Challenge 1105

Downside Up

In Charles C. Cole’s Calendula Blooms: Does Joe Avery go to the Faery Folk to solve their problems or do they come to him? How do the various approaches affect characterization?
In Saurav Ranjan Datta’s The Spectre’s Recompense:
1. What family relationship does the lady on the bus have to Neel? Is her name ever mentioned?
2. What is the spectre’s “recompense”?
In Douglas Young’s Aunt Lalena: Has Aunt Lalena been isolated, friendless and alone? Has she ever appeared to be unhappy? Why might Miles reproach himself by feeling he has neglected her?
In J. H. Zech’s The Ghost at Eden Station: Is there any poetic justice in the murder of Jessica Li? Why is she killed?
In Matias Travieso-Diaz’s The Agile Mongoose and the Cobra:
1. Animals are brought to center stage, but the story is not a modern fable. What feature would make this moral story a fable?
2. What do the mongoose and cobra depict about the relationship of prey and predators in the wilds of nature? What logical error does the cobra worshipper ultimately demonstrate?
In Channie Greenberg’s Liquor Store Boxes:
1. What are “gormless creatures”?
2. What would you call a person who censures you by declaring that you are not functioning according to the form in which you were born?
In Edward Ahern’s The Grip: Why might the poet have chosen the word “sigil” rather than a word like “token” or “symbol” or “sign”?