Challenge 777

Hotfoot

In Danko Antolovic’s Talos:
1. Daedalus’ motivation in killing Talos is a classic case of hubris. What does it consist of?
2. Daedalus outsmarts himself in trying to conceal the murder. How might he have succeeded?
In Gary Clifton’s The Olaf Conundrum: Disregarding the names, what might indicate that the story might be true?
In Tim Britto’s Last Fare, the characters sometimes refer to figures in popular culture, e.g. Spiderman, Oprah and others. Are the references explained or is the readers’ knowledge taken for granted?
In Terry Groves’ A Foot of Pain, the story takes literally the admonition in Mark 9:45. But anyone who stops to think about the Biblical injunction will realize that it can’t be taken literally. What does it really mean? Why does the literal interpretation leave the story without a conclusion?
In Hillary G. Anderson’s Life Through Glass, part of the story is realistic. What elements would you say count as surrealism?
In Robin Helweg-Larsen’s Coming to the Boil:
1. Why does the title not use the common expresson “coming to a boil”?
2. What are the “bubbles forming on the element”? Might the image refer to individuals? To a population explosion? To global warming? To supervolcanoes?
3. What might “a free wild space” refer to: the atmosphere? Outer space?