Challenge 765

Out of the Hat

In Charles Haddox’ Wild Strawberries and Moonlight: A piece of writing is usually interpreted according to its “label.” How might “Wild Strawberries and Moonlight” best be classified: as a short story, a dramatized prose poem or a lyrical essay?
In Channie Greenberg’s Contingent on Altering Behaviors:
1. What is the object of contention, exactly?
2. What does the poem seem to say about the cost of charity, both organized and personal?
In Kaci Skiles Laws’ The Paper Man and Prem Kumar Vijayan’s Job’s Lament:
1. In what ways are the two stories related?
2. Does the Paper Man suffer a form of the retributive justice outlined in “Job’s Lament”?
3. What genre of short story do “The Paper Man” and “Job’s Lament” represent? When was it especially popular?
In Edward Ahern’s Meeting Hester and Back to Work:
1. What is Barghest? Does the name occur previously?
2. When did Lormor find the baby and place a tracker on him?
3. When and where did Lormor find Hester’s hair and excretions?
4. Why does Lormor let Hester try to escape? Who or what ultimately kills Hester?
5. The synopsis says that Lormor is a “con man.” Does he really seem to be one? If so, whom does he deceive for personal gain? How else might he be described?
6. Is magic essential to the plot? How might a similar story have been constructed without it?