Discussion Questions
1. The first adjustments a reader must
make in approaching this story have to do with establishing a setting that
is not a usual SF one. How do we come to know that the setting is neither
our time and place nor the future?
2. What associations does the title call
up, and how are they realized in the story?
3. What kind of strange garment fastening
is it that Mrs. Forbes describes to her husband in part II? Is this a good
example of estrangement?
4. In the letter from the future that Ellen
Forbes reads, the forthcoming destruction is blamed on aliens. Would it
be more consistent with the rest of the story to have people responsible
for their own end?
5. Does it seem likely that the presence
of the children and the knowledge they have brought will change the future? |
