The colorful beans delight the workers but jam the belts, ultimately disrupting the day’s schedule by seven minutes. One day, the Harlequin drops thousands of jelly beans onto the automatic conveyor belts taking workers to and from their factory shifts. The lower classes view him as a hero, while the wealthy and powerful see him as a dangerous nuisance. Dressed in a jester’s costume, he rebels against the order that he finds so constricting by engaging in acts of non-violent domestic terrorism-making people late, fooling authorities, and interrupting the highly regimented flow of things. The Harlequin is a man who struggles to fit into the mold of this society and is constantly late. Habitual tardiness can even result in death, implemented via a form of technology called a cardioplate that can remotely stop the beating of the heart. In a futuristic world, time is highly regulated and tardiness results in a subtraction of minutes, days, or years from an individual’s life.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |