Challenge 565

Check That Ghost’s Passport

1. In B. Z. Niditch’s “Beginning the Day,” what does the allusion to Stavrogin imply?

2. In Robert Quinlivan’s “A Moment of Silence”:

   1. Is Steve a werewolf or does he simply have emotional problems?
   2. In his actions, is Steve guilty of anything more than misanthropy and bad taste?

3. In Michael Siciliano’s “Inalienable Right”:

   1. Why does Naresh sympathize with Amanda?
   2. Amanda’s rationale for killing in self-defense is logical but limited. Is the AI any better than its human “masters”?
   3. Naresh thinks of Amanda as a child. He may be right, in the sense that children are perfectly logical beings but haven’t a grain of common sense. In what way can one say that Amanda knows everything but understands little or nothing?

4. In Emiily Weston’s “Daddy’s Unexpected Visit”:

   1. Does Dorie think the apparition is a ghost? Does she know what a ghost is supposed to be? Why does she accept the apparition as real?
   2. Does “Daddy” act like a ghost? Is there any reason to surmise that Dorie’s mother has been lying and that Daddy is not really dead? What else might have happened?
   3. Reconstruct the scene at the window as a delusion: what does Dorie really witness?
   4. Ghost or not, why does “Daddy” abandon Dorie?

Responses welcome!

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