Discussion Questions
1. What does this version of Mars, with
its tourist traps, ruins, and barkers, suggest in the way of analogies?
2. Does the story give more weight to the
iconoclast's attack on the space program, Betsy's defense of it, or neither?
3. Which of the two hypothetical histories
seems more probable? From what current trends is each extrapolated?
4. Why does the narrator take over the role
of iconoclast? Is he merely programmed or an android, as he claims the
iconoclast is?
5. What does the glimpse through the burlap
at the end represent: further illusion, underlying reality, an alternative
reality, or something else? |
