Challenge 179
Pointed Rhetorical Questions
At the end of “Kitti’s Tale,” Adam says:
And the baby Katt! She was so helpless, and I don’t really know what made her different from others I have watched die through the years.
I must be getting older than I feel, but I think she’ll make a good inheritor of my knowledge and technology.
Now, we know the real reason you saved Kitti, Adam, and it’s far nobler than your needing an apprentice. Good work, wise and ancient one: a lot of Sentient People would thank you if they could.
Will someone kindly volunteer to compile a “theme” index or three? A good place to start would be with “God” stories. We have two in this issue: Karlos Allen’s “Shape” and Jeff Haas’ “The Scientist and the Little People.” And there are plenty more in previous issues.
Or if compiling indexes is too tedious, how about searching our back issues for such stories and writing us an article for the Critics’ Corner about the world views implied in these stories?
Another theme index you might compile is a list of feminist stories we’ve published. And don’t try pinning me down on the meaning of that term; I know it’s politically loaded.
In this issue we have several such stories: Katherine Allen’s Skoshi, Maria Beliaeva’s “Damsel-in-Distress-ophiles,” R D Larson’s “The Pharaoh’s Official,” and Rachel Parson’s “Nothing Sure but Death and Terrans.”
I’d like to bend the rules a little once again and ask someone to write us a “term paper” — an essay for the Critics’ Corner — in which you examine the relationships of men and women in these stories and any more you might choose. What do the heroines have in common? And in particular, are all the men all beastly all the time? If any have redeeming social value, what is it?
Copyright © 2006 by Don Webb for Bewildering Stories
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