Challenge 897
Predestined
In Charles C. Cole’s Gomer: What does the narrator experience that Gomer’s owners do not?
In Jef Coburn’s Jade:
- How would the story change if Jade were of any other color than green?
- Neil and his friends are obviously not green. Of what color or colors are they?
- Could the story be understood in a country where everyone was of the same color?
- What qualities determine Neil’s preference of spouse? Does he have the same qualities as the ones she values?
In Paula Keane’s Clockwork Hearts:
- Why are organ donations and transplants so commonplace, even ubiquitous?
- Why are the mechanical organ replacements given to the donors rather than to the patients who need them?
- Is “augment” an ironic term? At what point do successive mechanical organ replacements cause a person to cease to be a human being and become an android?
In Ralph Benton’s Visions of Glory, the story ends as it began: Bromin is a helpless puppet manipulated by a malevolent mother figure. Since the wicked witch is revealed to be immortal, omniscient and omnipotent, are the adventures of Jarl Bromin, Captain Shirvold, Therabine and their army merely a dream within a dream? How might the story be structured to avoid overstepping Bewildering Stories’ “dream stories” guideline?
What is a Bewildering Stories Challenge?
