Cherry Jubilee and the novel Red Star

Marc A Aramini · 10 Feb 2001, 11:20 · from urth-v0030.mbox · original

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From: Marc A Aramini <maa32 at dana.ucc.nau.edu>
Subject: (urth) Cherry Jubilee and the novel Red Star
Date: Sat, 10 Feb 2001 11:20:30
Message-ID: <urth-v0030-0276 at digest.urth.net>
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A few years ago I had to read an old russian science fiction novel
called "Red Star" by Bogdanov for a Russian History class.  In it, a
young political activist in Russia is taken in a space ship by a "youth"
to Mars where he sees a true utopia based on socialism.  He falls in
love with the youth, who turns out to be a female alien.  Wolfe has
definitely read this novel, but I can't make many connections with the
story Cherry Jubilee, which so obviously has the ship Red Star captained
by Bogdanov.  Has anyone else read this novel?  Do you see any parallels
in the stories?  Is there an alien masquerading as a youth in the short
story?

And one more thing:  even though this doesn't belong here, it isn't a
spoiler and I do not subscribe to the whorl list.  I just finished GK
Chesterton's "The Man who Knew Too much" in which the bald "hero" Horne
Fisher knows too much about everthing.  At one point he is called a real
fisher of men, and at the end when he finally performs a
self-sacrificing act to save England, Chesterton says, "the man who knew
to much knew what was worth knowing."  Well, at the end of a recent
Wolfe novel, fishing seems to play some important, but mysterious part.=20
Could the bald Horne Fisher from Chesterton have influenced Wolfe?

I would appreciate any input you all have.  (Of course, I peruse both
lists, so if you think some responses would be more appropriate on the
other list, please post them there) =20
Marc Aramini

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/

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