132 lines
6.8 KiB
Plaintext
132 lines
6.8 KiB
Plaintext
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########## ### ### ##########
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Underground eXperts United
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Presents...
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[ The Machinery of Desire ] [ By The GNN ]
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____________________________________________________________________
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____________________________________________________________________
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THE MACHINERY OF DESIRE
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by THE GNN/DCS/uXu
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Clink... schwoosh - bang!
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In other words, today's mail had arrived through the slot on the door.
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Without exaggerated enthusiasm, he rose from the breakfast table and walked
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to the hallway and back. Bills, bills, bills. He sighed heavily and put the
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stash of depressing demands for capital on top of the morning paper,
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resuming spreading butter over a dry toast.
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It was eleven o'clock and he had just dragged himself out of the bunk to
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yet another day of idleness. No work, nothing to do, nothing to hope for.
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Life could hardly get any worse, he thought.
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Then his eyes fell on an envelope in the stash he had not noticed. It was
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obviously not a bill; neither could it be some commercial crap: his name and
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address was handwritten on the front. Hence, he rashly concluded, it could
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very well be good news! He tore the envelope open and fished out a neatly
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printed letter.
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Dear Sir,
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As we are well aware of your current state of monotony and
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hopelessness, we kindly offer you a place in the Machinery
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of Desire.
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Your Sincerely,
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The Department of Desire
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(The Machinery of Desire was, to put things short, a device to which you
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connected your brain and then kind of dreamed a whole - very happy - life.
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You were of course not aware of the fact that you were in the machine while
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dreaming; you actually thought you lived a real life.)
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He stared at the offer for several minutes. The sender obviously believed
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that it would cheer him up. But it just made him angry. How did they dare to
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send such shit to him? Indeed, his life was... slightly boring... but it was
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not of that kind that he longed for giving it up in favor for the faked
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reality in the Machinery of Desire! The letter was not a nice offer, it was
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a pure insult! Something had to be done! He quickly took a shower, got
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dressed and headed downtown by bus.
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The Department of Desire was a huge brick building. He knew that it
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mostly contained (happy) dreaming people, floating around in huge water
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tanks, unaware of their present situation. He did not want to join them. He
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wanted to complain - he wanted them to know that he actually enjoyed his
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existence, no matter what them bullying bastards thought!
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He demanded to speak with whoever in charge. A secretary dutifully led
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him through the winding corridors to an office, in which a little bald man
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with loads and loads of papers on his desk worked. The secretary left them
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alone, closing the door behind her.
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"Yes?" the little man said.
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"What's this?" he shouted and threw the envelope theatrically on the
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desk. The man reached out and picked it up. He leaned back in his chair and
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glanced through the letter.
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"Right. The marvellous Machinery of Desire. Do I sense an interest in
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joining the happy community, yes?"
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"Not a chance! On the contrary! I want an apologize! How dare you
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insinuate that my life is boring and hopeless?"
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The little man threw the envelope in a trash can under the desk and
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explained that the Department of Desire did not judge people. The Department
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simply analysed personal data and tried to estimate the state of misery. Of
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course, he said, the Department made mistakes now and then. If someone felt
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insulted, well, then they were truly sorry. But it had to be remembered
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they worked for the public good.
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It was fairly obvious that the man had experienced similar situations
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before. He spoke as if he read trite sentences from a script.
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"Okay... that sounds good, but... if you send me this kind of junk one
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more time, I will report this to... someone!"
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The man swung around in his chair to a computer terminal on another desk.
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"A simple telephone call would do..." he mumbled while typing something
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on the keyboard. "What's your name again?"
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"It's printed on the letter!"
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Tap-tap-tap. Then silence.
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"Oh! A mistake, indeed!" declared the man.
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"Mistake? What mistake? What do you mean?"
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The man swung around once again and faced his uninvited guest.
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"We are very sorry - we sent you an improper proposal. You were not
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supposed to be offered a place in the Machinery of Desire. I am so, so
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sorry."
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Suddenly he did not feel enraged any more. Nevertheless slightly
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offended, out of altered reasons: They did not want to offer him a place?
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Why not? What was wrong with him? Was he not good enough?
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But as he had already stated his case, it was no idea to make something
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out of the new circumstances. He just said "well, uh, okay", and headed for
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the door. He was finished with the Department.
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The little man was however not finished.
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"We were supposed to give you a different offer concerning the machine",
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he heard behind his back. "But someone obviously made a terrible mistake and
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put you on the wrong list."
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"What 'different offer'?"
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In retrospect, he knew he never ought to have asked that. In fact, he
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ought never to have gone down to the Department of Desire at all. If they
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did not want to put him into the machine, but yet wanted to offer him
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something in relation to it, only one thing remained. He tried to think hard
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and fill his brain with sufficient noise so that he would not perceive the
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man's response, but it was of course deemed to fail.
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Anyway, it did not matter. He knew what was about to be said - and even
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worse, he also knew that he had to accept the proposal.
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"Do you want to get out?"
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---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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uXu #491 Underground eXperts United 1999 uXu #491
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Send your submissions to submission@uxu.org
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