Challenge 775

Forewarned Is Four-Armed

1. In Edna C. Horning’s The Sign of the Cat:

   1. What is the function of the snatches of conversation that Lisette overhears at the party? Do they seem to follow a theme?
   2. After Lisette’s cat-vision, can she ever look at any cat as an ordinary cat again?

2. In G. Allen Wilbanks’ Chasing Destiny

   1. Nate tells Laura he’s going to Stockton to meet his wife. To what extent is he telling the truth? In what way is his statement misleading?
   2. Who is driving the oncoming truck on Route 99?
   3. Would Nate have allowed his planned vehicular murder-suicide to take place if Laura were less gorgeous and amiable?
   4. What would have happened if Nate had ignored his precognition of the collision?

3. In Andrew Godwin’s The Spoiler:

   1. Do Frank’s novels predict what will happen or does it happen because he has predicted it?
   2. Is Henry a space-alien spy?
   3. Why is Joanne “written out of the script,” so to speak?
   4. Which is Frank more likely to do first: read the address Joanne has given him or run for his life?
   5. If the story is the initial chapter in a longer work, how might the rest play out?

4. In Gary Beck’s Election Results

   1. Do “the people” ever agree unanimously about what they want or need?
   2. Does “the public” always know what it “wants to hear”?
   3. Do “the needs of the people” never “coincide with the efforts of [the people’s] leaders”?
   4. In real life, why do politicians at least attempt to keep their promises more often than they neglect them?
   5. Even in elections that are not fictitious, how often do “the people” get the government they need rather than the government they deserve?
   6. According to the poem, is democracy undesirable? If so, does it propose an alternative?
   
   

   Responses welcome!

   Copyright © August 27, 2018 by Bewildering Stories
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