Challenge 973

Feed the Stork

In David A. Riley’s Lucilla: The violent spirit that apparently possessed Lucilla now threatens, at least, to transfer to Daisy. And yet Daisy has never had any contact with Lucilla. What might readers surmise about Miranda at this stage of the story?
In Alcuin Fromm’s In the High Pass: Doustian’s forces, reduced by Pavill’s expedition, battle a large but conventional army. Pavill’s forces are met by black magic. Pavill is surprised, of course, but is he astonished? Has magic appeared previously in the story?
In Matthew Isaacs’ The Cycle of Yaldabaoth:
1. What is Yaldabaoth? What kind of cycle does the poem describe?
2. In the verse “Life is not born of its own. It grows from decaying things,” which sentence is correct? Which is simply wrong? How does the verse confirm the supposed nature of Aldabaoth?
In L. B. Zinger’s The One Percent:
1. What “one percents” are cited in the story?
2. Which “one percent” is cited as an oppressor? What other, iarger, group is also mentioned as enforcing racial discrimination?
3. “Nigeria” is cited as representing a genetically identified area of origin. Why not pick “Kenya”?
In Anthony Lukas’s Dark History:
1. In what abstruse academic specialties must Wells be proficient even to be aware of the song “Tomorrow Belongs to Me” (Cabaret, 1966), let alone understand the words?
2. Did the New Earthers need to know of the song’s origins in order to adapt it to their own purposes?
3. According to the story’s narrative logic, why is it normal that O’Rourke asks, “What’s a Nazi?”
4. Adams’ artificial intelligence, Pal, proposes a theory of “genetic memory” to account for Adams’ unease with the New Earthers.
  1. How might “events of a traumatic nature become encoded in a population’s genetic makeup”?
  2. What events might Pal be thinking of?
  3. What “population” might Pal be talking about?
5. Why does Pal not enlighten Adams by explaining outright the significance of the song and its history?

Responses welcome!