{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/858", "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": 858, "subject": "Forlesen", "messages": 6, "voices": 4, "first": "1998-06-24T16:17:11+00:00", "last": "1998-06-25T19:14:19+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Michael Straight", "address": "straight at email.unc.edu" }, "date": "1998-06-24T16:17:11+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Forlesen", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Ack. People keep referring to this novella and I've got a note somewhere\nabout how much I liked it, but I can't remember what it's about. Could\nsomeone please e-mail me a brief something to jog my memory?\n\n-Rostrum (who needs to get copies of CASTLE OF DAYS & IODDAOSAOS)" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Derek Bell", "address": "dbell at maths.tcd.ie" }, "date": "1998-06-24T22:05:40+00:00", "subject": "Re: (urth) Forlesen", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "In message <199806242019.NAA25047 at lists1.best.com>, Michael Straight writes:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Ack. People keep referring to this novella and I've got a note somewhere\nabout how much I liked it, but I can't remember what it's about. Could\nsomeone please e-mail me a brief something to jog my memory?" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "\tIt's about a guy who wakes up in a house, meets a woman who is\nhis wife, glances through the manuals for his life, goes to work and\nhis whole life is short, over before he can take control of it. It's\nbeen described as Kafkaesque, which is appropriate, though the\nauthority in question is the one that supplies the \"manuals\" (for want\nof a better word) and makes the rules. Oh, the main characters' job\nseems particularly strange and pointless, with (other) people showing\ngreat enthusiasm for something that isn't quite clear. (It's either a\ncourse in motivation, a course in managment, a game or all three.)\n\n\tIt reminds me of Heideggers' \"throwness of being\".\n\n\tDerek" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Michael Straight", "address": "straight at email.unc.edu" }, "date": "1998-06-25T10:43:06+00:00", "subject": "Re: (urth) Forlesen", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "On Wed, 24 Jun 1998, Derek Bell wrote:\nIn message <199806242019.NAA25047 at lists1.best.com>, Michael Straight writes:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 2, "text": "Ack. People keep referring to this novella and I've got a note somewhere\nabout how much I liked it, but I can't remember what it's about. Could\nsomeone please e-mail me a brief something to jog my memory?" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "\tIt's about a guy who wakes up in a house, meets a woman who is\nhis wife, glances through the manuals for his life, goes to work and\nhis whole life is short, over before he can take control of it. It's\nbeen described as Kafkaesque, which is appropriate, though the\nauthority in question is the one that supplies the \"manuals\" (for want\nof a better word) and makes the rules. Oh, the main characters' job\nseems particularly strange and pointless, with (other) people showing\ngreat enthusiasm for something that isn't quite clear. (It's either a\ncourse in motivation, a course in managment, a game or all three.)" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Ah, yes (no, no, yes, no, yes, no)! I get creeps just remembering some\nof the instructions in the wife's handbook. \n\nDoes anyone know where the word/name \"Forlesen\" comes from? Don't tell me\nWolfe made it up or I shall be thoroughly disillusioned.\n\n-Rostrum" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Craig Christensen", "address": "2644 at mn3.lawson.lawson.com" }, "date": "1998-06-25T10:44:00+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Re: Forlesen", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Michael wrote:\nAck. People keep referring to this novella and I've got a note \nsomewhere\nabout how much I liked it, but I can't remember what it's about. Could\nsomeone please e-mail me a brief something to jog my memory?" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Forlesen is one of my favorite Wolfe stories. The main character's, in \nfact most or the characters' lives, seem to be condensed into one long, \ndrab, pointless day. Forlesen wakes one morning a blank slate. Some \nmemories slowly return. He recalls that people cover themselves with \nclothing. He remembers language. Before he can remember more his wife \nbegins to rush him off to work. She points out a stack of manuals which \nexplain his responsibilities. He only has time to scan them.\n\nHis wife can barely contain her terror. She woke before him and had time \nto read through her manuals, one of which told her that if her husband \ndoesn't go to work, she and the children will starve. After she finally \npressures him to leave, he hears the door lock firmly behind him.\n\nI believe that 'Forlesen' is a name invented by Wolfe to invoke the idea \nof someone forlorn or lost. I had the feeling that Forlesen was \ndislocated from a real past elsewhere. He seems to know that life isn't \nsupposed to be like this. I thought that if he had more time to reflect \nhe might remember more of his real past, but he is hurried from one \nstation in his life to the next by his wife and coworkers. These people, \nthemselves, seem to be as lost and befuddled as he is. They are \nobviously bluffing their way along and after Forlesen begins to imitate \nthem his 'progress' at work becomes streamlined.\n\nThere is more to the story and there a couple of subplots. On the \nsurface, it seemed to be a sketch of life in the industrial workplace. \n It reminded me of the movie 'Brazil'. The part that confused me the \nmost was during Forlesen's drive to work. Can anyone tell me what he saw \nholding up the elevated road? I particularly enjoyed the scene with the \npatrolman here." } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Craig Christensen", "address": "2644 at mn3.lawson.lawson.com" }, "date": "1998-06-25T12:21:00+00:00", "subject": "(urth) forlesen", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 Edition\nOnline at: http://www.onelook.com/\n\nFor*lese\" (?), v. t. [p. p. Forlore (?), Forlorn ().] [OE. forlesen. See \nForlorn.] To lose utterly." } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Alice Turner", "address": "al at interport.net" }, "date": "1998-06-25T19:14:19+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Forlesen", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Rostrum," }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Does anyone know where the word/name \"Forlesen\" comes from? Don't tell me\nWolfe made it up or I shall be thoroughly disillusioned." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Don't be disillusioned! It's a very old word, with an impressive (and apt)\nOED citation. which I won't quote. It's related to \"forlorn\" with\nimplications of loss, perdition, ruin, shame, destruction. It goes back to\nOld Frisian, and to Beowulf. I'm impressed!\n\n-alga-" } ] } ] }