Up to this point, we're intrigued, maybe a little anxious, but prepared to take the narrative at face value. I like the description of the house, espe...
4. Aha! Something different. There is a matron monitoring the consumer's entourage, and presumably his well-being. Lord seems to be an impotent potent...
It comes down to suffering, doesn't it? Are you really? How much? Is there really nothing you could change to reduce your suffering? Have you explored...
I think that the youthful uncle, being in possession of a replica human hand, made up the story of Simon to entertain the children and the narrator ap...
1. A scene of perverse over-the-top luxury consumption. We can't tell whether it's real or a fantasy, until we are told the POV of the narrator, who g...
I assumed it because of the way the two teenagers were behaving. And from the narrator's scant awareness of other people: women are generally more war...
On first impression, the narrator is not happy: not so much discontented with his life as resigned to it. He doesn't like crowds, is perhaps withdrawn...
I'm not quite sure yet. It rates a second read. A few words seem out of place, not quite right, so it may be a translation. There are several beautifu...
Saying good-by to the people he cares about, just in case. It's not an intimate communication with his mother, but a kind of dispatch. A personal test...
They can jump around all they like; I'll find the one I'm interested in. So far, there's been a lot of surrealism; the prevailing mood seems to be of ...
Beautifully done! A confident and self-consistent depiction of a child's viewpoint. What's really going on? We may never find out, because the narrato...
I had time last night only for a cursory first glance. I'm coming back for a close reading of each story today and in the next several days. The situa...
Another surreal one. The angst level seems very high this year, and I can't blame us. This one is interesting in several ways and will require at leas...
Are we all reflective and introspective at the end of 2023? this one is very well written and contains some interesting food for thought. My only quib...
I'm not in the US, and I'm not black, but I never stopped wearing my mask, because the virus is not done with us yet. https://health-infobase.canada.c...
Absolute core meaning the same whether your presence in the world causes improvement or decline? Just marching down the entropy train is enough? OK. N...
I don't see how that works. I mean, obviously, live people are more likely to succeed and reproduce than dead ones, but even the most successful will ...
Then I am grateful for my ignorance. Or my ability to compromise - whatever. I wish you could get over your impossible demands on life - it has so muc...
You never told me that! Or maybe you did and I forget: that happens a lot at my age. Ok, in that case, I'll enter the simulation when I'm declining in...
I don't see that the word "freedom" can have any meaning at all without presupposing an integral entity that is capable of being either free or not fr...
It's the one churches are selling. I don't believe any version of it, but millions of people apparently do. More cartoonish ones, even, involving wing...
Maybe. Of course, nobody changes or achieves anything, so the relations, tearful reunion once over, are static and the whole exercise is pointless. Pl...
Suppose you've been here long enough and done all that. Life is not going to continue: you'll have to decline, suffer and die. But most of us don't li...
I found the ones that had most response were in some way controversial. I recall arguing at length over a couple in the last round - not about whether...
Having chosen it knowingly, the artificiality wouldn't bother me at all. I already don't think life has a "meaning". The idea of Heaven doesn't seem t...
I'm old enough to contemplate non-existence on a daily basis. Offered an alternative of my choice, I'd certainly opt for my version of Utopia. But I w...
When I read a story, it either resonates with me or it doesn't. If I don't understand it, for whatever reason - language, culture, unfamiliar referenc...
Not at all: it was wrong in my book when the Incas did it, and it's wrong now. But it only ever appears as a "serious" ethical question in an environm...
In reality, many societies used sacrifice, including numerous child sacrifices, to insure their continuing prosperity. In reality, our own society owe...
And the bold are not necessarily strong. For rock climbing, you need physical strength and courage. For material success in the world, you need high s...
The selfish gene. In nature, animals that have some advantage over others of their species succeed at living longer and having more offspring than the...
Yes, I've heard that one - it's a corker! Elevates society over what? Sure, we've all heard that one, too. Not quite so funny. If only some of them co...
Twisted toward those who own and control, against those who produce. But this not unique to capitalist societies: it is the same in oligarchies, milit...
That's an obvious start. Share the decision-making, share the labour and resources equitably; give everyone in the society respect and a chance to ear...
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