Challenge 1101

And Then Again

In K. Ralph Bray’s The Future Is in the Past:
1. What logical fallacies does the story satirize? For example, what is ludicrous in the fixation on personal amounts of Neanderthal DNA and the deportation of alleged “Neanderthals” to Germany.
2. What kind of society do the “sapiens” seem to have organized?
In Shauna Checkley’s Life Turn at the Truck Stop:
1. What is lacking in Carter’s and Emmy’s relationship? What “flags” do they miss? Does Emmy’s reaction to the news of Carter’s death signify grief or remorse?
2. In what way does the structure of the story refkect the subject of Emmy’s M.A. thesis on Virginia Woolf’s fiction?
In B. Marcus Walker’s Roadsong, 1901:
1. In what ways are some U.S. domestic and foreign policies in 1901 mirrored by those of 2025?
2. Are the social and political outlooks of Big Jim and Junior necessarily mutually exclusive?
3. What is the dramatic function of the narrator’s work as a photographer?
4. What is the “weight” the narrator feels that impels him to move to another location?
In Gary Clifton’s Mama’s Girl: Are Gloria and Lila real or ghosts?
In Simon MacCulloch’s The Last Judgment: What is the utimate value of the relationship between deeds and motives?
In Alison McBain’s Grumbles: What might be the “twilight vampires on small wings”? Where might they justify somewhat lamenting the season of spring?