Challenge 792

Crossing the Anachron

In Charles C. Cole’s City Operations Has an Upgrade, a notice to the readers: only two chapters remain. If Dominic Delumbria is launching an uprising, what actions does he appear to have taken so far? How have they been thwarted? What might readers expect at this point?
In Dave Henson’s Steve, the Coruscating Ewe, at what point does the reader learn that Alex Stewart is transgender? How do his children resolve their confusion about their parentage?
In Robin Helweg-Larsen’s You Can’t Handle Full Sun:
1. Part of the poem provides astronomical detail about the Earth’s distance from the Sun. Do you think the poem would be improved or not if the factoid were omitted?
2. The Sun depicts humanity as living temperately between light and dark. Why does the Sun say that humanity might feel more comfortable at the other extreme from light, in the interstellar dark?
In Steve Bates’ The Singularity of Louisa Lindsay:
1. What is the function of the shifts between the narrative present and past tenses?
2. What does the charity collector’s visit tell us about Louisa?
3. Does Louisa erase the entire cosmos or only part of it? Why does her process of oblivion operate like the opposite of a black hole?
4. In the end, Louisa commits suicide. Why does she take the cosmos — or at least a chunk of it — with her?
In Janel Brubaker’s The Cavern of Serpents:
1. Alexander the Great was bisexual. In the ancient Hellenic world, homosexuality, bisexuality and heterosexuality were all considered normal. What prejudices does Phoebe suffer? When and where do they come from?
2. In Ovid’s elaboration of Hesiod’s original story, Poseidon rapes Medusa while she is worshipping Athena. The goddess, enraged, transforms Medusa into the well-known monster and thus makes her a kind of pawn for the quarrels of the gods and figures such as Perseus. However, the image of Medusa becomes the central emblem of Athena’s shield. In what way might Athena’s revenge actually serve as protection and warning?