(urth) Short Story 78*: A Criminal Proceeding

[Marc Aramini]

*We will return to the few long novellas I skipped soon from the 70s - I
have saved a space in the numbering and am working on completing them.

“A Criminal Proceeding” first appeared in *Interfaces* in 1980.

SUMMARY:

 Late at night on Good Friday, Stephen Brodie is arrested by New York and
Philadelphia police, the secret service, FBI, and others, with news
coverage. With that live coverage, it becomes a ridiculous spectacle.  Rumors
cause mobs, and jury selection begins on November 17th with 300,000
watching. Jurors are selected from a pool of 5,000 by March of the
following year, with concessions made for interest groups such as the
“male-grocer-Oriental-American community”.

There are riots in January and February.  The first justice, Frederic K.C.
McGrail, orders a recess while the Bronco stadium is equipped to handle the
trial. The following year, the trial begins. 336,781 seats were left open
for an audience after all of the essential and media personnel. Further
absurd delays ensue, and the government’s case eventually begins on May 31st
by Eli Braincreek. Mention is made of a private yacht chartered by
Antropopos armed with heat-seeking underwater projectiles, and audiences
grow to over 30 million watchers.  An act attempts to make some of the
charges brought up against Brodie ones with a mandatory death penalty, and
the female president signs it.  Brodie attempts suicide using strips torn
from his shirt and slashes his wrist with fragments of his artificial eye,
and as the trial continues events become increasingly absurd, involving
bombings and bringing in even UN officers, with several stating Brodie had
hoped to gain world-wide control “on or before the occasion of the U.S.S.A
debacle”.  When Brodie finally takes the stand in his own defense, he
thrusts his hand into the divine fire and swears his innocence and the
Mosque of Omar collapses, the last wall of Solomon falls, and a voice
calling out “Pan is reborn!” is heard near the Isles of Paxi.

The account ends with the ominous, “I believe it is safe to say that all of
us felt then that the real prosecution had not yet begun.”

Discussion:

The Wolfe-wiki says “Brodie is arrested on Good Friday, which is surely an
intentional reference to Christ's crucifixion. While Christ's trial shares
some absurd qualities (notably the unruly crowd) with the trial depicted in
this story, Christ was arrested on the Thursday prior to Easter Sunday,
according to Christian scripture, so Brodie is not a Christ figure per se.
The presiding judge's name (McGrail) could be Christian reference,
however.”

Which is flirting with the point but misses it: On Good Friday, Christ dies
and actually goes to Hell.  We are in the harrowing of Hell, and it is not
Brodie alone, but everyone who watches it and becomes embroiled in it, who
falls victim to the spectacle.  There will be no Easter Sunday and
redemption in this interminable trial.  All the absurdity with its
psuedo-realistic detail is like a demonic farce, and finally, at the end,
the mosque collapses, the temple falls, and Pan is reborn – the pagan
festivities and the bachannalian revelries have come to life, where so much
effort and money is spent on a farce for entertainment, the moral center
and the restrained religious sentiment of non-pagan religions is lost.  There
is no redemption, just excess and spectacle.

The media and movies, like the “sly spy movies”, actually influence the
testimony of women with code names and prompts increasingly ridiculous and
asinine testimonies.  Much like “The War Beneath the Tree”, the real
meaning of what is transpiring is missing, justice and crime are almost
unimportant, but the glitzy sham trial consumes the world’s attention.  Note
that Pan died when Christ was born, and here, the death of morality,
restraint, propriety, and reason prompts the return of pagan values – Pan
returns, in all his excess, and the zeitgeist of Christ, Judaism, and Islam
dies.  The Mosque of Omar is the oldest and only mosque in Bethlehem. We
see Solomon’s Temple fall forever, the traditional keeping place of the ark
of the covenant lost. Mention is made of the U.S.S.A. debacle, which
probably is hinting at the attempt and failure of socialism for the United
States.

The adjective which describes the proceeding actually does describe it:
this proceeding is criminal in its excess.  The prosecution of the people
involved, whose society is so ridiculous, has not yet begun.

NAMES AND DATES:

While I don’t think there is much of any significance to the majority of
these names and dates, save possibly in identifying a few religious feast
days.  The final date, when Brodie puts his hand into the divine flame,
might actually be on Maundy Thursday. Since events and testimonies are
supposed to seem random and designed to be absurd, let’s look at a few
selected examples just for the sake of completion.

Good Friday at 11:43 PM: Stephen Brodie arrested.  (Christ dies and
descends to hell).

November 5: rumor that the trial would begin on November 6th instead of 7th
causes mob

November 17, a Monday: jury selection begins

November 20, Thursday: first juror selected

March 16: Jury selection complete – This is the first day of the
Bacchanalia in Roman history!!

May 3 of the following year: arena prepared and trial begins, opening
motion delays trial (lots of events in history, but the only feast day that
might possibly apply is that of Antonia and Alexander – she was forced to
work in a brothel for refusing to marry, and the Christian soldier came in
and traded clothes with her to allow her to escape – both executed by being
burned alive)

May 31 trial reconvenes (May only has 30 days), Braincreek begins
government case (Feast of Saint Hermias involves a Roman soldier who
confessed Christ and was tortured and cast into a flame which did not burn
him)

June 20th – testimony of Ethel Saltzlust and gesture towards Ella
Moneypenny-Hubert made (earliest possible date of the solstice, also the
feast of Summanus in Rome, the nocturnal god of thunder)

June 25th: governments’ case ends

September: Perkins-O’Farrell act considered

October 31st: Female president signs the bill with death penalty, Brodie
attempts suicide – this is Halloween – an explicitly pagan remembrance –
interesting that this date consigns Brodie to death if he is found guilty.

Two weeks before Christmas: the girls with pseudonyms take the stand
against Brodie and the UN involvement on a guided missile carrier called
the *Mayaguez Incident* is mentioned. (The Mayaguez incident was the last
official battle of the Vietnam War, when the Khmer Rouge seized the SS
Mayaguez)

Ten day recess – 17,000 people are injured by Scholla mausoleum
flamethrowers

January 25th – trial reopens, but closes again when bombed.

February 14th- Brodie pleads guilty to several charges and not guilty by
reason of insanity to others.  Valentine’s Day – named after a martyr who
died on the Via Flaminia.

Mid-march- Prosecution completes case.

March 24th: Brodie takes the stand and casts his hand into the divine
flame, proclaiming his innocence. None of the feast days seemed to resonate
very well with this date.  The trial spans almost 3 years.  This is
certainly during Lent, however, and it may be possible to determine the day
of the week if one were so inclined – I believe it would fall on a
Thursday, and could be an extremely early candidate for Maundy Thursday
(Easter is set by its relationship to the Pascal Moon) – and instead of
Christ being seized for trial, it is the world.

Stephen Brodie: Stephan means “wreath, crown, honor, or reward”, Brodie
cane mean “ditch” or “mire” – I think we see honor and the crown dragged
into a ditch in these proceedings.

Justice Frederic McGrail, Hopkins, and Justice Russell– the last name
McGrail actually comes from the personal name Niall, but I do think the
changing names of the justices, which will also include a Russell, which
can imply red, are meant to be part of a pattern – renowned blood spilled,
held in a cup, in light of the symbolic death of all Christian values and
common sense in the spectacle – a return to cathartic paganism.

Eli Braincreek- the chief prosecutor for the government, in light of the
good Friday arrest we should probably consider Jesus’ use of “Eli, Eli,
lama sabachthani” on the cross.  The second name, Braincreek, shows where
everyone’s brains are.  His mention of “Antropopos” might mean something
closer to poop-man instead of the more common name for Christ, the
Theoanthropos (God-man).

Ridiculous names like Ethel Saltzlust and the pseudonyms are rather obvious
in their over-dramatization (lust and bitterness intertwined).

UNANSWERED QUESTIONS: Since this is an intentional exaggeration and satire,
probably the whole point is that Brodie’s crime is never mentioned.  But …
what was Brodie arrested for?

CONNECTION TO OTHER WORKS:

Wolfe’s absurd satires are actually pretty rare, though I feel “Forlesen”
is a much more serious and realistic satirical look at society. I feel like
the attempts at humor leave it with something in common with “From the Desk
of Gilmer C. Merton” and the very rare but also ultimately funny
“Planetarium in Orbit”.  For those interested, there is a female president
… of course, we are metaphorically in hell throughout the story.

Wolfe’s comments on the story: “'A Criminal Proceeding' is just my
impression of real-life courtroom drama as it's presented in the popular
press. When I read one of these things, usually while buttering yet another
slice of toast, I never know who anyone is or what the person on trial is
supposed to have done. Do you?"
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