Challenge 1012

Sound Shot

1. In Charles C. Cole’s Calendula, My Partner:

   1. Why does Joe Avery suggest that Cupid has been coerced into infatuating him with Calendula? Is it a real suspicion or a comical excuse for ogling his semi-human, semi-exotic secretary?
   2. What reasons does Calendula proffer as making her and Joe’s amorous relationship inadvisable?
   3. Joe Avery has already spurned the Elf King’s nephew in a personal audience. How might Joe come into conflict with a human authority?

2. In Patrick Honovich’s Too Much Confidence: Why might readers infer that Satet Nosso’s Master Tellrus has “set up” his apprentice by deliberately sending him to an auction with insufficient funds? Does Satet surmise that Tellrus might have had another purpose for the errrand? What might that purpose be?

3. In Jeffrey Greene’s The Gulf Hammock:

   1. Why do Jack and Brent venture onto side roads leading into the subtropical forest?
   2. If the shot that kills Brent is not intentional, what classic hunters’ mistake is its cause? Why might the hunter realize he has hit an unwanted target?
   3. In literature, accidents may happen, but they always have an effect even if the cause is irrelevant. What might Jack learn from the accident that interrupts his and Brent’s exploration? What does Oedipus learn from his traffic accident in Sophocles’ Oedipus the King?

4. In Shauna Checkley’s Shannon’s Reality Test:

   1. Why does Shannon experience “impostor syndrome” at work? How might her sense of alienation be resolved?
   2. The cats are pratically the opposite in almost every way to the boar that hunts Jack in The Gulf Hammock, but in what way do the boar and cats play very similar roles in their stories’ structure?

5. In Harrison Kim’s The Coming of the Anthrops:

   1. Why must the heroes and villains be fantasy figures rather than human beings?
   2. In what ways does the story echo the film Dr. Strangelove?

6. In Huina Zheng’s A Ring of Pain:

   1. Why does the narrator try to escape medical examination, even when she needs it?
   2. Under a “one-child” policy, what might be done officially with a woman discovered to be pregnant with twins? Would one of the twins be arbitrarily aborted or shot at birth? Would the woman be shot as a natural lawbreaker?

7. In Catherine Coundjeris’ Sound and Thought Are One: What is the difference between thought and any sensory perception, including sound?

8. In Gary Beck’s Art Is Short: How old are the oldest known mirrors? How were they made, and with what material?

Responses welcome!

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