Essay Questions

What is the shocking revelation about the thief that stole S. Karma’s identity?

Interestingly enough, “The Crime of S. Karma” does not identity any particular crime committed by its title character. Several obscure clues are provided to answer this mystery, but ultimately, they are meaningless as the story does not really appear to be about any crime S. Karma actually committed. Instead, it is yet another of the many entries into the world of Kafkaesque nightmarish scenarios about alienation, isolation, and dehumanization which characterize this volume. Mr. Karma wakes up one day to find he has nothing with his name on it to prove he is who he says. He is a very special case of identity theft (in a story written before that had even become a thing). The culprit turns out to be just as shockingly unexpected as it is brilliantly logical: S. Karma’s business card. Literally, a card with his name on it has stolen his identity.

The title character in “The Special Envoy” is the thirty-ninth such ambassador from Mars to arrive on Earth. What happened to those who preceded him?

The envoy is identified only as a Martian. He has arrived at a conference where a prestigious professor is to give a speech in order to convince him to publicly acknowledge that he is, indeed, from Mars in order that he may successfully carry out his diplomatic mission. The problem, it seems, is that Martians do not appear to be any different from human beings. Thus, they have no effective way to prove their identity. Although the professor immediately targets him as a crackpot, he does inquire with some probing questions which the Martian answers regarding other ways that might prove he is telling the truth, but which would also fail to do the job for one reason or another. So, one can clearly see the problem the Martian is facing. Of the thirty-eight envoys who were sent before him, seven blew up before even making to Earth. The thirty-one envoys who, like himself, did succeed in making the trip eventually became so desperate after having tried and failed to convince anyone that they truly were from Mars that they resorted to sheer physical force which resulted in each of them being committed to a lunatic asylum on the grounds of insanely insisting they were Martians.

In the story “Noah’s Ark” what is the fundamental premise of Noah’s doctrine?

In this story, Noah is an alcoholic old man who fills the role of several different positions in the village: mayor, headmaster, and tax collector just to name a few. His single most important job, however, is keeping the balance of the universe in check. This is a very difficult job, of course, and can only be accomplished by making sure that a constant and consistent equilibrium always exists in the population. Therefore, it is simply a matter of cosmic arithmetic and nothing more than birth must be offset by death. Noah’s doctrine is the guiding force behind maintaining this equilibrium and thus fulfilling his duty. Basically, the doctrine boils down to one single essential truth which must be understood and blindly accepted as true: “maintaining a fix number of deaths is what preserves the harmony of the universe.”