifton’s The Dead Bin, chapters 10-12: The persons questioned in the three chapters are each physically unusual in some way. Does their eccentricity appear to match their degree of probable connection with the case under investigation?

2. In Fabrice B. Poussin’s “Visitors,” who or what are “they”?

3. In Sultana Raza’s “Capsizing Prospects,” why did Keats set out for Rome in the first place?

4. In Stephen Ellams’ “Circular Buddhist Prayer,” in what way is the poem “circular”? What might make it a “Buddhist” prayer rather than any other kind?

5. In Edna C. Horning’s “God Has One, Too”:

   1. How does Aunt Vera avoid taking sides in the conversation with Cricket’s parents?
   2. Cricket emphasizes how important Smidge is to her by telling her parents about her friend Martha Gray. How might Cricket’s account of her friend’s experience raise suspicion about Cricket’s relationship with Aunt Lucy and Uncle Sulo?

6. In Hayleigh Santra’s “The Young Cloudmaker”:

   1. Why does the narrator want to become a “cloudmaker” rather than a “rockmaker”?
   2. Which characters are named? Which aren’t? What might be the function of omitting names?
   3. Is the rockmaker male or female? Is either guess plausible?
   4. Does the rockmaker know the cloudmaker’s name? How does the rockmaker discover that the cloudmaker is giving a paper at a conference at Big Sur?
   5. Are “cloudmaker” and “rockmaker” to be taken literally? If not, what art forms or artistic styles might the terms represent allegorically?

Responses welcome!

Copyright © August 28, 2017 by Bewildering Stories
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