{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/6714", "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": 6714, "subject": "Short Story 117: Read Me", "messages": 4, "voices": 3, "first": "2015-01-26T17:32:15+00:00", "last": "2015-01-27T05:02:37+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Marc Aramini", "address": "marcaramini at gmail.com" }, "date": "2015-01-26T17:32:15+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Short Story 117: Read Me", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "*READ ME*\n\n“Read Me” first appeared in *The Drabble Project* in 1988 and has not been\nreprinted.\n\nThe story is only one hundred words long, as seen below:\n\nAlice looked about her. \"You're the most curious cards I've seen.\"\n\n\"That's because we're a tarot pack. If we weren't curious, we wouldn't\nhave troubled the future, and so couldn't tell it.\"\n\n\"You mean troubled *to learn of* the future,\" Alice corrected him.\n\nThe Fool appeared offended. \"I mean what I said. If we hadn't troubled the\nFuture, we couldn't tell it how sorry we are.\"\n\nAlice was puzzled by that, though she proceeded bravely. \"But you foretell\nthe future.\"\n\n\"No,\" said the Fool, \"We four tell it.\" And he indicated the Falling Tower,\nthe Devil, the Magician and himself. (Wolfe)\n\nDISCUSSION:\n\n Included in *The Drabble Project*, consisting entirely of\nexactly 100 word short stories by SF writers, the brief “Read Me” employs\nWolfe’s cryptic and ambiguous wordplay to full effect. The verb and object\ncombination the Fool uses to “tell the future” flirts with slipping between\nan indirect object and a direct object depending on perspective (The Fool\nwants to tell the future he is sorry, but Alice wants him to tell the\nfuture to her). The punning on troubling and foretelling is obvious.\n\nOf course, given the idea that Alice is talking to a Tarot Deck with four\ncards in the future position, we should do a reading. Since The Fool is\ntalking, and it represents 0 in the tarot, we should also explore its\nrelationship to the person seeking the reading. Generally, the Fool stands\nin for that person (as the title also reinforces). It represents a zero or\nfresh starting point, almost childlike in nature. It can also represent\nfoolishness or an immature understanding of events.\n\nThe Tower in the future position usually indicates an immediate future,\ndays or hours away. It represents the decimation of some structure in life\ncompletely and totally. Because of its pertinent description of the\nspiritual significance of The Tower and those falling from its battlements,\na further description is enlightening:\n\nThe Tower shows a tall tower pitched atop a craggy mountain. Lightning\nstrikes and flames burst from the building’s windows. People are seen to be\nleaping from the tower in desperation, wanting to flee such destruction and\nturmoil. The Tower signifies darkness and destruction on a physical scale,\nas opposed to a spiritual scale. The Tower itself represents ambitions\nbuilt on false premises. The lightning bolt breaks down existing forms in\norder to make room for new ones. It represents a sudden, momentary glimpse\nof truth, a flash of inspiration that breaks down structures of ignorance\nand false reasoning ? the lightning bolt is oriented left to right (from\nthe perspective of the card), from heaven to earth, and from Spirit to\nmaterial. The falling figures correspond to the chained prisoners in the\nDevil card. They fall headfirst, because the sudden influx of spiritual\nconsciousness represented by the lightning flash completely upsets all our\nold notions about the relations between subconsciousness and\nself-consciousness. The flames are actually the Hebrew yods. There are 22\nflames, representing the 22 Major Arcana. The gray clouds are the clouds of\nmisfortune that rain on everyone indiscriminately. The ruling planet of\nthis card is Mars. (“Tower Tarot Card Meanings”)\n\nSince the people falling from The Tower correspond with the chained figures\ndepicted on The Devil’s, these cards are thematically linked. The Devil\nforebodes ill fortune and defeat in the future, but if it is paired with\nThe Fool (which it is) then its meaning is augmented and might even\nindicate that the person being read is safe and separate from the disaster\nabout to unfold, though the world and the external surroundings are facing\na situation with a dark agenda. The Magician in the future position\nrepresents achieving the power and influence one craves. In conjunction\nwith the Fool, it represents success when one passively avoids it as long\nas the Magician is identified with the person seeking the reading instead\nof someone else. As previously hinted, when the Fool shows up, it\nrepresents free will, creation and, especially in the future position, a\nnew life. Since the Fool appears in conjunction with both the Magician and\nthe Devil in the future, there are some contradictory signs from a standard\nreading:\n\nWhen The Devil is near The Fool in a reading, your pleasure-seeking ways\nare about to create a disaster. ? The Fool is a great card when The\nMagician is paired with it as long as a sensitive Tarot reader can assure\nyou that both cards apply to you. If this is the case, the chance to break\nfree and create a new reality will be a success. If it is determined that\nThe Magician represents someone else, beware. (“The Fool Tarot Card”)." } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Michael Thayer", "address": "michael.o.thayer at gmail.com" }, "date": "2015-01-26T23:23:31+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Short Story 117: Read Me", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Mark - Thanks for the interesting explication of this curious short short\nstory (I hadn't encountered it before). In your review, you allude to some\nLewis Carroll allusion in TBOTNS. I think I missed this and would be\ncurious to know what specifically you have in mind?" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Marc Aramini", "address": "marcaramini at gmail.com" }, "date": "2015-01-27T01:45:21+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Short Story 117: Read Me", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "header", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Sure - in claw of the conciliator when jonas and sev are taken to the\nantechamber where people spend their whole lives waiting for sentencing,\njonas starts quoting carroll about the knight sliding up the poker or\nsomething. I mention it in the Cat short story writeup as well i think ...\neven alluding to the cat as something like the chesire variety. The\nmirrors of inire attain a quality like the looking glass in that scene as\nwell, i think. Clearly jonas has read lewis carroll." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "On Jan 26, 2015 4:23 PM, \"Michael Thayer\" \nwrote:\nMark - Thanks for the interesting explication of this curious short short\nstory (I hadn't encountered it before). In your review, you allude to some\nLewis Carroll allusion in TBOTNS. I think I missed this and would be\ncurious to know what specifically you have in mind?\n\n_______________________________________________" } ] }, { "message_id": "<54C71BED.3070401@clueland.com>", "from": { "name": "Jeffery Wilson clueland.com", "address": "jwilson at clueland.com" }, "date": "2015-01-27T05:02:37+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Short Story 117: Read Me", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "header", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "On 1/26/2015 7:45 PM, Marc Aramini wrote:\nSure - in claw of the conciliator when jonas and sev are taken to the\nantechamber where people spend their whole lives waiting for sentencing,\njonas starts quoting carroll about the knight sliding up the poker or\nsomething. I mention it in the Cat short story writeup as well i think\n... even alluding to the cat as something like the chesire variety. The\nmirrors of inire attain a quality like the looking glass in that scene\nas well, i think. Clearly jonas has read lewis carroll." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "\t\"I used to read, aboard ship. Once I read a history. I don't suppose \nyou know anything about it. So many chiliads have elapsed here.\"\n\tI said, \"I suppose not.\"\n\t\"So different from this, but so much like it too. Queer little customs \nand usages . . . some that weren't so little. Strange institutions. I \nasked the ship and she gave me another book.\"\n\tHe was still perspiring, and I thought his mind was wandering. I used \nthe square of flannel I carried to wipe my sword blade to dry his forehead.\n\t\"Hereditary rulers and hereditary subordinates, and all sorts of \nstrange officials. Lancers with long, white mustaches.\" For an instant \nthe ghost of his old humorous smile appeared. \"The White Knight is \nsliding down the poker. He balances very badly, as the King's notebook \ntold him.\"" }, { "kind": "sig", "depth": 0, "text": "Jeff Wilson - < jwilson at clueland.com >\nA&M Texarkana Computational Intelligence Lab\n< http://www.tamut.edu/cil >" } ] } ] }