Selección Terror: Broma de Carnaval

Catalog Note This issue of *Selección Terror* (No. 555, July 1976) presents "Broma de Carnaval" [Carnival Prank] by Ralph Barby. The narrative follows Red Freeman, a red-bearded university graduate student and part-time instructor at the University of Miami, as he attends a costume ball aboard a yacht docked in Miami. Freeman drives a battered Volkswagen Beetle and aspires to work in cultural tourism. At the carnival party, he encounters a woman in a medieval Joan of Arc costume. They discuss their reasons for attending—Freeman hopes to network with travel agency owner Melvin Sullivan, while the woman seeks writer Arthur Miller. The two dance together among elaborately costumed partygoers, including women dressed as Poppaea, Florence Nightingale, and a green-haired Venusian figure. The narrative establishes Freeman's character as irreverent and independent, contrasting his casual attire against the formal masquerade setting.