Challenge 408

Time Over Time

1. In A. S. Andrews’ “Path of the Comforter”:

   1. What is the setting?
   2. Who is the narrator?
   3. The narrator discovers two comforters in the old house. What — or who — is the comforter?

2. In Bridgett Mahoney’s “Time’s Kiss,” love between an allegorical figure, namely Time, and a real person is impossible by definition. And yet what gives the story a very human dimension?

3. In Mark Spencer’s “The Black Cadillac,” the reader surmises early on that Ladell Bonner is a ghost. What, then, is the point of the story if not to reveal that her presence is not real?

4. In Dwight O. Krauss’s “King of the Bears,” do the beginning and ending of the story complement one another or do they seem arbitrary? How do they relate to the middle of the story, the account of being chased by a bear?

5. In Channie Greenberg’s “A Few Constructive Observations ”:

   1. Which does the story satirize: speculative fiction e-zines or academia?
   2. Is the story accessible to general readers or will it be appreciated mostly by professors and e-zine editors?



Responses welcome!

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