{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/6641", "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it. Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.", "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'" }, "archive": "urth", "thread": { "id": 6641, "subject": "Short Story 102: Cherry Jubilee", "messages": 1, "voices": 1, "first": "2014-08-23T18:29:11+00:00", "last": "2014-08-23T18:29:11+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Marc Aramini", "address": "marcaramini at gmail.com" }, "date": "2014-08-23T18:29:11+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Short Story 102: Cherry Jubilee", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "“Cherry Jubilee” appeared in *Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine* in\n1982 and is reprinted in* Storeys from the Old Hotel.*\n\nSUMMARY: On Captain Bogdanoff’s *Red Star*, the famous escape artist Merry\nHoudini and her four year old adult clone Cherry are in transit to Soviet\ncontrolled Mars with their sponsor, Koroviev, to begin a tour. An American\nagent named Smith is invited to dinner with Bogdanoff, the girls, Koroviev,\na dark woman named Vera Oussinko (who works for the KGB), and Pasik and\nAnna Petrovsky (a bureaucrat and his biochemist wife). Smith talks with\nCherry, the woman in red, at the dinner quite extensively. Her intellect\nis that of an adult and she reveals her plans to someday work independently\nof Merry. Her eyes brighten up at the cherry jubilee desert, and Smith\nexplains the concept of the Jewish jubilee — every fifty years, “all tribal\nlands were returned to their possessors — even if they had been leased or\nsold — they held a celebration, because everybody was getting his birth\nright back.” At this, she looks solemn and states that she “likes it”\nwhile tasting the dessert.\n\nOn ship, they plan to shoot Merry out into space in a locked coffin from\nwhich she will escape. The clone ties a safety line which the captain\ninsists upon using for the act to tether the coffin to the ship. When Smith\nbumps into the clone, she smiles and he “attempt[s] to smile in return.” As\nthey leave the airlock to watch, they see a coffin in space and eventually\nperceive a hand spring forth from it. Smith runs back to the airlock to\nfind globules of blood floating in the zero gravity environment, “like\ncherries.”\n\nThat night Vera attempts to talk her way through the case. She asserts\nthat Cherry has been murdered, stabbed with Vera’s own steak knife, which\nshe noticed was gone before the table was cleared. Only those at the dinner\ntable had access to the knives. Merry says that she had no reason to kill\nher clone, who cost her “over two hundred thousand”. Vera states her motive\nwas an affair with Captain Bogdanoff. She says that Smith might have been\nsent by his government to keep the clone from being studied by Soviet\nscientists. The KGB agent also explores whether Pasik Petrovsky could have\nbeen Cherry’s lover, but he denies it and he and his wife hold hands.\nKoroviev says that his career with the Ministry of Art is finished and he\nhas no conceivable motive, though Anna asserts that a murder would generate\ninterest on Mars amongst engineers, geologists and astronomers, attracting\nthem.\n\nNext Vera explores the positions of all of the suspects. Koroviev was\nabsent during the launch of the coffin, and the Petrovsky family returned\nto the airlock briefly to look for an earring which had floated away. The\nweight of the gold earring and how far it travelled in that short time\nleads Smith to posit that the stabbing was very recent with the blood so\nnear to Cherry’s body when he came upon it.\n\nBecause the safety tether to the coffin was cut, Vera concludes that\nsomeone was trying to kill both Merry and Cherry. She asserts that the lock\nused on the coffin would have disintegrated when exposed to the vacuum of\nthe airlock, and that Merry could have kept her head with a concealed\noxygen mask and used air pressure to return to the ship while the coffin\nwas in darkness (Merry will not reveal how her trick worked). Vera\ndismisses Koroviev’s suggestion that the Petrovsky’s could have killed\nCherry together because of the timing of the cut rope — it was cut before\nthey were close enough to assault Merry. She believes Cherry stayed\nbehind at the air lock to let the floating Merry back in, and that the\nmurderer closed the lock, so Merry went to a utility entrance where her\nsecond confederate, Koroviev, was waiting to let her in. Since Vera has\naccounted for everyone’s presence at the time of the murder, she believes\nthe murderer must have had a confederate, and accuses Bogdanoff with his\nsubordinates and robotic staff, which he can reprogram. She believes he\ncut the rope before it was brought out, concealed in the coil, and that his\nposition at dinner made him an ideal candidate for stealing her knife.\nSince his father in law is an important official and he was having an\naffair, she thinks Bogdanoff wanted to silence Cherry and Merry.\n\nAll her conclusions unravel after an abrupt cut where it is revealed that\nVera herself has been arrested for the murder. Smith goes to talk to the\nsurviving Houdini. He hints that it would be possible for them to be\ntogether most of the time during her tour on Mars. She rejects him. He\nsays she was friendlier the first night at the table and calls her Cherry,\nwhich she says is a guess. They wonder that Vera’s KGB status did not\nprotect her, and Smith says, “It’s the same for us Americans, Cherry. If\nyou go too far and the law finds out, it’s all over.”\n\nHe offers to tell her how the trick actually worked: the looped coil\ntightened up so that the coffin never left the hold, and Koroviev was at\nanother exit casting a second coffin into space with its cord already cut —\nthe hand they witnessed in outer space just a prosthetic. She had used\nsealant inside the lid to protect her air supply when the air lock was\nopened, and the other Houdini stayed behind to close the airlock after\neveryone was gone. It was at that point that the woman inside the coffin\nstruck.\n\nHe believes the clone was simply life insurance to do the dangerous tricks,\nand the surviving Houdini admits to Smith she stabbed her assistant as she\nopened the coffin. She also says that Smith is “a more dangerous person\nthan I am. You’re a spy of some sort, aren’t you” — Part of the reason you\nwon’t turn me in is that it looks better if a Russian killed Cherry than if\nI killed Merry. He says he won’t turn her in when they return to Earth if\nthings go well between them on Mars.\n\nHe admits he was first “put on to” her when her eyes got round discussing\nthe jubilee year. Merry Houdini (whom Smith now erroneously believes is\nCherry) then says he has gotten himself a girl on Mars through “radical\neconomics”. He says he wishes he could have gotten his girl the way she\ngot her man instead (with beauty rather than blackmail).\n\nCOMMENTARY:\n\nIn *Bibliomen*, Wolfe talks of a fictional detective story written by Adam\nPoor called *A Salted Mine* which I feel is worth quoting:\n\nA man is found murdered in a Washington, DC subway station; he is without\nidentification. A detective is seduced and beaten, and solves the crime. A\nsecond detective appears who shows the solution to be false, clues having\nbeen planted and altered by the first detective. A third detective (who is\nin fact the attorney of the first detective) shows that the accusations\nmade against the first are without foundation, he having been accused by\nthe second to further his career. At the conclusion of the book, the\nreader realizes that the third detective is in fact the murderer- or\nrather, that he is meant to be the murderer, the clues that implicate him\nhaving been planted by a fourth party, Poor himself.\n\nI can’t help but feel that this synopsis matches up better with “Cherry\nJubilee” than with any other story in Wolfe’s body of work. Wolfe’s own\nintroduction states that it “is a science fiction mystery story, among\nother things. Alex Schomburg gave it a marvelous illustration showing\ndinner aboard the spacecraft; if you’re going to try to solve the mystery,\nyou’d be wise to draw a picture — or at least a chart — of the same sort.”\n\nEven after a seating chart is produced, which clockwise would show at the\nhead Captain Bogdanoff, to his left “Merry” Houdini in white, then the\nAmerican Smith, the supposed clone “Cherry” Houdini in red, Pasik Petrovsky\nat the foot, his wife Anna, then the Soviet member of the Arts Council\nKoroviev, and finally KGB agent Vera Oussinko to Bogdanoff’s right, there\nare still some interpretational problems. The Petrovsky family takes great\ninterest in the Houdini in red, ostensibly Cherry Houdini, and this\ninvolves an interpretation — are they watching her so closely because she\ndoesn’t seem to be a clone and exhibits suspicious behavior, or simply\nbecause they are interested in clones? The Houdini in white is far closer\nto Vera Oussinko to steal her knife, as is Bogdanoff, so we must choose\nwhether to believe the surviving Houdini in the end who says she grabbed\nVera’s knife because it was the farthest away, or disbelieve it as\nimpractical (though she is a magician, or at the very least a magician’s\napprentice). Luckily, there are more concrete details in the story to let\nus know that indeed Smith’s deductions can be trusted (except for one major\nassumption in which he is incorrect).\n\nIn light of Wolfe’s introduction, it seems that the solutions offered by\nthe two detectives in the story, first Vera Oussinko, who is herself\narrested, and then Smith, are both somehow unsatisfactory, though Smith’s\nassumptions prompt a confession of the crime.\n\nThe entire interpretation which we are about to present hinges on one very\nimportant bit of trust. Smith’s explanation for the trick and how it was\naccomplished explains the cut line as part of the set up for the illusion\nand seems more reasonable than a person surviving the vacuum of space\nwithout an atmospheric suit (a completely different coffin released by\nKoroviev is seen outside the ship — the other one never left the airlock\nbecause of the manner in which the assistant Houdini attached it).\n\nHis earlier identification of Koroviev as KGB seems to be an example of his\njudgment failing, however. Should we trust Smith in recognizing that the\ngirls switched colors and identities after the dinner? After the girl in\nred, ostensibly Cherry, bumps into him after the girl in white is sealed in\nthe coffin for the escape act, he “attempted to smile” — he doesn’t feel\nthe same way for the girl in red as he did at dinner because she is\nsignificantly more shallow and vapid.\n\nThe speech patterns of “Cherry” Houdini in red at the dinner are fairly\ncomplex and well developed. She talks far more than “Merry” in white —\nindeed, almost all the dialogue is voiced by her. Smith is under the\nimpression that the woman in red at the dinner is the woman in white at the\noutset of the trick — that they have switched places. How can we be\nconfident that Koroviev’s belief in their switch is accurate? Besides his\nnatural attraction to the woman on his left during dinner, his instincts\nare actually quite good. He has deduced exactly how the trick works.\n\nAt the escape trick, the woman in red (Cherry) says, “Five minutes is\nplenty of time for poor Merry to suffocate in the vacuum, but my gosh,\nisn’t it fun! She promised to let me try it on the way home — This is a\nnew one she’s just worked out.”\n\nEarlier at the dinner table, the girl in white (Cherry pretending to be\nMerry) had a similar exclamation: “My God, what a relief — I thought Cherry\nand I were the only Americans on board.” She boasted, “Wait until you see\nwhat I am going to do here on the Red Star!”\n\nIn contrast, the dialogue of the woman in red at dinner (Merry, who\nactually survives), supposedly the four year old clone, seems more\nsophisticated: ?[The Captain] is a little obvious, isn’t he? But he’s a\ndear, and you can’t blame him for wanting to make Merry feel at home — I\nhave an adult mind, and of course while we were travelling in the Soviet\nUnion I had many opportunities. Now I’m learning Merry’s techniques by\nassisting her. When I’m good enough, I’ll go off on my own — perhaps tour\nSouth America. When Smith is attempting to blackmail her into being his\ngirlfriend, her dialogue never seems boastful or exclamatory. She says,\n“You said it was radical economics, and it was. This is too, I\nsuppose. You’ve\njust gotten yourself a girl on Mars- all through radical economics.”\n\nIf we trust Smith’s assertion that the woman in red at the dinner actually\nis the woman in white at the escape, then it is mighty curious that her\nspeech patterns are so much more sophisticated at the age of four than\nMerry Houdini’s. “My gosh”, “My God”, and even “she promised to let me try\nit on the way home” sound a bit more juvenile than calling the captain\nobvious (but a dear) in inviting the American to the table. The narrative\nvoice refers to the assistant in white as a clone in the third person voice\nduring the escape scene — this narrative voice can actually be trusted,\ndespite Smith’s conclusions. In the opening scene, the clone is pretending\nto be Merry, and during the trick, Merry has resumed her rightful position\nand intends to keep it.\n\nAs far as the title: Smith explains the jubilee as follows: “In the ancient\ncivilization of Israel, all tribal lands were returned to their possessors\n— even if they had been leased or sold — every fifty years. That fiftieth\nyear was called the jubilee. They held a celebration, because everybody\nwas getting his birth-right back.” This causes the Houdini in red’s eyes\nto light up, creating Smith’s attraction for her.\n\nSmith is correct in all his assumptions save one — Cherry and Merry have\nswitched before dinner, as the clone, Cherry, has been blackmailing Merry\nand attempting to keep her birthright. Her methods are quite simple —\nMerry has trusted her with the secret to her tricks, and Cherry has\nprobably threatened to reveal them if she is not given the glory. In order\nto reclaim her identity even for a brief time, Merry has to come up with a\nnew trick that the actual Cherry cannot yet perform. Thus the murder of\nthe clone Cherry is a reclamation of Merry’s birthright, and Smith is\ncorrect in every particular but fails to realize that the girls have\nswitched both before and after the dinner — he only recognizes the later\nswitch.\n\nPOINT OF VIEW AND RELIABILITY IN WOLFE:\n\n\nOverall, the narrative third person voice is trustworthy in identifying the\nclone as such during the set up of the escape scene, but the voice feels no\nobligation to provide complete narrative closure. This trend appears as\nearly as “The Green Wall Said” and “Forlesen”, but the tendency of the\nthird person narrative to obfuscate through serious omission in Wolfe has\nnot yet reached its peak (*Home Fires, An Evil Guest, Castleview*, and\nperhaps “The Ziggurat” and *There Are Doors* are all primarily third person\nnarrations with the kinds of elided implications we would expect of a first\nperson narrator, but without discernible motive, save that it is a\ntrademark of Wolfe). A subjective narrator, motive, and personal bias or\nhandicap can provide the necessary key to interpretation quite easily, but\nin other narratives, we must accept that it is simply a hallmark of Wolfe’s\nstyle. Without the introduction to the story, would we have ever doubted\nSmith’s conclusion? Likewise, in the hands of another author, less careful\nwith dialogue, would there even be a mystery to discuss at the end of the\nstory?\n\nWe can recognize that Smith’s conclusions are off by his inherent sexism —\nhe knows that there must be a KGB agent present and assumes it to be\nKoroviev, never thinking that the female Vera could be that agent. Similarly,\neven though he is able to tell that Cherry and Merry have switched place\nafter the dinner, his failure to understand her motives allows him to be\nduped by Merry’s manipulation, even though she gets him to call her Merry\nby the end of their interaction. The most important thing to her is\nmaintaining the integrity of her secrets, which Cherry threatened. The\nmaster of seeking out bribes and theft is ironically unable to recognize\nthe theft of a birthright and attempted blackmail right under his nose,\neven with his excellent deductive powers.\n\nSOVIET/AMERICAN RELATIONS\n\nThe relationship between the Soviet Union and the United States is not\nrepresented frequently in Wolfe’s fiction, though the idea of socialism and\na redistribution of wealth coming to America, along with a stratified class\ndistribution of funds, is especially prevalent in his short stories of the\n1970s. When the Soviet Union does appear, as in “The Peace Spy”, the\ninteraction is not quite as hostile as one would expect from the cold war\nenvironment, and the lines between heroic and villainous characters are\noften not drawn across nationalistic lines.\n\nHere, a female KGB agent is perhaps the most courageous character in the\nstory, more noble than the American Smith and neither a blackmailer like\nCherry nor a murderess like Merry. Even though her deductive powers are\nnot supported by the text, she pays a price for daring to suspect someone\nin a position of authority. Koroviev asserts, “The time when our Soviet\ncitizens learned English for technical purposes is past.” To this,\n“Cherry” at dinner responds, “Isn’t that wonderful — Now we can speak\nEnglish when we have to keep secrets.” The only mark against Vera, besides\nher wild speculation about the trick, is Merry’s impression of her when she\nheld her hand in such a commandeering fashion.\n\nSmith says that he is present seeking evidence of theft and bribery in the\nSoviet system, then proceeds to try to blackmail Merry, taking the bribe of\nher affection. In light of how Merry has responded to Vera and Cherry when\nshe feels her freedom compromised or challenged, we can imagine that Smith\nshould be careful.\n\nLITERARY ALLUSIONS AND NAMES:\n\nCaptain Bogdanoff, with his ship Red Star, comes from the utopian soviet\nnovel *Red Star* by Bogdanov, which involves a socialist alien government\non Mars. As an early Soviet SF novel which explores the implications of a\nsociety which operates under communal property laws, it doesn’t necessarily\nhave to resonate on the plot level to be a valid reference. The Martians\nin the novel do conceal quite a bit, including gender identity, and some\nideologies lead the protagonist to commit murder to prevent genocide, which\nis being considered by Martian idealists.\n\nBulgakov’s *Master and Margarita*, in which the devil comes to Russia,\nfeatures a valet named Koroviev. The name comes from the Russian word for\ncow.\n\nPasik and Anna Petrovsky’s last name implies “the rock”.\n\nVera Oussenko’s first name means faith or true, but the only truth to her\nassertion might be that Cherry was murdered. However, the possibility\nexists that Bogdanoff is an accomplice, though he seems unable to\ndistinguish between the two girls when they switch colors (Smith can tell\nwhen they switch because he has fallen for the woman in red at the dinner\nand realizes those same feelings for the woman in white at the escape —\nMerry Houdini.)\n\nRELIGIOUS ALLUSIONS AND SYMBOLS:\n\nDespite the resonance Merry creating a child through asexual means and the\npresence of a family whose last name derives from Peter, I feel that any\nreligious symbols are marginally unimportant in light of the dominant\nsymbol: the clone’s blood forms cherry-like spheres in the zero-gravity\nenvironment. Those blood globes resonate with “the swollen crimson sphere”\nof Mars through the viewport as Smith attempts to blackmail Merry. The\nJewish idea of the jubilee is equally important, for Merry has regained her\nbirthright from her clone.\n\nUNANSWERED QUESTIONS:\n\n\nWhy is Smith really there? He says he is interested in the irregular\ndistribution of wealth through theft and bribery, but his American presence\nremains nebulous, though Merry indicates part of his motive in not turning\nher in is for the political and media ramification of having a Russian\nvillain, regardless of the truth. What is America’s current economic\nsystem? Smith knows a good deal about ancient economic ideas, but the\ninterplanetary importance of America seems marginal in light of the waning\nof English as a universal language.\n\nIt seems unlikely that Bogdanov knows anything in light of his ignorance of\nwhich Houdini is which, but we must wonder if there was any tangential\ninvolvement on his part in light of Vera’s name and the eager kiss he\ndelivers to Merry.\n\nCONNECTION WITH OTHER WORKS:\n\nThe failure of the detectives in this story definitely shows that even\nWolfe’s third person narratives must be treated carefully. One tendency\nwhich appears here quite noticeably becomes a habit of narration later: a\ndetective or privileged speaker hypothesizing about mysterious events,\noften from a position of incomplete knowledge or ignorance. *Long Sun,\nShort Sun*, and just about every novel after *Pirate Freedom* exhibit this\nfeature from time to time. Sometimes the reconstruction of events is\nparticularly untrustworthy, as in the case of Skip in *Home Fires*." } ] } ] }