(urth) Short Story 60: Forelesen part 1

[Marc Aramini]

There is a very matrix feel to Forlesen after the fact but nobody wakes up
from this nightmare. Especially with the black and orange machines eating
the buildings at the end of the day.

Forlesen is the one work of Wolfe I am almost willing to consign to
postmodern irresolvability.  I have thought about it for literally months
and any uniform theory that makes sense of the oil and the
changing reflection in the glasses and mirrors and the changing signs and
the judeo-Christian names and the buildings being consumed and the
"good engine" in his coffin never really gel and I am left with ... The
idea of a corporate Hell/limbo.  But it seems like something should explain
why the rule book for bet your life is Forlesen's life story with minor
changes.

Hour of trust and forlesen were the hardest to do of all the write ups-
they are both kind of anti- establishment for Wolfe. My free live free
write up listing every difference in the two novel edition texts was much
easier than wrestling with these little pieces that never seem to add up to
much at all outside of the theme in forlesen.

On Sunday, September 14, 2014, Gerry Quinn <gerry at bindweed.com> wrote:

>
> On 14/09/2014 19:10, Marc Aramini wrote:
>
>   The blue book is titled *How to Drive*. The rules include never picking
> up hitchhikers, waving, shouting, or invading the privacy of other drivers.
> He looks out the window and sees a bald man with a gold tooth and a mole
> looking at him from the window of a nearby house, and wonders that the man
> is not him at any age, because he feels it should be. Edna accuses him of
> reading the red book when he voices this sentiment.
>
> The red book’s cover shows people surrounding a winged being. The left
> side is printed in scarlet in a language he doesn’t understand, though he
> does not believe the translations match up very well. The black print
> describes the twelve natures of Death and the Dead:
>
>
> Looks like the red pill and blue pill of the Matrix, about twenty five
> years early, only in book form!  [Anyway, the form should be irrelevant.]
>
> I did a cursory internet check and found no precursors for a red/blue =
> reality/dream trope (except an unconvincing red-only pill from a 1990
> film).  Probably just coincidence, but it struck me when I read Marc's
> post.  Of course the red and blue pills are someging of a meme now.
>
> - Gerry Quinn
>
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