(urth) Short Story 60: Forelesen part 1

[Marc Aramini]

I agree Kathrin - a fully scripted life right out of the brown book.  I
think his whole life is a model "reenactment"and he plays the part in the
mirror.  Thanks for the kind words!

On Tuesday, September 16, 2014, Kathrin Paschen <kathrin.paschen at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Thank you for the story analyses Marc -- I work my way through them as I
> re-read the stories.
>
> On Sun, Sep 14, 2014 at 8:10 PM, Marc Aramini <marcaramini at gmail.com
> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','marcaramini at gmail.com');>> wrote:
>
> Forlesen means “to lose completely” and forlorn is derived from it. When
>> Forlesen looks at his own face in the mirror, he sees a man much cruder,
>> stupider, and less refined than he knows himself to be – but to the touch,
>> it is his face. Everything here is a reflection of what society sees – he
>> knows himself to be different than the exterior reflected back at him.
>> While there may be something more to this “broken mirror” than portraying
>> the difference between external and internal perceptions, it also works to
>> show that people in this world (and the business world as a whole) are
>> nothing more than external perceptions.
>>
>
> A minor comment on this. As you mentioned in the part 2 post, "Vorlesen"
> (pronounced the same as "Forlesen" if read in German) means "to read
> aloud". I took this as a reference to all the written material Forlesen is
> given and expected to read and follow. The story feels as though he were
> reading aloud from a script (acting much like the actors re-enacting the
> creativity discussion) instead of living. He is not real (not created from
> clay), his is a scripted life. The script, which contains external
> expectations of how he should behave, also dictates his appearance in the
> mirror.
>
> This is one of my favourite Wolfe stories, maybe because the corporate
> hell resonates with me (yes, I work in a large corporation).
>
> Kathrin
>
> --
> Always make sure that the obvious is true.
>
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