A June Challenge
Each month I make a sometimes thin attempt at finding some common link between the stories we publish. Maybe they’re all fantasies. Maybe they’re all about people coping with death. Maybe they’re all about winning a lottery–money or Shirley Jackson-esque. Sometimes it’s easy. Sometimes it’s a bit of a stretch.
Here I sit with two stories on my desk for our June issue:
“Home Isn’t,” by Kelly Sandoval–a touching sci-fi story that I found strikingly relevant to our society run amok with cultural sensitivity. What happens when cultural sensitivity loses sight of being sensitive to the individual?
And “Copy Machine,” by Shane Halbach. Science fiction? No. Heartbreaking? No. Some might actually find it a little goofy, even sappy. But with my 25th wedding anniversary approaching, I found this story to be an endearing exploration of romantic love, of the joy and giddiness and anxiety that comes with complete commitment to another person.
So, my challenge to you, as the reader, is to come up with a single connecting element between these two stories. Be creative, think hard, post your ideas in the comments below. I look forward to reading them.
Suzanne
Astroname
June 18, 2014 @ 5:51 pm
Just figuring out what make one tick
PriyaSridhar
June 6, 2014 @ 2:45 pm
Losing relationships, while struggling to maintain them with the ones you love
janeward54
June 5, 2014 @ 6:58 pm
Going to extremes to find where you fit/belong/should be headed?
NC
June 3, 2014 @ 8:02 pm
What comes.
Both end at a vista of potential.
A Davies
June 2, 2014 @ 11:04 pm
There’s a link between the two stories with looking at what might have been, or suggesting alternative endings.
weequahic
June 2, 2014 @ 7:07 pm
“What happens when cultural sensitivity loses sight of being sensitive to the individual?” I understand, and I’ve asked that question lots of times. But would you believe, through the fog of time I can’t recall any specific story or movie that made me ask it, though I know there were many. Can you give my memory a hand here?
JBK64
June 2, 2014 @ 4:09 pm
Optimism, even in the downtrodden, in one, and the whimsically
bizarre, in the other
Aggie in NC
June 1, 2014 @ 1:42 pm
Identity beyond appearance, who were truly are and will become.