Challenge 482

And Around We Go

In David Barber’s “Saving the Golden Girl,” the opening lines echo those of W. H. Auden’s “Musée des Beaux Arts.” Do the two poems proceed in parallel thematically?
In John C. Conway’s “Letters to the Luminiferous Aether,” Mr. & Mrs. Garvey appear to be aboard a “lightship” orbiting Earth — or something — at the speed of light:
1. What must the lightship’s mass be: Infinite? Zero? Negative?
2. How much power might be needed to keep the lightship in orbit rather than flying off in a straight line?
In P. F. White’s “A Normal Night at the Heartlands Tombstone”:
1. Is the story a satire, parody, or allegory? If so, of what?
2. What is the signficance of the setting in a ghost town? Of the characters’ all being dead?
3. What is the signficance of each character’s being distinctively non-human in some way?
4. The events in the story allude to larger stories. What are these stories, and what do they have in common?