Challenge 1128

Planned Obsolescence

In Greg Bratone”s The Hold Down: Does the story overstep Bewildering Stories’ “dead narrator” guideline? If so, why might the narrator sacrifice himself?
In Louis Scenti’s Live Free or Die: What might be the motivation for Mary’s mother’s “bitter” behavior?
In Huina Zheng’s Waiting for the Leaves to Open: Since admission to high school is limited to 40 percent of middle-school graduates, aren’t teachers and even schools engaged in competition, as well as the pupils? Is the competiton necessary? What happens to pupils who do not qualify? What happens to societies in which the people themselves become obsolete?