Challenge 667

Spiky Drink

1. In Francis Annagu’s “Ellen of Paris,” what might be the function of shifting the point of view from third to second person?

2. In Channie Greenberg’s “Hedgehogs Démodés”:

   1. Why might hedgehogs be an outmoded style?
   2. What prevents a hedgehog or porcupine from getting close to any other creature?

3. In Mike Acker’s “Dense and Dumb”:

   1. What does the poem say the “sly wind” and the “dense and dumb obstacle” do?
   2. What does the pronoun “it” actually refer to? What happens to the “sly wind”?

4. In Thom Arrell’s “Both Sides of the Story”:

   1. What is Hecket’s supposed mission on Earth?
   2. What is the role of Hecket’s associates, Paul and Ron? Did all three or only Hecket undergo the memory-replacement procedure? Do Paul and Ron really exist?
   3. What does Hecket’s memory of the Close Encounters film mean?
   4. Is Hecket really a space alien or only think he is?
      1. If he is a space alien, what is the point of his being given memory-replacement and an impossible disguise? And why does he build a spaceship?
      2. If he is an Earthling, are the interrogation scenes a dream sequence or a hallucination? Does the story end in complete delusion and overstep our guideline about plots that end with “but it was all a dream” or the equivalent?

Responses welcome!