Challenge 337

The Depths of Victory,
the Heights of Defeat

1. In Sarah Trachtenberg’s “Manufacturing Celebrity,” might the story begin with the professor’s interview with Tasha? Crucial information about the professor could be filled in during the conversation. But how does the exposition as it stands affect the professor’s characterization?

2. How does Michael Panush’s “Culpug the Cavelord” resemble barbarian-fantasy stories such as Robert E. Howard’s tales of Conan? How does it differ? In what way is “Culpug” a cautionary tale to fans of the genre?

3. Is Hector Duarte, Jr’s “Incommunicado” a story or a vignette? Or is it a middle of a story with an exposition and conclusion implied? If it is a vignette, what might be added or changed to make it a story?

4. In Joseph Grant’s “The Secret in the Lake”:

   1. Are Charles Fetter’s gains ill-gotten or can he claim salvage rights? What might he not be able to claim?
   2. What does Fetter discover during his dive that might seem implausible?
   3. Is the implied moral of the story that Fetter needs a victory in order to overcome his wartime traumas? What evidence does the story provide that might make the conclusion convincing?

5. A Review Editor remarks: “‘To Wentworth Place’ is another fine poem of John Stocks’, but I wonder if a reader can fully appreciate it without a knowledge of Keats or some biographical info about the poet’s death and his relationship with Fanny Brawne.”

   1. Do you think the biographical note is helpful or essential to understanding the poem?
   2. How does this and other such poems based on real events — as all John Stocks’ poems are — succeed in representing and interpreting those events sub specie æternitatis?

6. In what way might Gabriel Timar’s “The Face of Defeat” recall the ethos of Romanticism?

Responses welcome!

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