Challenge 892

Check All Boxes

In Jef Coburn’s In the Den of Uniquity:
1. Is “uniquity” a real word or a neologism? In either case, why is it suitable for a cocktail lounge?
2. How might the peculiar lighting be problematic for dining? How does the lighting affect the customers’ appearance?
3. What is Carly’s dramatic function in chapter 1? What are we told about her that suggests she might return?
In Brian Clark’s That Other Guy: The article abstract gives the plot away in advance. How might it provide a practical advantage to both the author and the readers?
In Ed Blundell’s Start at the End:
1. The term “mindworm” is repellent. How does the story itself indicate that it is intended ironically?
2. Can you cite other examples of the self-recursive story?
In A. M. Johnson’s A New Normal:
1. What is the function in the story of the three men in a dark clearing? When do they reappear?
2. The space aliens are science fiction; the vampires, fantasy. How might the story be better classified? As future history? As social realism? As contemporary political satire with invented names? Something else?
In Sasha A. Palmer’s Canis Familiaris:
1. Bewildering Stories asks that works in English have titles at least partly in English. Why might an exception be warranted in this case?
2. The story also clearly oversteps our “Dead Narrator” guideline. Why is an exception warranted in this case, as well?
In Charles C. Cole’s The Long-Distance Call: Personalities in the “afterlife” are normally expected to be angelic. How does the story depict their humanity?
In Nick Pipitone’s Cheap Carnival: Why might the tone be prosaic and matter-of-fact rather than “poetic”? How does it differ from “The Mad Ferris Wheel,” which depicts a very similar condition and experience?

James Robert Rudolph, Casual Hunting:
1. What seems to be the purpose of the poem: descriptive or cautionary?
2. What point of view does it take?
3. To which character might it apply — to some extent — in this issue’s long fiction: Neil or Richard?

Responses welcome!