Challenge 810

Scratching Itches

In L. S. Popovich’s Echoes From Dust:
1. In Chapter 23, what does the exploration of the catacombs reveal about Izalia, Riku and the monsters?
2. In Chapter 24, what, exactly, appears to be the cause of the tension between Remera and Izalia?
In Ron Schulte’s Allergy Shots, might ectoplasms themselves be allergic to people?
In Martin Westlake’s No More of That:
1. Are Anna and her husband both, in their own ways, “unreliable narrators”?
2. At what point might the reader suspect — if only in hindsight — that Anna is deliberately but unwittingly playing the same game as her husband?
3. How does the ending reveal what has really gone wrong with the marriage?
In Edward Ahern’s Telling a Fortune, which mode of fortune-telling would you choose? What is the advantage in choosing neither one?
In Robin Helweg-Larsen’s From Cavemen to Post-Human:
1. Are the “post-humans” human or another species entirely?
2. What future might the “post-humans” foresee for themselves?
In Vladislav Surkov’s Putin’s Lasting State:
1. Why might Surkov call the 20th century the “state of Lenin” rather than the “state of Stalin”? Does he mention Stalin at all?
2. According to Surkov, does “Putin’s state” differ in more than name only from the others that have preceded it since the 15th century?
3. What does Surkov think of democracy?
4. Does Surkov advocate the Chinese model of despotic capitalism, or is the “Putin state” neither European nor “Asian”? If neither, does it have any particular self-concept aside from nationalism?

Responses welcome!