Challenge 800

Doubling Down

1. In Scott Coon’s The Loneliest Advertisement Bot, what is the moral of the story concerning speech and caring?

2. In Keith O’Neill’s Badlands:

   1. Androids are made as human-like as possible in order to allay resentment in human workers. Why might the procedure be plausible? What does it imply about the relative numbers of androids and humans?
   2. Herman is fascinated by an old television series. Do readers need to have seen The Brady Bunch or even to have heard of it to understand why Herman feels about it as he does?

3. In Deborah Shrimplin’s No One Knew:

   1. Richard hates his job as a crime scene photographer. Does anyone on a forensics team not have work more distasteful than his?
   2. Does Richard have viable alternatives to police work? If so, why does he not quit earlier?
   3. “Accidents and coincidences happen all the time in real life but not in literature” — a literary principle. Can Richard’s story reach its ironic ending in any other way than by an accident or coincidence?

4. In J. C. G. Goelz’s Responsibilities of Being a Man:

   1. How serious a game is high-school football? What opportunities does it offer?
   2. Jimmy and Kelvin devise a play to show Sterling Richardson’s weaknesses as a quarterback. Do readers need to be familiar with the intricacies of American football in order to understand what happens? Is it necessary to specify what position everyone plays?
   3. How do Jimmy and Kelvin cooperate other than in football practice?
   4. Why does Kelvin have forebodings about April’s date with Sterling? Are his suspicions based on hearsay alone?

5. In Joe Greenslade’s Toil and Trouble:

   1. Why might Lucifer’s wings have become tattered other than to serve as a dramatic convenience?
   2. Does Trouble consider Toil a child or childlike? What might give the impression that he does?
   3. Lucifer governs by an evil principle. What is it?
   4. Trouble overthrows the evil principle. Can he actually kill the principle of evil?
   5. How might Toil have been a full partner — rather than a recruit — in Trouble’s revolution?



Responses welcome!

Copyright © March 11, 2019 by Bewildering Stories
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