Challenge 882

Too Late Young

In Natan Dubovitsky’s Near Zero:
1. When does Yegor begin calling Mamai “Albert”? Why?
2. Why is Yegor content to leave Crybaby sleeping?
3. In light of chapter 45, is Yegor’s revenge real or does it take place in a complex dream state?
4. What is, ultimately, the moral of the story? In light of chapter 23, what does it mean that the child becomes a parent to the father?
5. [Bonus question] To what extent does “Near Zero” resemble Voltaire's satirical epic Candide? In what ways is it very different?
In Bill Kowaleski’s Futile Attack:
1. What is the advantage in letting the explosives detonate at the fake factory that is moved in from another universe as opposed to shifting the explosives themselves to another universe — or outer space — and letting the real factory remain in place?
2. When might the real factory be recalled to Botswana? If the real factory remained in its otherworldly location, would it be out of reach of any further attacks?
In J. H. Malone’s Drunk on Time:
1. Why does Liesl leave her scanner with Saul? What does she seem to have concluded about its use?
2. Saul combines hard liquor with OxyContin pills. Might readers expect the story to end at that point with a dead narrator?
3. What conclusions does Saul come to concerning the scanner? If he can use it to find lost objects or to fix horse races, to what other uses might the scanner be put? Has Liesl already used it as a surveillance device?
4. If everyone had a scanner, what would happen to all human activity?
In Carl Taylor’s A Most Terrific Day:
1. How old is Gerald? How old is his father?
2. What is the dramatic function of the father’s consideration of words and their origins?
3. At what point might the reader reasonably anticipate that the father will not return from the “destination”? Will he be euthanized or shipped off to Mars? What will Gerald do without parents?
4. Who decides that it is time for the father to go to the “destination”? Why might one question whether “protecting global resources” is the real reason for taking anyone to the “destination”?
5. [Bonus question] How does the story both resemble and differ from The Sixty in Isaac Asimov’s Pebble in the Sky (1950)?
In K. A. Williams’ Dreaming of a Small Town: At what point in history did everyone — besides hunter-gatherers — live in villages? When did cities first appear? What was their function?

Responses welcome!