Challenge 495

Over the Sea in Rime

In Raud Kennedy’s “Strays”:
1. The narrator is a dog. Why is the title in the plural?
2. In what way does the story fit the model of a classic fable? In what ways does it not do so?
3. What is the implied moral of the story?
In Lydon Storey’s “Ceasefire”:
1. How does this updated myth from Antiquity differ from the modern version of the classic fable, as in “Strays”?
2. What is the implied moral of the story?
In Rory Fleming’s “Miracle Bridge”:
1. Stories told from a second-person viewpoint are very rare. Why?
2. The setting of the action is a video game. Why might the story not overstep Bewildering Stories’ guideline against plots that end “but it was all a dream” or the equivalent?
3. If “Miracle Bridge” described only the experience of a video game, it would not be interesting. What is the story really about, and what moral does it imply?
In Marty Hollis’ “Ice Song,”:
1. Line breaks substitute for commas and most other punctuation. What would the effect be if the line breaks were replaced by standard punctuation?
2. How does the sparse punctuation reflect the theme of the poem?
In Noel Denvir’s “Spancil Hill”:
1. Are any of the three characters alive?
2. Why does the story not overstep Bewildering Stories’ guideline about plots that end with the narrator’s death or with “but it was all a dream” or the equivalent? What kind of story is it, then?
3. Bonus question: How does the song “Spancil Hill” relate to the story?
In Danielle L. Parker’s review of Lev Raphael’s My Germany:
1. Is the book’s subtitle entirely accurate?
2. The reviewer’s personal history is not included entirely for its own sake. In what way does it form part of the critique of the book?
3. The reviewer rhetorically asks the author how he feels about Germany’s history in the 20th century and how it relates to his view of that country today. Does the reviewer explicitly or implicitly address similar questions that might be asked about her own history?

Responses welcome!