Bob Leman: Instructions

[beer good]

YES! I finally managed to track down a short SF story I read years ago and never could put out of my mind. Turns out it's Instructions by Bob Leman from 1984.

It's one of the best uses of second-person storytelling I've ever come across, an entire short story in the form of a series of increasingly unnerving instructions from... someone. It starts thusly:

Instructions
This is the only notice you will receive.
You will follow the instructions set out below.

1.
Dress warmly and leave your house. Do not tell your family you are leaving. Do not talk to them at all. Do not listen if they talk to you. Dress warmly and leave your house.

2.
Proceed at a brisk clip to the center of town. Do not speak to anyone in the street. Do not--do not--become involved in any conversations. Step right along. Do not tarry.

3.
At the center of town, in the little park across from the courthouse, is a building that was not there the last time you were downtown. It will strike you as a very ugly building, and its appearance will make you feel apprehensive. Pay no attention to such feelings. Do not look right or left. Enter the building. It has only one doorway and no visible door. Go right in.

4.
You will find yourself standing in a cold gray mist, with no visibility whatever. This will cause you to feel great fear. Despite the fear, you will follow instructions. Advance six steps.

And it only gets worse from there. I did manage to track down the rest of the story (google is my friend) but I'm hesitant to post a link or c+p the whole thing here since it's presumably still copyrighted, even if it's long out of print. Still, if I can find it, you can too. Very well worth reading.

 

[sparkchaser]

My curiosity has been piqued.

 

[joderu95]

Linking to the story probably isn't going to violate its copyright. Copying it and, especially, trying to sell a couple hundred copies? That might.

 

[beer good]

Linking to the story probably isn't going to violate its copyright.

To be honest, the main reason I didn't want to link to it is that I couldn't find a good link straight to the story itself. But here you go: PDF of an anthology that includes "Instructions."

 

[Peder]

Link reports as broken when I try it.

 

[beer good]

Crap. That was the one and only link I managed to find anywhere.

 

[sparkchaser]

Not only is it not working but the corporate firewall blocked the site as "hacking" (the bookfi site appears to be Russian so I'd be wary just in case).

You can buy the book here: Tachyon Publications: Instructions, Bob Leman

 

[joderu95]

"Instructions" by itself for $5.95 or Feesters in the Lake and Other Stories at Amazon for $250 used. If anybody can find that latter one for less than $40 or so let me know, I'd like to buy it.

 

[sparkchaser]

Read it. Very interesting. I liked it. It was way better than those Choose Your own Adventure books.