Challenge 338

Reach for Your Revolver

Gabriel Timar’s “The Price of Compassion”:
1. In listening to political commentary today, how many people do you hear who think like the elderly lady? How many like the policeman?
2. If you had been in the same situation and had a loaded gun at hand, what would you have done?
What are the elements of humor in Tantra Bensko’s “Animals Under the Skin”? What might give the impression that the author sometimes has a little gentle fun at her own expense?
How does Bertrand Cayzac’s “Fred Looseman’s Maintenance Diary” depict the life of a yeoman in one of today’s corporate kingdoms? What makes the story satirical? In light of the Floozman saga, what is implied in Mlle Marinella’s call to Fred?
In R J Astruc’s “The Wife Collector,” is the sentence “It was a crazy psychology, prevalent amongst the abused and unloved” an unwarranted generalization? Or does the word “prevalent” indicate that the psychology is incidental rather than being necessarily limited to the “abused and unloved” or caused by their condition?
Is Jim Pendrick’s “Cubicle 1” a story or a vignette? Does it reach a conclusion or simply stop? What detail implies a much larger story? What settings might be used other than a public toilet?