Is all this a matter of life and death? I’ll say no for the moment and come back to the question later. At that point I’ll say: not directly, but in a way yes. It’s a matter of how far death is allowed into our lives. Or the fatal, that which kills us. To be precise: compared to the fatal, death is nothing but a little orphan boy. Or: death, compared to the fatal, is a gentleman with good manners and a shy look in his eye.
From now on, the fatal is your constant companion; that much I can say. But first of all we’ll set out, because you have a job interview.
— Money is tight. To alleviate her ailing bank account and help support her family, author/translator Heike Geissler goes to work for an Amazon Fulfillment center in Germany. N+1 has published two excerpts from her nonfiction work, Saisonarbeit (“Season’s Greetings From Fulfillment”). Geissler’s use of second-person narrative blurs the line between reader and writer—her situation, she implies, could easily be yours. Read “The Interview” first, then “Training Day.”
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