The entry on the story "Dead Stars" by Paz Marquez Benitez remains as one of the most searched posts

in this blog. I never intended the entry to be a reference or source of information to a literary text that has inspired generations. Besides, at the time I merely wanted to share what had just transpired. To those who wish for a free analysis or summary or whatnot, allow me to pose more questions instead of answers. Literature is best understood when it is met head-on, without shortcuts, or walkthroughs-even in an era of instant noodles or cheat codes. My advice for you dear reader is to engage the text: read the story. Asking yourself and the text questions after a first reading might also help propel possibilities for discussion. What I normally do after I savor the initial effect of a text (visual or literary) with the usual ranting or raving of impressions is to probe deeper into it with questions for reflection. For this particular text, allow me to suggest the following questions: 1. What is the story? In what genre or mode of writing is it? 2. Whose story is it? Why? 3. Who are the dead stars? 4. What died or what was lost in the end? 5. What did the story successfully convey? What did it imply? 6. What lasting influence does the text share? What can one deduce from the language of the text? 7. What are the strengths or (if any) weaknesses of the text? Then read what the experts have said about the following elements and apply it to the text: conflict, characterization, and causality. My favorite writer, sir Butch (may your works continue to flourish), also wrote about Dead Stars (from which some of the questions above were loosely borrowed) in his essay "One Story at a Time" and I suggest you get a copy of it. Or you can google Dead Stars again sans what I proposed, and try what the others have written (or withheld). Or pause like, "The climber of mountains who has known the back-break, the lonesomeness, and the chill, finds a certain restfulness in level paths made easy to his feet. He looks up sometimes from the valley where settles the dusk of evening, but he knows he must not heed the radiant beckoning. Maybe, in time, he would cease even to look up."