Challenge 1144

Leave Your Shoes

In D. A. Cairns’ The Golden Turtle of Sword Lake: What personal legends do the four mythical characters allude to? For example, what is the story behind Turtle’s sword lake?
In Charles C. Cole’s A Demigod in Smite of Myself:
1. Does the main character have a name? Who calls him “Butch”?
2. Why might knowledge of Butch’s demigodness be imparted by a barely functioning TV rather than something more godlike?
3. What regular aspect of Butch’s characterization makes it seem not entirely unlikely that he might seek a library book on quantum physics?
4. How does the TV announcer seem to feel about Butch’s banishing four oppressive individuals into the unknown? How does the narrator, himself, feel about it?
5. Why do the four people who get zapped leave their shoes behind but disappear with all their other clothing?
In Jules’ I Am the Moon: What is the moral distinction between the effects of the Lighthouse and the Moon?
In Channie Greenberg’s Darcy:
1. What practice contributes most to making Darcy distinguished as a baker?
2. Could the story be translated into French with vocabulary intended to communicate ultra-elegance?
In Bradford Watson’sThe Tale of Lord Sicurus: What does the narrator seem to do that the squirrels interpret as saving their Great Council?
In John Eric Ellison’s Arrival Under Divided Suns: In what way are the binary stars “divided”? What narrative continuation might the implied image lead readers to expect?
In Bill Carr’s The Effect of Moralistic-Based Team Building on Evolution:
1. What is the three-stage hierarchy of “teams” in various societies?
2. Are any examples of non-human “teams” cited?
3. Does the essay agree or disagree with George Orwell’s opinion that sport is “war without the guns”?
4. What so-called “Aryan” religion did the Third Reich attempt to reinstitute in the 1930s and early 1940s?
5. If evolution is a process that has no goal, what is the purpose of life?

Responses welcome!