Challenge 238

A Week Ahead of the Game

One, count ’em, one perceptive reader recognized the theme common to all the works in issue 237. And on top of that he’s identified the major theme in this issue. Thanks, Gary Inbinder.

And now let’s not see the same hand go up all the time. In what way is Bewildering Stories a week ahead of the calendar thematically?

Here are some easy ones for you:

Where does Roberto Sanhueza’s “In the Name of Truth” fit into the table of contents of Katts and Dawgs? Is it in the right place?

When and how should Ben have learned about theodicy in Tom Bennitt’s “God Will Cut You Down”?

In Stefan Brenner’s “The Lady of Mann,” What is the significance of the title? Is Michael Corkill’s death in the motorcycle race due to an an accident or is it unconscious suicide?

In Slawomir Rapala’s “Frozen Landscapes of the Mind”:

Why is it significant that the AI believes in God while Clyde is a skeptic?
On what is the AI’s belief based?
What does Clyde hope to find in the ice cores?
What are the implications of the drastic action the AI takes to defend its faith?

In Marjorie Salzwedel’s “The Caboose”:

What is Miranda’s and the others’ reason for going back to the caboose?
Does the story present Pascal’s Wager fairly or is the deck logically stacked in favor of the conductor?

What do Christopher Schmitz’ “The Quarry” and 13th-century miracle plays have in common?

How is Caroline Davies’ “Nettles Singing” unusual in the genre of garden poetry?

What does the ending do to Doug Pugh’s “Recipe for Loss”?

Is it unrealistic or effective that the narrator in Nigel Bruton’s “Lost in Life” speaks like an educated person?

Responses welcome!