{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/6667", "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it. Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.", "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'" }, "archive": "urth", "thread": { "id": 6667, "subject": "Short Story 60: Forelesen part 1", "messages": 8, "voices": 4, "first": "2014-09-14T18:10:07+00:00", "last": "2014-09-16T22:39:49+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Marc Aramini", "address": "marcaramini at gmail.com" }, "date": "2014-09-14T18:10:07+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Short Story 60: Forelesen part 1", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "*FORLESEN*\n\n“Forlesen” first appeared in *Orbit 14* in 1974 and is reprinted in *Castle\nof Days*.\n\nSUMMARY:\n\nEmanuel Forlesen awakens knowing nothing but his name, not even what human\nbeings look like or if he is one himself. “The rest came later and is\ntherefore suspect, colored by rationalization and the expectations of the\nwoman herself and the other people.” His wife is making breakfast and\nimplores him to read the orientation. He says, “I don’t remember a damn\nthing.” He identifies the oddly deformed hands at the end of his legs as\nshoes, then realizes he is naked.\n\nGetting dressed, he questions his wife about the layout of the house as she\ncooks breakfast in the bedroom . She says her name is Edna Forlesen and\nthat the material indicates she is his wife. When he looks into the mirror\nhe thinks, “The man in the mirror was not he. The image was older, fatter,\nmeaner, more cunning, and stupider than he knew himself to be, and he\nraised his hands (the man in the mirror did likewise) to touch his\nfeatures; they were what they should have been and he turned away.”\n\nOn top of his orientation material is a mimeographed sheet welcoming him to\nthe planet Planet. It indicates his condition is normal and he should not\nbe agitated or fearful — capacities which “are to be regarded as\nincapacities.” The briefing tells him anything he may have remembered upon\nawakening is false and warns him not to be late for work. He must go to the\nhouse on his right, not left. The packet contains his job assignment and a\ntable of commonly used “waits and measures” which are more important than\nthe books.\n\nHis egg and coffee both taste oily. His name is spelled wrong on the job\nassignment and he learns that there are 240 ours in each day. The blue book\nis titled *How to Drive*. The rules include never picking up hitchhikers,\nwaving, shouting, or invading the privacy of other drivers. He looks out\nthe window and sees a bald man with a gold tooth and a mole looking at him\nfrom the window of a nearby house, and wonders that the man is not him at\nany age, because he feels it should be. Edna accuses him of reading the red\nbook when he voices this sentiment.\n\nThe red book’s cover shows people surrounding a winged being. The left side\nis printed in scarlet in a language he doesn’t understand, though he does\nnot believe the translations match up very well. The black print describes\nthe twelve natures of Death and the Dead:\n\nThose who become new gods, for whom new universes are born. Second those\nwho praise. Third those who fight as soldiers in the unending war with\nevil. Fourth those who amuse themselves among flowers and sweet streams\nwith sports. Fifth those who dwell in gardens of bliss, or are tortured.\nSixth those who continue as in life. Seventh those who turn the wheel of\nthe universe. Eighth those who find in their graves their mother’s wombs\nand in one life circle forever. Ninth ghosts. Tenth those born again as men\nin their grandson’s time. Eleventh those who return as beasts or trees. And\nlast those who sleep.\n\n\n Edna rushes him to work, and when he spies, “Remember that if he does not\ngo, you and your children will starve” in her “Helpful Hints for\nHomemakers”, he leaves readily. The door lock behinds him.\n\nHe does not have to do anything to start his yellow car. The car\naccelerates slowly even when the pedal is pressed entirely to the floor and\non his path he sees black and orange signs which read HIDDEN DRIVES. He\nheads towards Model Pattern Products, speaking with his car for directions.\nThe light at which he must turn emits green and red flashes at quarter\nsecond intervals.\n\nThe new street lifts beneath him and he stops to wonder what his job might\nbe and if there were not some way he and his wife might be together. He\nwalks to the rail and looks down to see what supports the elevated road,\nnoticing the shadows of broken and twisted shapes under the road. A blue\npolice car painted with a fantastic design (“a mingling of fabulous beasts\nwith plants and what appeared to be wholly abstract symbols”) pulls over.\nThe cop prompts him to get back in his car. Forlesen catches a glimpse of\nthe pillar (or something under the road) moving and hesitates, then asks\nthe cop to come look. He feels something at his spine and turns to see that\nthe cop wears no pants and is connected to his car by six or more tubes the\ncolor of straw and blood. Forlesen is not scared and gets in his car. He\nasks the cop if the pillars are falling, and the cop threatens him with his\ngun unless he continues on his way.\n\nHere the car “sped to the top of the high, white, billowing undulations of\nthe highway — and descended in a way that made him almost believe himself a\nhawk — or the operator of some fantastic machine that could itself soar\nlike a bird — or even such a winged being as had appeared on the cover of\nthe red book.” He sees snowy clouds that could be other highways.\n\nForlesen picks up a hitchhiker named Abraham Beale dressed in a very old\nfashioned manner and leaves Forlesen with the impression of a cricket. He\nsays Forlesen is awake while so many of the other drivers are asleep.\nAbraham is looking for work since he lost his old job — he has worked as a\nlawyer, soldier, on the railroad, and even as a reaper mechanic. Abraham\nwas the oldest of thirteen children; he lost the farm willed him by his\nfather on the same day he was to receive it when the state took it for a\nhighway. He says he received a check in restitution which he planted, but\nit didn’t grow. He drew the interest from his investment but it came to\nnothing, then mentions an apple tree on his land that died little by\nlittle, and how his brother Avery let a blue slate game cock kill his\nfather’s Shanghai Rooster.\n\nThey comes upon buildings whose roofs are “jagged saw blades fronted with\nglass.” Abraham shows Forlesen a blank page from his bank book and says\nthose little numbers are all that is left of his father’s farm, then tells\nForlesen the difference between having only a little money and vast wealth,\nand that a man with a significant fortune can accomplish what a poor man\ncan never do, such as influence legislature and buy things at bulk prices.\nForlesen thinks that the buildings are intentionally ugly and that some\nseem built to defend against attack. They encounter unbroken mustangs, and\nAbraham Beale leaves excitedly to see if he can find work. The mustangs are\nbeing herded into a building with a dog's head sign above it (later\nrevealed to be a dog food company).\n\nForlesen arrives at work and parks on a steep gravel slope, beginning his\nlong, pointless day. Even though he arrives on time, a woman with glasses,\nMiss Fawn, tells him he is late and goes over the schedule for the day. The\nreal go-getters, according to Mr. Frick, show up twenty minutes early to\nplay cards and have coffee. She reveals Forlesen's overseer Mr. Fields is a\n“real supervisor”. She asks if Forlesen is married and takes him to Mr.\nFields' small office. It is decorated with two photos - “a beach with rocks\nand waves, and a snow-clad mountain) and two realistic landscapes both of\nrolling green countryside dotted with cows and trees).” Mr. Fields is\ndescribed as youngish and speaks in vague sports metaphors: “I need men\nwho'll back my play all the way, and maybe even run in front a little.\nSharpies. — We're a team.” Their function is to make money for the company.\nHe tells him that someday his office will be Forlesen's, which he tells\n“every guy in the subdivision.” (This later comes true when Fields dies\nduring the lunch hour)\n\nMr. Fields takes Forlesen to his desk, and Forlesen notices that the\nbuilding is beset by smells (some foul, some sickeningly sweet) and\nextremes in hot and cold. There is a jackhammer in the background since it\nis the “new” wing. He is placed in a big room with glass partitions, the\nwindows covered up with splintering boards, the floor suggesting charred\nwood. Fields says there is prestige in sitting next to a window, and\nForlesen suggests using the partition glass for window glass so that they\ncan look outside. “Hell, no,” Fields responds, before saying management is\nan art and a science, telling him there is a list of his responsibilities\nsomewhere.\n\n“As Fields passed behind one of the rippled glass partitions on his way to\nthe door, the distortions in the glass caused his image to change from that\nof the somewhat dumpy and rumpled man with whom Forlesen was now slightly\nfamiliar; behind the glass he was taller, exceedingly neat, and blank\nfaced. And he wore glasses.”\n\nThe phone rings — it is Mr. Franklin calling for Cappy Dillingham. He tells\nForlesen the Creativity Group has been moved to “oh seventy-eight” sharp,\noutside the drilling and boring shop. Miss Fawn arrives to reveal Cappy\ndied to the caller, then returns the phone to Forlesen. Franklin tells\nForlesen that they create “creativity itself — we learn to be creative” and\nwarns him that Mr. Frick is firmly behind the meeting. Through the glass,\nMiss Fawn appears to become a prettier mannequin.\n\nHere Forlesen says, “I thought we'd just take some clay or something and\nstart in.” and suggests Franklin ask Frick for a meeting room, which could\n“save” the Creativity Group. When he sees the stack of paper Miss Fawn has\nleft for him, Forlesen pushes them away and exclaims, “The hell with you.”\n\nIn the old, metal desk amongst miscellaneous trash he finds a dead insect\nand notices the sharp smell of apples, as well as five empty file folders,\nincluding one with a column of “twenty-seven figures written on it in\npencil, the first and lowest being 8,750 and the last and highest 12,500;\nthey were not totaled.”\n\nHe sees a memo to management personnel with his tasks (maintaining profit,\nreducing costs, reporting violations, etc) which he throws away. Forlesen\nthen finds the Leadership Problem quiz, and he confronts problem #105. It\ndetails the unsatisfactory work of secretary Enid Fenton, who asked for a\ntransfer and might be considering resignation. The question presents seven\noptions which include firing, fining, reassignment, and even asking other\nmembers of the Leadership group. Forlesen calls the extension of Eric\nFairchild to inquire about the problem; he is told he can check multiple\nanswers if they aren't mutually exclusive. Fairchild asks his secretary\nMiss Fenton to fetch the Leadership file so he can take a look at it.\nForlesen notices the name and wants to know how her work has been\nunsatisfactory.\n\nFairchild insists, “The whole essence of Leadership Training involves\npresenting the participants with structured problems. — This is a\nstructured problem.” Forlesen suggests he take his secretary aside and tell\nher how her work is unsatisfactory and hear what she had to say. Explaining\nhow the computer scores, Fairchild says only the machine knows the right\nanswers — but “maybe there isn't any right answer at all.” He also reveals\nthat the grades range from 757 to 49. “There have been these rumors about\nMr. Frick coming in and asking the computer questions, but it's not true —\nfrankly, I don't think Mr. Frick even knows how to program.”\n\nAfter talking about the death of Cappy, Forlesen states he is returning the\nproblem under protest and hangs up. His desk tells him Fairchild will call\nback and tells him promotions are offered to those who “fit in.” Fairchild\ndoes call back to explain how Miss Fenton creates strife in the office by\nsometimes getting mad and sometimes thinking men are serious when they “kid\naround with the girls.” The other girls don't like her, either. Forlesen\nsuggests he makes Miss Fenton his permanent secretary to find out “what's\nwrong with this girl,” though he doubts anything is.\n\nMiss Fawn calls him to meet Mr. Freeling (who only speaks in sailing\nmetaphors and whose plaque is more modern than D'Andreas, but made of\nplastic rather than brass). Through Freeling's window he can see the\nhighway. He says Forlesen is there because the company feels he can find\nhis own work, and warns, “if you get the unions down on us we're going to\nthrow you overboard quick” (see Historical Resonance and the Importance of\nFrick and Coal below).\n\nMr. Freeling ends his spiel by asking what Forlesen wanted to see him\nabout. “I don't — You said you wanted to see me.” Mr. Freeling has nothing\nfurther to add, and Forlesen asks Miss Fawn how he should know company\npolicy. “It's in the air — You breathe it.”\n\nHe then finds the drilling room for his Creativity Group and meets Mr.\nFields outside, who says he is going to make it “come hell or high water.”\nA man with white hair is filling one of the bores with oil as another signs\na parody of a popular song. They sit down to watch a movie titled\nCREATIVITY MEANS JOBS.\n\nA man near the front objects: “It seems to me ? [this meeting/movie]\nimplies that creativity is automatically going to point you toward some\nsolution you didn't see before, and I feel that anyone who believes that's\ngong to happen — anyway, in most cases — doesn't know what the hell they're\ntalking about.” The group then discusses how creativity can help make a\n“nontrivial elaboration” of a problem before talking of synergy and\nteamwork.\n\nFields says, ?creativity isn't about making new things — like some statue\nor something nobody wants. What creativity is about is solving company\nproblems -?. Fields has enlisted Miss Fawn so that he can escape the group,\nso she interrupts that he is urgently needed on the phone.\n\nWhen the film finally plays, the sound doesn't work as the actors discuss\n“promoting creativity in the educational system.” Franklin explains that it\nwas photographed and taped from a real teacher's discussion, then recreated\nby actors to reproduce the debate.\n\nForlesen goes home for lunch. The signs with HIDDEN DRIVES on their fronts\nread SLOW CHILDREN on the reverse. His wife doesn't recognize him and notes\nhow tired he looks. She says he will get promoted after lunch because “a\nwoman knows.” She rushes him to finish lunch and get back to work. The\ncoffee is still oily. He returns her watch and she tells him to leave.\nForlesen says, ?I don't think there's any purpose in most of it — but\nthere's plenty to do [at work]?.\n\n` She says she has nothing to do at all and Forlesen recriminates her for\nnot preparing a better lunch. As Edna exclaims that lunch is “nothing”,\nForlesen realizes he doesn't know her as well as the people at work. She\nwalks with him to see him leave.\n\nOn the way back to work in front of the dog-food factory, he sees Abraham\nBeale's hat floating in the wind. Miss Fawn has become Mrs. Frost and asks\nhim if he is ready for orientation as she leads him to Field's desk, also\nrevealing that Mr. Fields has died and that he was cremated and buried in\nthe vault behind the pictures. Forlesen would prefer to be buried at home.\n\n“At 125 hours Forlesen was notified of his interdepartmental training\ntransfer” [even though this should have been during his lunch our, this is\nthe only point in the text that uses hour rather than our] and the route to\nhis new desk takes him through the lobby, where he sees the face of Abraham\nBeale on the large medallion in the floor, with the name Adam Bean under\nit. His new chief, Fleer, only speaks in skiing metaphors. Here they are\nsupposed to develop an understanding of the “real, realistic business\nworld” and play a lot of “Bet-Your-Life, the management-managing real-life\npseudogame.”\n\nForlesen begins to play Bet-Your-Life (holding down a position for Ffoulks)\nafter Fleer scrawls a note with his bidding and some other instructions\nbefore leaving (see Bet-Your-Life Minigame below). It is refereed by a man\nin a red jacket and another man with a bristling mustache says that the\nrules in the brown book can be changed if a quorum agrees (which is defined\nas three quarters of those present but never less than seven). Forlesen\nowns one hundred percent of the stock in a company called International\nToys and Foods and writes “BID 34 ASK 32 FFOULKS” and the man with the\nmustache indicates Forlesen will never get thirty-two for his holdings.\n\nForlesen says he has a bid to buy at 34 while he is looking in the brown\nbook. In the book, he sees an earlier conversation about teamwork and a\ncoach upstairs that he had with Fields, but the sports metaphor “good\nfield” is changed to “good Fields.” After the man with the bristly mustache\nbuys five hundred shares at the lower price to sell them back to Forlesen,\nthe referee calls a coffee break (with Spam and Churkey [a naked-necked\nchicken introduced from Transylvania well suited to warm environments]).\nOutside, the man with the mustache boasts that he is about to “clip” some\nguy in there, not recognizing Forlesen, but Forlesen leaves before he is\nforced to buy back his own stock at a higher price.\n\nHe meets a woman who looks like Miss Fawn whose voice he recognizes from\nhis car — Miss Fedd used to work in traffic. Forlesen says he is afraid to\nread the ending of the brown book, and she says it is the red book he\nshould fear: “It's the opposite of a mystery — everyone stops before the\nrevelations.”\n\nShe sends him to see Mr. Frick, and Forlesen thinks of his most duplicitous\nactions: cheating the man with the mustache and baiting Fairchild. He\nenters a room that seems to be made of “bronze and black wood and red\nwool.” Mr. Frick is the man he saw through the window at the start of his\nday, with a mole and gold tooth. Frick says that they played “prisoner's\nbase” one day and that he envies Forlesen even though Frick was the one who\nascended to the top. He says, “You won't believe it, but you've had the\nbest of it.” He presents Forlesen with a box as a token of his colleagues'\nregard and dismisses him from work.\n\nOn the way home he sees a young couple arriving and thinks of their fate to\nseparate at the punch in clock and meet uncomfortably for lunch later out\nof a sense of duty. He sees black and orange machines eating the houses\nbeyond the light, and his path is filed with YIELD signs.\n\nAt home, Forlesen parks over the oil spot and sees a man in a dark suit\nwith a black bag at his feet who will not speak to him. Forleson's grown\nson greets him with a large box exactly like that of his watch, of\nred-brown wood and lined with pinkish-white silk. The son picks him up and\nthrows him in the coffin, saying that it will be tight but it has “a hell\nof a good engine.”\n\nForlesen finds it more comfortable than he thought, and is offered a choice\nfor his Explainer since he has reached the end of his life. He brings in\nthe small man from outside, who asks, “What's it gong to be — or is it\ngoing to be nothing?”\n\nForlesen notes that his coat's threads “constituted the universe in\nthemselves, that they were serpents and worms and roots, the black tracks\nof forgotten rockets across a dark sky, the sine waves of the radiation of\nthe cosmos. The Explainer says that his wife is dead, and asks, ?What'll it\nbe” Doctor, priest, philosopher, theologian, actor, warlock, National Hero,\naged loremaster, or novelist?\n\nForlesen does't know and says he wants to think of his box as a bed, but it\nfeels like a ship that will set him free.\n\nThe Explainer says he may have been oppressed by demons, been revived by\naliens, or suffer from a tumor. Forlesen says, “I want to know if it's\nmeant anything — if what I suffered — if it's been worth it.”\n\n?No ?. Yes. No. Yes. Yes. No. Yes. Yes. Maybe.\n\nCOMMENTARY\n\nA clear satire on the working world, a lifetime of banal middle-management\nineffectiveness is compressed into one long day in which nothing much is\naccomplished. Individual wants and desires are subjugated to a corporate\nexistence and the only expression of uniqueness becomes hackneyed metaphors\nor hobbies such as sailing or skiing, and these hobbies are all immediately\nreflected back into describing the business model.\n\nObviously, Emmanuel Forlesen represents the third generation in this closed\nsystem (the E.F.?s), with the first generation being that of Abraham Beale\n(A.B.?s) and the second Cappy Dillinghams (C.D.?s), The sequential\nlettering of these generations creates a sameness to them, and in turn\nForlesen and others must orient the next generation of G.H's. The plaques\non the wall of those who came before are small and inconsequential\nmemorials, and there is every indication they went through much the same\nnonsense. Emmanuel Forlesen’s predecessor, Cappy, asked a question about\nproblem 104 just as Forlesen asked one of 105. The fourth generation has\nalready begun to show up on Emmanuel’s day (though there is some indication\nthat minor characters linger over from one day to the next).\n\nTHE EASY AND OBVIOUS METAPHOR:\n\nWhile actually determining which of the many possible scenarios presented\nfits all the small details of Forlesen’s life is difficult (scenarios\npresented by both by the creature who answers Forlesen's questions and by\nthe book describing the types of dead), the overall metaphor is quite easy\nto restate: management work in the corporate world is a kind of hell,\naimless and purposeless, where there are things to do, but ultimately these\nthings signify nothing, a repetition of empty goals that make an entire\nlifetime seem lost in the same meaningless and spirit killing tasks day\nafter day, where nothing is ever definitely accomplished and little of\nvalue is actually completed. All the days of pointlessness become one\nlife-time consuming day.\n\nThe artificial nature of the struggle is highlighted by the mechanical,\nrote and uninspired presentation of innovation innate in every task\nForlesen undertakes, from the quiz which is almost an opinion poll on how a\nreal situation should be handled to the insidious creativity exercise.\nIndeed, the word hell and damn appears many times in dialogue in Forlesen.\nWhile this is not preponderent, it is an unusual amount of repetition for\nWolfe. Clearly, Forlesen descended to a kind of hell on his way to work\nafter the undulating height of the highway. The charred wooden floors and\nwindows covered with splintering boards in his office might even reflect\nthe fate of Abraham Beale's apple tree.\n\n“Forlesen” confronts naturalism head on, one of the dominant trends in the\nliterature of 19th and 20th century America: the idea that man is a part of\nnature and responds to societal demands is a cornerstone of naturalist\nnovels. In effect, this ideology negates free will and makes man just\nanother animal responding to stimuli. Here, Forlesen is trapped in a system\nwhich he cannot understand (because there is no understanding it), and he\nsimply does what is expected, for the most part. While Forlesen fails to\nescape, Wolfe manages to highlight how unnatural the idea of modern\nsocietal naturalism is: real freedom is expressed in the character of\nAbraham Beale, who probably lives slightly longer than others in their\nrespective generations because of the variety of his life experiences,\nwhile Cappy Dillingham, Mr. Fields, and Forlesen only have the lifespan of\nephemerids. (However, it is not clear that Abraham survives — he, too, may\nhave become dog food under the modern operating parameters).\n\nForlesen means “to lose completely” and forlorn is derived from it. When\nForlesen looks at his own face in the mirror, he sees a man much cruder,\nstupider, and less refined than he knows himself to be — but to the touch,\nit is his face. Everything here is a reflection of what society sees — he\nknows himself to be different than the exterior reflected back at him.\nWhile there may be something more to this “broken mirror” than portraying\nthe difference between external and internal perceptions, it also works to\nshow that people in this world (and the business world as a whole) are\nnothing more than external perceptions.\n\nTWELVE AND THE JUDEO-CHRISTIAN TRADITION\n\nThe number twelve reoccurs several times throughout — Abraham has 12\nsiblings, there are 12 types of dead, there are 12-sided dice in the bird\ncages in the bet your life mini-game, and perhaps this makes some reference\nto the 12 tribes of Israel or even the 12 apostles. [Of course, Ishmael\nalso had 12 sons]. (Levi did not receive land and Joseph’s inheritance was\neffectively doubled — perhaps Abraham Beale somehow echoes Levi’s tribe of\npriests, though more likely the obvious name of Abraham indicates that he\nholds that prominent figure of patriarch of the tribes and summons the\nworld of the Old Testament — closer to being cast out of Eden but still\nengaged in a close relationship with the Creator God.)\n\nHighlighting the possibility that Abraham’s covenant with God is\nreferenced, the name Emanuel also has a very prominent position in the Old\nTestament. Abrahamic religions are messianic in nature, and one of the\npossible “anointed ones” according to a slight New Testament revision is\nknown as Immanuel, “God is with us”. The difference between the Jewish\nconception of the Messiah and the Christian acknowledgment of Jesus lies in\nthe nature of that salvation: for Christians, that salvation comes in the\nform of forgiveness and an eternal heaven and redemption from original sin\nand the innately sinful state of man thanks to Adam’s fall (the founder of\nModern Pattern Products is Adam Bean), whereas for Jews the Messiah is\nusually considered a more secular savior of this world. “Forlesen” rather\nforcefully considers if the things of this world are worth enduring the\nweight of meaningless banality to attain.\n\nAbraham says that he planted his inheritance, which grew to nothing, and\nAdam Bean has Abraham's face. The sides of the cop cars have fantastic\nbeings and plants depicted on their sides, and Edna's name is derived from\nthe Garden of Eden — it is impossible for Forlesen to stay with her when he\nmust enter the secular working world, and the door to his house is locked\nbehind him. This examination of the fall of man being linked to the\ncreation of modern structures such as highways and corporations strikes a\nchord — going to work is categorically the loss of the innocent garden\nparadise in the pursuit of transitory money, unfortunately something\nnecessary to keep a family from starving.\n\nHISTORICAL RESONANCE AND THE IMPORTANCE OF FRICK AND COAL:\n\nWhile the physical description does not match a historical, nonfictional\nmodel, it is clear that the most important man of Forlesen’s generation at\nModel Pattern Products is the gold toothed man with the mole whom he sees\nat the start of his day, Mr. Frick. Forlesen tells his wife that he is\nsurprised that he is not that man. “Why should it be you?” his wife asks.\n“I just felt it should, somehow.”\n\nAt the end of the day Mr. Frick says that it is he who envies Forlesen, who\nhad “the better of it”, but Forlesen disagrees. Frick appears in dialogue\nthroughout, and at one point it is even rumored that he talks to the\ncomputer directly, though the speaker does not believe Frick is a\nprogrammer. Frick also says that he played prisoner's base one day with\nForlesen (though it is a real children's game, perhaps Frick played\nprisoner's base the day depicted in “Forlesen” - his own company the prison\nthat ensnares). Frick gives him a gift at the end of the day in a box\nsimilar to his coffin.\n\nThe real life Henry Clay Frick, a leading business industrialist of the\nlate 19th and early 20th century, at one time regarded as the most hated\nman in America, helped create the giant US Steel company the Pennsylvania\nrailroad. At one time he controlled the majority of the coal output from\nPennsylvania. He was a partner of Andrew Carnegie, who eventually tried to\nget Frick to retire and tried to avoid giving him a voice in the company.\nFrick was anti-union and during one strike he erected a barbed wire fence\naround his mill’s property and Pinkerton agents actually killed nine\nworkers. The buildings in the business district of Wolfe’s novella appear\n“surrounded by a high, rusty wire fence, with a barren area of asphalt or\ngravel beyond it as though to provide (Forlesen know the thought was\nridiculous) a clear field of fire for defenders within.” Perhaps the life\nof Henry Frick and his control of coal and resistance to unionized labor\nserve as the basis for the recreation of Model Pattern Products in some\nafterlife or “model” reconstruction. If Forlesen thinks that he should be\nFrick in some fashion, perhaps this is the hellish punishment of Henry Clay\nFrick, now dead.\n\nWhen discussing the Creativity Group with Franklin, Forlesen says they\nshould just start in with clay. This echoes both the creation story with\nman's start in the garden and the middle name of the historical Frick.\nInterestingly, Frick was also blamed for the Johnstown Flood, which killed\n2,200 people." } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Gwern Branwen", "address": "gwern at gwern.net" }, "date": "2014-09-14T19:04:16+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Short Story 60: Forelesen part 1", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "header", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "On Sun, Sep 14, 2014 at 2:10 PM, Marc Aramini wrote:\nThe red book’s cover shows people surrounding a winged being. The left side\nis printed in scarlet in a language he doesn’t understand, though he does\nnot believe the translations match up very well. The black print describes\nthe twelve natures of Death and the Dead:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 2, "text": "Those who become new gods, for whom new universes are born. Second those who\npraise. Third those who fight as soldiers in the unending war with evil.\nFourth those who amuse themselves among flowers and sweet streams with\nsports. Fifth those who dwell in gardens of bliss, or are tortured. Sixth\nthose who continue as in life. Seventh those who turn the wheel of the\nuniverse. Eighth those who find in their graves their mother’s wombs and in\none life circle forever. Ninth ghosts. Tenth those born again as men in\ntheir grandson’s time. Eleventh those who return as beasts or trees. And\nlast those who sleep." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "... Forlesen picks up a hitchhiker named Abraham Beale dressed in a very old fashioned manner and leaves Forlesen with the impression of a cricket. He says Forlesen is awake while so many of the other drivers are asleep.\n\n...He meets a woman who looks like Miss Fawn whose voice he recognizes from his car — Miss Fedd used to work in traffic. Forlesen says he is afraid to read the ending of the brown book, and she says it is the red book he should fear: ?It's the opposite of a mystery — everyone stops before the revelations." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Thoughts on this classification? Going through them:\n\n1. new gods: no, Forlesen is powerless and the universe is old\n2. praisers: no\n3. soldiers: no\n4. sportsmen in paradise: no\n5. paradise or hell: no the former, maybe the latter\n6. 'those who continue as in life': maybe, but there's a similar later category\n7. turning the wheel of the universe: maybe\n8. eternal returners: no, no wombs or natural life is involved,\nespecially not if this is Frick\n9. ghosts: no, Forlesen seems pretty physical\n10. reincarnation as animals or plants: no\n11. eternal sleepers: no, although Beale implies a lot of the other\npeople are sleepers\n\nThat leaves:\n\n- in hell\n\n I don't like this one because hell is being opposed to 'gardens of\nbliss'; there would be no ambiguity about being in a garden of bliss,\nso likewise there should be no ambiguity about being in hell. One\nsuffers horribly being tortured. If Forlesen's life is Hell, then it's\na rather refined and existentialist sort of hell...\n- turning the wheel of the universe\n\n I have no idea what this might mean.\n- 'those who continue as in life'\n\n This fits best.\n\nFawn says it's the opposite of a mystery. In a mystery, you have a\nquestion for which you lack an answer (who/how/why dunnit) and you\nreach the answer at the end (it was the butler with the knife because\nhis pay was cut). So here we must have an answer (here are the 12\nkinds of dead), and lack the question.\n\nThe obvious question here is 'what am I?' If Forlesen wanted to know\nwho and what he is, why doesn't he read the books to the end,\nespecially after her comments? Perhaps he doesn't want to know." }, { "kind": "sig", "depth": 0, "text": "gwern\nhttp://www.gwern.net" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Marc Aramini", "address": "marcaramini at gmail.com" }, "date": "2014-09-14T20:58:59+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Short Story 60: Forelesen part 1", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "header", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Well the new universe could have been created based on frick's business\nmodel. Frick has praisers in the form of sycophants. builders who move the\nuniverse could be the cloud highway pillars or the construction\nworkers. the people like fields and freeling who love sports metaphors but\nhave turned them to business cliches are those amused by sports/streams, we\nhave a sold garden (all the wood that is charred in model pattern products\ncould have been from that apple tree I suppose)... Edna's name means Eden,\netc.\nThe returners seem to be in the cappy dillingham Emmanuel forlesen vein,\nasking the same questions and having the same concerns and winding up in\nthe same desk. Someone will take forlesen's place from the gh group.\n\nSo confounding ..." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "On Sunday, September 14, 2014, Gwern Branwen wrote:\nOn Sun, Sep 14, 2014 at 2:10 PM, Marc Aramini > wrote:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 2, "text": "The red book’s cover shows people surrounding a winged being. The left\nside\nis printed in scarlet in a language he doesn’t understand, though he does\nnot believe the translations match up very well. The black print\ndescribes\nthe twelve natures of Death and the Dead:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 3, "text": "Those who become new gods, for whom new universes are born. Second\nthose who\npraise. Third those who fight as soldiers in the unending war with evil.\nFourth those who amuse themselves among flowers and sweet streams with\nsports. Fifth those who dwell in gardens of bliss, or are tortured." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Sixth\nthose who continue as in life. Seventh those who turn the wheel of the\nuniverse. Eighth those who find in their graves their mother’s wombs\nand in\none life circle forever. Ninth ghosts. Tenth those born again as men in\ntheir grandson’s time. Eleventh those who return as beasts or trees. And\nlast those who sleep." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 2, "text": "... Forlesen picks up a hitchhiker named Abraham Beale dressed in a very\nold fashioned manner and leaves Forlesen with the impression of a cricket." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "He says Forlesen is awake while so many of the other drivers are asleep." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 2, "text": "...He meets a woman who looks like Miss Fawn whose voice he recognizes\nfrom his car — Miss Fedd used to work in traffic. Forlesen says he is\nafraid to read the ending of the brown book, and she says it is the red\nbook he should fear: “It's the opposite of a mystery — everyone stops\nbefore the revelations." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Thoughts on this classification” Going through them:\n\n1. new gods: no, Forlesen is powerless and the universe is old\n2. praisers: no\n3. soldiers: no\n4. sportsmen in paradise: no\n5. paradise or hell: no the former, maybe the latter\n6. 'those who continue as in life': maybe, but there's a similar later\ncategory\n7. turning the wheel of the universe: maybe\n8. eternal returners: no, no wombs or natural life is involved,\nespecially not if this is Frick\n9. ghosts: no, Forlesen seems pretty physical\n10. reincarnation as animals or plants: no\n11. eternal sleepers: no, although Beale implies a lot of the other\npeople are sleepers\n\nThat leaves:\n\n- in hell\n\n I don't like this one because hell is being opposed to 'gardens of\nbliss'; there would be no ambiguity about being in a garden of bliss,\nso likewise there should be no ambiguity about being in hell. One\nsuffers horribly being tortured. If Forlesen's life is Hell, then it's\na rather refined and existentialist sort of hell...\n- turning the wheel of the universe\n\n I have no idea what this might mean.\n- 'those who continue as in life'\n\n This fits best.\n\nFawn says it's the opposite of a mystery. In a mystery, you have a\nquestion for which you lack an answer (who/how/why dunnit) and you\nreach the answer at the end (it was the butler with the knife because\nhis pay was cut). So here we must have an answer (here are the 12\nkinds of dead), and lack the question.\n\nThe obvious question here is 'what am I?' If Forlesen wanted to know\nwho and what he is, why doesn't he read the books to the end,\nespecially after her comments? Perhaps he doesn't want to know.\n\n--\ngwern\nhttp://www.gwern.net\n_______________________________________________" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Marc Aramini", "address": "marcaramini at gmail.com" }, "date": "2014-09-14T21:07:04+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Short Story 60: Forelesen part 1", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "header", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "The names Abraham, edna, Adam, and Emanuel must have some significance to\nthe garden / fallen man imagery as well." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "On Sunday, September 14, 2014, Gwern Branwen wrote:\nOn Sun, Sep 14, 2014 at 2:10 PM, Marc Aramini > wrote:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 2, "text": "The red book’s cover shows people surrounding a winged being. The left\nside\nis printed in scarlet in a language he doesn’t understand, though he does\nnot believe the translations match up very well. The black print\ndescribes\nthe twelve natures of Death and the Dead:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 3, "text": "Those who become new gods, for whom new universes are born. Second\nthose who\npraise. Third those who fight as soldiers in the unending war with evil.\nFourth those who amuse themselves among flowers and sweet streams with\nsports. Fifth those who dwell in gardens of bliss, or are tortured." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Sixth\nthose who continue as in life. Seventh those who turn the wheel of the\nuniverse. Eighth those who find in their graves their mother’s wombs\nand in\none life circle forever. Ninth ghosts. Tenth those born again as men in\ntheir grandson’s time. Eleventh those who return as beasts or trees. And\nlast those who sleep." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 2, "text": "... Forlesen picks up a hitchhiker named Abraham Beale dressed in a very\nold fashioned manner and leaves Forlesen with the impression of a cricket." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "He says Forlesen is awake while so many of the other drivers are asleep." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 2, "text": "...He meets a woman who looks like Miss Fawn whose voice he recognizes\nfrom his car — Miss Fedd used to work in traffic. Forlesen says he is\nafraid to read the ending of the brown book, and she says it is the red\nbook he should fear: “It's the opposite of a mystery — everyone stops\nbefore the revelations." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Thoughts on this classification” Going through them:\n\n1. new gods: no, Forlesen is powerless and the universe is old\n2. praisers: no\n3. soldiers: no\n4. sportsmen in paradise: no\n5. paradise or hell: no the former, maybe the latter\n6. 'those who continue as in life': maybe, but there's a similar later\ncategory\n7. turning the wheel of the universe: maybe\n8. eternal returners: no, no wombs or natural life is involved,\nespecially not if this is Frick\n9. ghosts: no, Forlesen seems pretty physical\n10. reincarnation as animals or plants: no\n11. eternal sleepers: no, although Beale implies a lot of the other\npeople are sleepers\n\nThat leaves:\n\n- in hell\n\n I don't like this one because hell is being opposed to 'gardens of\nbliss'; there would be no ambiguity about being in a garden of bliss,\nso likewise there should be no ambiguity about being in hell. One\nsuffers horribly being tortured. If Forlesen's life is Hell, then it's\na rather refined and existentialist sort of hell...\n- turning the wheel of the universe\n\n I have no idea what this might mean.\n- 'those who continue as in life'\n\n This fits best.\n\nFawn says it's the opposite of a mystery. In a mystery, you have a\nquestion for which you lack an answer (who/how/why dunnit) and you\nreach the answer at the end (it was the butler with the knife because\nhis pay was cut). So here we must have an answer (here are the 12\nkinds of dead), and lack the question.\n\nThe obvious question here is 'what am I?' If Forlesen wanted to know\nwho and what he is, why doesn't he read the books to the end,\nespecially after her comments? Perhaps he doesn't want to know.\n\n--\ngwern\nhttp://www.gwern.net\n_______________________________________________" } ] }, { "message_id": "<54161B0E.1010000@bindweed.com>", "from": { "name": "Gerry Quinn", "address": "gerry at bindweed.com" }, "date": "2014-09-14T22:47:42+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Short Story 60: Forelesen part 1", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "header", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "On 14/09/2014 19:10, Marc Aramini wrote:\n The blue book is titled /How to Drive/. The rules include never \npicking up hitchhikers, waving, shouting, or invading the privacy of \nother drivers. He looks out the window and sees a bald man with a gold \ntooth and a mole looking at him from the window of a nearby house, and \nwonders that the man is not him at any age, because he feels it should \nbe. Edna accuses him of reading the red book when he voices this \nsentiment.\n\nThe red book's cover shows people surrounding a winged being. The left \nside is printed in scarlet in a language he doesn't understand, though \nhe does not believe the translations match up very well. The black \nprint describes the twelve natures of Death and the Dead:" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Looks like the red pill and blue pill of the Matrix, about twenty five \nyears early, only in book form! [Anyway, the form should be irrelevant.]\n\nI did a cursory internet check and found no precursors for a red/blue = \nreality/dream trope (except an unconvincing red-only pill from a 1990 \nfilm). Probably just coincidence, but it struck me when I read Marc's \npost. Of course the red and blue pills are someging of a meme now.\n\n- Gerry Quinn" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Marc Aramini", "address": "marcaramini at gmail.com" }, "date": "2014-09-14T23:23:13+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Short Story 60: Forelesen part 1", "in_reply_to": "<54161B0E.1010000@bindweed.com>", "reply_link": "header", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "There is a very matrix feel to Forlesen after the fact but nobody wakes up\nfrom this nightmare. Especially with the black and orange machines eating\nthe buildings at the end of the day.\n\nForlesen is the one work of Wolfe I am almost willing to consign to\npostmodern irresolvability. I have thought about it for literally months\nand any uniform theory that makes sense of the oil and the\nchanging reflection in the glasses and mirrors and the changing signs and\nthe judeo-Christian names and the buildings being consumed and the\n\"good engine\" in his coffin never really gel and I am left with ... The\nidea of a corporate Hell/limbo. But it seems like something should explain\nwhy the rule book for bet your life is Forlesen's life story with minor\nchanges.\n\nHour of trust and forlesen were the hardest to do of all the write ups-\nthey are both kind of anti- establishment for Wolfe. My free live free\nwrite up listing every difference in the two novel edition texts was much\neasier than wrestling with these little pieces that never seem to add up to\nmuch at all outside of the theme in forlesen." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "On Sunday, September 14, 2014, Gerry Quinn wrote:\n\nOn 14/09/2014 19:10, Marc Aramini wrote:\n\n The blue book is titled *How to Drive*. The rules include never picking\nup hitchhikers, waving, shouting, or invading the privacy of other drivers.\nHe looks out the window and sees a bald man with a gold tooth and a mole\nlooking at him from the window of a nearby house, and wonders that the man\nis not him at any age, because he feels it should be. Edna accuses him of\nreading the red book when he voices this sentiment.\n\nThe red book’s cover shows people surrounding a winged being. The left\nside is printed in scarlet in a language he doesn’t understand, though he\ndoes not believe the translations match up very well. The black print\ndescribes the twelve natures of Death and the Dead:\n\n\nLooks like the red pill and blue pill of the Matrix, about twenty five\nyears early, only in book form! [Anyway, the form should be irrelevant.]\n\nI did a cursory internet check and found no precursors for a red/blue =\nreality/dream trope (except an unconvincing red-only pill from a 1990\nfilm). Probably just coincidence, but it struck me when I read Marc's\npost. Of course the red and blue pills are someging of a meme now.\n\n- Gerry Quinn" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Kathrin Paschen", "address": "kathrin.paschen at gmail.com" }, "date": "2014-09-16T21:57:30+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Short Story 60: Forelesen part 1", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "header", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Thank you for the story analyses Marc -- I work my way through them as I\nre-read the stories.\n\nOn Sun, Sep 14, 2014 at 8:10 PM, Marc Aramini wrote:\n\nForlesen means “to lose completely” and forlorn is derived from it. When" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Forlesen looks at his own face in the mirror, he sees a man much cruder,\nstupider, and less refined than he knows himself to be — but to the touch,\nit is his face. Everything here is a reflection of what society sees — he\nknows himself to be different than the exterior reflected back at him.\nWhile there may be something more to this “broken mirror” than portraying\nthe difference between external and internal perceptions, it also works to\nshow that people in this world (and the business world as a whole) are\nnothing more than external perceptions." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "A minor comment on this. As you mentioned in the part 2 post, \"Vorlesen\"\n(pronounced the same as \"Forlesen\" if read in German) means \"to read\naloud\". I took this as a reference to all the written material Forlesen is\ngiven and expected to read and follow. The story feels as though he were\nreading aloud from a script (acting much like the actors re-enacting the\ncreativity discussion) instead of living. He is not real (not created from\nclay), his is a scripted life. The script, which contains external\nexpectations of how he should behave, also dictates his appearance in the\nmirror.\n\nThis is one of my favourite Wolfe stories, maybe because the corporate hell\nresonates with me (yes, I work in a large corporation).\n\nKathrin" }, { "kind": "sig", "depth": 0, "text": "Always make sure that the obvious is true." } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Marc Aramini", "address": "marcaramini at gmail.com" }, "date": "2014-09-16T22:39:49+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Short Story 60: Forelesen part 1", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "header", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I agree Kathrin - a fully scripted life right out of the brown book. I\nthink his whole life is a model \"reenactment\"and he plays the part in the\nmirror. Thanks for the kind words!" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "On Tuesday, September 16, 2014, Kathrin Paschen \nwrote:\nThank you for the story analyses Marc -- I work my way through them as I\nre-read the stories.\n\nOn Sun, Sep 14, 2014 at 8:10 PM, Marc Aramini > wrote:\n\nForlesen means “to lose completely” and forlorn is derived from it. When\nForlesen looks at his own face in the mirror, he sees a man much cruder,\nstupider, and less refined than he knows himself to be — but to the touch,\nit is his face. Everything here is a reflection of what society sees — he\nknows himself to be different than the exterior reflected back at him." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 2, "text": "While there may be something more to this “broken mirror” than portraying\nthe difference between external and internal perceptions, it also works to\nshow that people in this world (and the business world as a whole) are\nnothing more than external perceptions." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "A minor comment on this. As you mentioned in the part 2 post, \"Vorlesen\"\n(pronounced the same as \"Forlesen\" if read in German) means \"to read\naloud\". I took this as a reference to all the written material Forlesen is\ngiven and expected to read and follow. The story feels as though he were\nreading aloud from a script (acting much like the actors re-enacting the\ncreativity discussion) instead of living. He is not real (not created from\nclay), his is a scripted life. The script, which contains external\nexpectations of how he should behave, also dictates his appearance in the\nmirror.\n\nThis is one of my favourite Wolfe stories, maybe because the corporate\nhell resonates with me (yes, I work in a large corporation).\n\nKathrin\n\n--\nAlways make sure that the obvious is true." } ] } ] }