Answer TWO of the following:
Q1: According to the story, Stat is “determined by a
complicated algorithm that factored in wealth, race, genealogy, fat-to-muscle
ratio, dentition, and dozens of other variables from femur length to facial
symmetry to skull contours. It was determined by the attractiveness of one’s
house. The suitability of one’s car” (195). Why is this satirical, and what
specifically might it be satirizing in our own world?
Q2: A fractal, as the story explains, “is a pattern that
repeats itself. Magnifty it, and you’ll see the same pattern as if you’d
reduced it” (200). While the world they live in is clearly a fractal of
interconnecting neighborhoods and divisions, what does the title mean—“On the Fringes
of the Fractal?” Why might being on the fringe of something help you see
reality more clearly—and when do our characters do this?
Q3: Why is the “future” of this story dominated by generic
names and places? Why is everything a Peevs Drugs and a Peevs 24-Hour
Whatevers—or in the next town, a Wiggins Drugs and a Wiggins 24-Hour Whatevers?
Also, why do they seem unaware that another town—with the same stuff, but
different names—exists just down the road from their own?
Q4”: When they ultimately find the city, they find not a thriving metropolis but a wasteland—“a sad place, a lost place, a haunted place” (202). Why, then, do they like it so much and never want to leave? What would this city represent to someone who had spent their entire life in Peevs or Wiggins-land?
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