Challenge 729

Reset Your Watches

1. In Ken Goldman’s “Busy Old Fool, Unruly Sun”:

   1. To which students does Dr. Herbert Sanders give special posters? Why?
   2. What does it mean that the other students don’t laugh at Dr. Sanders but choose their own posters?
   3. Dr. Sanders appears to identify himself with King Lear. In what way? Does he recall King Lear’s tragic flaw?
   4. Dr. Sanders says his students hate him. Do they? Is he telling the whole truth?

2. In Herb Kauderer’s “Watches”:

   1. What is the “Watches” of the title?
   2. Why is it significant that the walker is a “priest”? Is the priest’s journey literal or figurative? What cost might the priest really be sparing his parish?
   3. In what way might the “launch site” be other than a spaceport?
   4. What does the priest seem to be wishing for? What does he seem to lack?

3. In William Quincy Belle’s “The Voodoo Wedding Dolls”:

   1. The wedding dolls were not “voodoo” when they were made. How do they become “voodooed”?
   2. What else — other than the wedding doll — could Gus have used to torment Kira?
   3. The voodoo pin is said to have been blessed by “Papa Doc.” In light of Haitian history, why might one infer immediately that the “blessing” is actually a curse?

4. In Bob Lovely’s “Scarecrow”:

   1. How old is Jimmy?
   2. What is the difference between “the scarecrow” and “Scarecrow”?
   3. Why are Jimmy and his friends so afraid of “Scarecrow” that they must perform an exorcism?

5. In Channie Greenberg’s “Actualized Malfeasance”:

   1. Basketball players do not wear “headgear.” What does it mean, then, that “The professional sport of basketball [...] features crummy headgear”?
   2. What accomplishments does the poem cite? What shortcomings?

Responses welcome!

Copyright © September 4, 2017 by Bewildering Stories
What is a Bewildering Stories Challenge?