Challenge 830

Very Exiting

1. In L. S. Popovich’s Control:

   1. What is the Fjord supposed to do, exactly? Why does Izzalia disable it?
   2. Izzalia appears to complain about Remera’s medical procedures. Why did Remera consider them necessary?

   In Compassion:

   1. What do Virgil and Remera argue about?
   2. What is at the bottom of the Fjord, and how might it alter Virgil’s body “irreversibly’?
   3. Why is Virgil’s sword partly invisible?
   4. Why does Virgil kill Remera, or does he?

2. In Ed Blundell’s Seeing Santa:

   1. How high does Fred climb to reach his rooftop? Is he likely to die of exposure to the cold or fall to his death, as Jane fears?
   2. Is Jane too young to be told that Santa Claus died in Lisbon, Portugal on November 1, 1755? Should Jane’s mother wait till Jane is older? Or should she let Jane find out for herself?

3. In Bev Jafek’s The Devil’s Sentry Box:

   1. What forms of moral depravity does the story depict?
   2. What forms of sexuality are depicted? Are they considered good, bad or simply different?

4. In Benjamin L. Owen’s Surf Signals:

   1. Are Captain Henley and William Ernest the same person or kindred spirits?
   2. What might indicate that the narrator, Captain Henley, is passively suicidal?

5. In Gary Clifton’s Calvin’s Computer, where is Esmeralda? What role might she have played in the story?

6. In Charles C. Cole’s Supernatural Reunion, how long does Dot Whitley stay in the sarcophagus?

7. In Robin Helweg-Larsen’s Eva’s Trip, how might the poem be set to music? As a tone poem? Heavy metal? Hip-hop? Boogie-woogie?

8. In Gary Inbinder’s A Scent of Smoke, the poem practically defines the topic memento mori. Write a poem in the same form on the topic of carpe diem.

Responses welcome!

Copyright © October 28, 2019 by Bewildering Stories
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