Press Enter

"Press Enter", often stylized PRESS ENTER ■, is a science fiction novella by American writer John Varley originally published in the May 1984 issue of Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. In 1985 it won the Locus Award for Best Novella, Hugo Award for Best Novella and Nebula Award for Best Novella.

Plot summary
Korean War veteran Victor Apfel discovers his neighbor, Charles Kluge, has died and bequeathed a significant inheritance to him. The Los Angeles Police Department is satisfied that Kluge has died by suicide, but a parallel investigation by Caltech computer expert Lisa Foo reveals that Kluge was hacking into dangerous, secretive government agencies that may have been involved in his death. Foo and Apfel become involved romantically as she follows Kluge's trail, exposing them to the same dangers.

<!-- The novella opens with the protagonist, Victor Apfel, receiving an automated phone call originating from the house of Charles Kluge, his neighbor. The prerecorded message asks that he "go immediately to his house. The key is under the mat. Go inside and do what needs to be done. There will be a reward for your services." Apfel reluctantly enters to the house to discover Kluge has died by suicide, and summons the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD).

Kluge's house is filled with computers and antennas; when Apfel touches the keyboard of a TI-99/4A, a program entitled "GOODBYE REAL WORLD" dated August 20 starts, providing the last will and testament of Kluge. The program shows a "compugraphic man" sitting down at the computer, who then begins to narrate Kluge's descent into drug addiction; at the end of the program, the on-screen avatar dies by shooting itself in the head with a gun. At the same time the avatar is shot, a printer starts producing a hardcopy of Kluge's will. A large quantity of pills are found, substantiating Kluge's habits. The will names Apfel as his sole inheritor after listing multiple moral failings of Kluge's other neighbors; the will mysteriously hints at "a mistake [Apfel] did not even make", which he explains to Osborne, the LAPD investigator, was his capture as a prisoner of war during the Korean War. Apfel's bank account reflects a $700,083.04 deposit that day.

Apfel spends the next week hiding from the sudden publicity surrounding the mysterious death of Kluge. On August 22, Apfel is visited by Lisa Foo, a naturalized citizen originally from Vietnam. She arrives in a silver Ferrari, claiming that Apfel has asked for her; instead the LAPD had requested a computer expert from Caltech to assist with the investigation. Apfel invites her to a home-cooked dinner and the two connect, discovering they have a shared birthday, although Apfel is exactly twice Foo's age (25). The next day, Apfel is chatting with Foo when Osborne arrives with a break in the case, which Foo had already uncovered: Kluge's real name is Patrick William Gavin. Gavin/Kluge had been instrumental in the development of many computer systems before faking his death in 1967; because of his background, he retained backdoor access into many key systems. However, since Kluge's programming style was distinctively elegant, Foo suspects that "GOODBYE REAL WORLD" was written by someone else. After Osborne leaves, Apfel warns Foo that she may be in danger from the same unknown organizations that killed Kluge.

When Apfel finds Kluge's driveway empty the next morning, he suspects the worst, but she left merely to pick up groceries and cook dinner for Apfel as a thank you. After the meal, Apfel confesses to "a generalized phobia of Orientals" after his experiences as a prisoner of war; Foo has the same opinion of the Khmer Rouge and Cambodia, where she had fled after the fall of Saigon. After they become involved romantically, Foo spends nights at Apfel's house to alleviate their shared loneliness and provide some protection.

Foo begins to suspect that Kluge, who had been researching artificial intelligence, may have concluded that networking many computers together would be more effective than simply increasing transistor count. Osborne comes by to inform the pair that Kluge's death has been ruled a suicide. A week later, while continuing her investigation, Foo tells Apfel that she had followed Kluge into several secure computer systems belonging to prominent national intelligence and security agencies, but left as quickly as possible once she realized "something knew I was there [...] some watchdog program", suspecting those agencies had been responsible for Kluge's death. Foo and Apfel begin methodically erasing the discs and records using magnets.

Apfel, who has been prone to seizures since his captivity, suffers a significant series of seizures and is hospitalized for two weeks; when she visits, Foo confesses she loves him, and Apfel asks if she finished the job. Although she assures him that no one has followed her digital footprints, it is the last time he sees her. That night, she dies by suicide, leaving a note that says she couldn't cope with Apfel's problems; although he is convinced she did not write the note, he is unable to convince Osborne. A week later, the two go to Kugel's house, where another program cryptically prompts them to "press enter" if they want to know more. Apfel refuses, but Osborne does; the response is simply "YOU LOOKED" and Osborne dies by suicide later that night.

In the aftermath, Apfel throws away every electrical appliance in his house and endows a scholarship with the money he received from Kluge in Lisa Foo's name, to be used for any field of study except computer science. Later, he receives a phone call; although the party on the other end remains silent, Apfel states that he believes that Kluge, Foo, and Osborne all died from suicide and that he would not cause any more trouble. As an additional precaution, he removes all the wiring from his house and as the story closes, he muses if signals could be conducted through piping. -->

Awards

 * 1987: Seiun Award - Foreign Short Fiction (Best Translated Short Story)
 * 1985: Hugo Award - Novella
 * 1985: Nebula Award - Novella
 * 1985: Locus Award - Novella
 * 1985: Science Fiction Chronicle Readers Poll - Novella

Reception and analysis
N. Katherine Hayles noted the novella exhibited "a phobic reaction to the connection [between humans and a computer network] as an unbearable form of intimacy", with the precise moment of connecting being when Apfel first receives an automated phone call at the start of the story. Foo is more explicitly described as a cyborg, both for her breast implants (which she uses for mammary intercourse, calling the act "touring the silicone valley") and her computer expertise. Donna Haraway is displeased with the manner and violence with which one character is killed, calling it "excessive destruction".

The names of many of the characters are inside jokes based on the computer brands and culture at the time: "Victor Apfel" combines the German for Apple with either (or both) the VIC-20 and/or Victor Technology, a popular European computer manufacturer; Lisa was the predecessor of the Macintosh, Foo a programming term for an otherwise unidentified object, "Kluge" a term (usually kludge) for a cobbled-together system, and so on with several other names.