Descending
by American author Thomas M. Disch has been fascinating and sometimes
baffling readers for the past 50 years. Just for the fun of it, since the tale's unnamed narrator doesn't have a great deal of fun as events turn strange, I'll give him a name - Artie.
Grasshopper Guy
There
he is, scofflaw par excellence, Artie the artist. As a seasoned artist or sorts, Artie's main mode of artistic expression these past
years: a bullshit artist. "He had been a grasshopper for years. The ants
were on to his tricks." A credit card is currently Artie's way to go -
buy now, pay later (or, if you're shrewd enough, pay never).
Department Store Spree
Artie
knows there's no way he'll have money anytime soon. What to do? Of
course, take the subway to Underwood's Department Store and, thanks to a
clean credit card, load up on both groceries and books, the good stuff
like Vanity Fair. Then top it off with a visit to the Sky Room on
the 15th floor for espresso and baguette. Nothing but the best for
Artie the bullshit artist.
Disoriented On the Way Down
What's going on here? Artie has been reading Vanity Fair
while riding the down escalator, paying close attention to his book and
zero attention to the time or all the down escalators he's been riding.
Artie stops at a landing to orient himself. Damn, there's no
signs or doors or other people in sight. Artie tries figuring it out but
must admit he's stumped. Oh well, time to move on. But which way?
"Dazedly,
and as though to deny the reality of this seemingly interminable
stairwell, he continued his descent. When he stopped again at the
forty-fifth landing, he was trembling. He was afraid."
You bet
Artie is afraid. Little did he expect to suddenly find himself in the
middle of a weird science fiction story or horror story (or, more
specifically, if he was a New Age SF fan, the middle of a Thomas M.
Disch story!)
You're Goin' To Hell, Boy
"I'm going to hell!"
he shouted, though he could not drown with his voice the steady purr of
the escalators. "This is the way to hell. Abandon hope all ye who enter
here."
—If only I were, he reflected. —If that were the case, it would make sense. Not quite orthodox sense, but some sense, a little.
How about that - all those suffering souls in Dante's Inferno
at least know there's in hell for a reason. Not so with Artie - he
never received instructions outlining the consequences of his actions. Or, maybe all this is the consequence of Artie not paying his bill to the Underwood Company.
Artie the Philosopher
"Perhaps
his most interesting theory was the notion that these escalators were a
kind of exercise wheel, like those found in a squirrel cage, from
which, because it was a closed system, there could be no escape."
Disch fans will recognize that reference to an exercise wheel in a squirrel cage, since The Squirrel Cage counts as one of the American author's top stories.
Marxist
I
wonder if this story lends itself to a Marxist interpretation. Could
the seemingly endless down escalator leading nowhere be a stand in for
capitalist consumerist society? Recall, the escalator is in a large
department store building.
Existential
Do we in modern
society participate in Artie's dilemma, at least to some degree? Do you
know exactly where you are going? In this Disch story, it appears Hell
can be the lack of other people.
New Wave SF
A major thrust of
60s New Wave SF was to explore inner space as much as or more than
outer space. Does this Disch tale qualify? Read it yourself - the short
story can be located online or in his collection Fun With Your New Head.
American author Thomas M. Disch, 1940-2008
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