Challenge 864

Lemon Flowers and Fruit

1. In Natan Dubovitsky’s Near Zero. chapter 27: In what way does this chapter show Yegor as different from all the other chararcters he has met so far?

2. In Bill Kowaleski’s Mark Gets the Police on Board, what important detail does the chapter add to the information in chapter 21?

3. In Arthur Davis’s The Dragons of Eden: Why might the reader expect the Vizier to be a clever military strategist? Why might the Vizier send Logan on a mission across the Morland Plain alone and without provisions?

4. In Victoria Mason’s My Lemon: Does the story depict the effects of an obsessive-compulsive disorder? What makes the story a comedy?

5. In Bob Welbaum’s With a Little Help From My Friend;

   1. At what point in the story might the reader reasonably surmise that Jim Jenkins’ “partner” is not a real person like Jenkins himself?

   2. In what ways does John Macintosh function as a ghost? In what ways does he function as a revenant, i.e. a supernatural entity that is visible or invisible and can affect objects in the physical world?

6. In Gary Clifton’s The Vortex:

   1. The story depicts an apocalypse in which everything happens at once. What reasons does it list for a sudden and complete collapse not only of government but of civilization itself? Are there historical precedents?

   2. Do the “day-mobs” differ in more than degree of violence from those that appear at night? Why would they differ at all? What seems to be the mobs’ purpose?

   3. Since the country has dissolved in violence and the federal government has been overrun, how could H. Brooks Chadsey have come to Dallas, let alone be sent there?

   4. Does Palacek do anything other than what Chadsey orders him to do? What is the motivation for Palacek’s hatred of Chadsey? What are Chadey’s personal and physical defects? Is Palacek’s taunt to Chadsey a racial slur?

   
   

   Responses welcome!

   Copyright © July 20. 2020 by Bewildering Stories
   What is a Bewildering Stories Challenge?