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--- severance-_the_lexington_letter [2023-01-03 20:32] – [Contents and Synopsis] SugarPill
+++ severance-_the_lexington_letter [2023-06-06 18:40] (current) – SugarPill
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 ===== Contents and Synopsis =====
-The books is written in the style of an epistolary novel, meaning the story is told through a series of letters or other media instead of a traditional narrative. The book contains three different media sources: first, an email chain between //Topeka Star// reporter [[Daria Thorne]] and her editor, [[Jim Milchick]]; second, a letter written to Thorne by [[Margaret "Peg" Kincaid]], a former Severed employee who's now on the run after becoming whistleblower; and third, a copy of [[The Macrodata Refiner's Orientation Booklet]], an official [[Lumon Industries]] training document. All are presented without context or comment, leaving the reader free to draw their own conclusions.
+The book is written in the style of an epistolary novel, or a story told through a series of letters or other media instead of a traditional narrative. The book contains three different media sources: first, an email chain between //Topeka Star// reporter [[Daria Thorne]] and her editor, [[Jim Milchick]]; second, a letter written to Thorne by [[Margaret "Peg" Kincaid]], a former Severed employee who's on the run after becoming a whistleblower; and third, a copy of [[The Macrodata Refiner's Orientation Booklet]], an official [[Lumon Industries]] training document. All are presented without context or comment, leaving the reader free to draw their own conclusions.
+<WRAP figure right>
+{{:lex-letter.jpg?400|The Lexington Letter cover}}
+//The Lexington Letter// cover
+</WRAP>
 ===== The Topeka Star Emails =====
-In an email dated November 12th, //Topeka Star// reporter Daria Thorne corresponds with her editor, Jim Milchick. Thorne has received a very strange letter from Peg Kincaid, a former Severed employee, and wants to know Jim's opinion. She attaches scanned copies of the letter, as well as something called The Macrodata Refiner's Orientation Booklet.
+ In an email dated November 12th, Daria Thorne of //[[The Topeka Star]]// corresponds with her editor, Jim Milchick. Thorne has received a very strange letter from Peg Kincaid, a former Severed employee, and wants to know Jim's opinion. She attaches a scanned copy of the letter, as well as something called The Macrodata Refiner's Orientation Booklet, which was also enclosed.
-After the entirety of Peg's letter, Jim replies to Daria on November 13th, saying he doesn't think Peg's story is one worth pursuing. He gives a few reasons; the newspaper doesn't have the resources for this kind of story, and Jim contacted a "trusted source" at Lumon who has confirmed that Peg is a disgruntled former employee who was fired after too many absences. Her story is most likely made up, an effort to discredit Lumon. Why doesn't Daria focus on the local high school basketball playoffs instead?
+Jim replies to Daria on November 13th saying he doesn't think Peg's story is one worth pursuing. He gives a few reasons; the newspaper doesn't have the resources for this kind of story, and Jim contacted a "trusted source" at Lumon who confirmed that Peg is a disgruntled former employee who was fired after too many absences. Her story is most likely made up as an effort to discredit Lumon. Why doesn't Daria focus on the local high school basketball playoffs instead?
-Daria tries to press the subject, explaining that she's willing to do both articles, and really wants to follow up on Peg's story. But then Jim replies with Peg's obituary, which lists her day of death as November 11th, before Daria even received her letter. Now that Peg is dead, her story is, too. Maybe it's for the best.
+Daria tries to press the subject, explaining that she's willing to do both articles, and really wants to follow up on Peg's story. Jim then replies with Peg's obituary, which lists her day of death as November 11th, a full day before Daria even received her letter. There's no point in pursuing the matter further; now that Peg is dead, so is her story.
-===== Peg Kincaid's Letter =====
-Peg's letter to Daria Thorne is dated November 10th, one day before she died. It's long and a bit rambling, backtracking several times to add important information and context. But it's also self-deprecating, funny, and insightful. It really gives you a sense of who Peg is; a kind, brave person who got in over her head, and is just trying to make things right.
-Peg is a 54-year old divorced woman living in Topeka, KS. Up until November 9th, she was a Severed employee at Lumon's Topeka Branch, working in Macrodata Refinement. Peg first recounts the events that led her to taking a Severed job. She was a little skeptical and nervous about being Severed at first. But after learning the position was a simple office job with reasonable hours, great benefits, and four times the pay of her old job as an elementary school bus driver, Peg is more than happy to accept. She works at Lumon for two years without incident, enjoying not having to remember anything about work once she's off the clock.
+===== Peg Kincaid's Letter =====
-Until one day Peg comes up the Severed elevator with a piece of paper in her pocket. It's a note, written in a coded language that she recognizes. It's called "Puglish", a made-up symbol alphabet created by Peg and her older sister, Meryl, so they could send secret messages to each other as children. Peg hasn't thought about Puglish in decades, but here it is, neatly printed in black and white. She takes the note home and translates it. It's a letter from her Innie, Peggy K.
+Peg's letter to Daria Thorne is dated November 10th, one day before she died. It's long and a bit rambling, backtracking several times to add important information and context. But it's also self-deprecating, funny, and insightful. It really gives you a sense of who Peg is: a kind, brave person who got in over her head, and is just trying to make things right.
-Peg and Peggy spend the next several weeks writing back and forth in Puglish. Communication between Innies and Outies is heavily controlled by Lumon, and usually forbidden. But Puglish is different enough from normal language to evade Lumon's code detectors, so no one's the wiser.
+Peg describes a little of her personal history--most importantly that she and her sister invented a symbol substitution language called "Puglish" when they were children--and the circumstances that led her to taking a Severed job at Lumon's Topeka branch. Peg works at Lumon in [[Macrodata Refinement]] for two years until she finds a note in her pocket written in Puglish from her [[Innie]], Peggy K. Puglish is not recognized as language by the [[code detectors]], so Peg and Peggy are able to communicate with each other for several weeks without arousing suspicion. Peg learns that Peggy completed a macrodata file called Lexington only two minutes before a truck bombing occurred in New York, and becomes convinced the two events are connected. She eventually escapes Lumon with the intention of becoming a whistleblower and releasing the information to the public.
-The book presents an email exchange between a woman named [[margaret_peg_kincaid|Peg Kincaid]] and a reporter for //The Topeka Star// newspaper named [[daria_thorne]].
-<WRAP figure right>
-{{:lex-letter.jpg?400|The Lexington Letter cover}}
-//The Lexington Letter// cover
-</WRAP>
-Margaret “Peg” Kincaid has composed a long and detailed account of her time as an employee of Lumon Industries working as a [[macrodata_refinement|Macrodata Refiner]] on the [[severed_floor]] of the Topeka, Kansas branch of the company. In this account, she describes her decision to undergo the [[severance_procedure]], her curiosity about her [[innie]], and how she ultimately devised a method of communicating with her severed self inside of Lumon via coded writing she calls “Puglish.”
-She reveals that she believes the work she is doing is being used for nefarious ends by the company, after making connections between some tragic news on the outside world and the nature of the file that her Innie was working on.
-Innie Peg, also known as Peggy K., manages to smuggle out a training booklet on a day that the elevator’s [[code_detectors|Code Detector]] was disabled for maintenance. Peg quits the job and goes into hiding. She shares the manual with the newspaper reporter in hopes that it will add credibility to her story. Ultimately, the newspaper’s editor, [[jim_milchick]], declines picking up the story, as he finds it absurd and believes Peg Kincaid is not a credible source. Not long afterward, Peg Kincaid is reported to have died.
+Peg hides out in a hotel room, afraid to go home after finding her mail tampered with and being followed by suspicious black cars. She writes and mails her letter to Daria Thorne, also enclosing The Macrodata Refiner's Orientation Booklet that Peggy managed to smuggle out before they fled Lumon. Peg hopes Thorne will use the information to expose Lumon, but is killed on November 11th in an alleged car accident before she can provide more details.
 ===== The Macrodata Refiner’s Orientation Booklet =====
-The [[The Macrodata Refiner’s Orientation Booklet|booklet]] is a publication by Lumon, subtitled “Instruction Handbook for Newly-Severed Employees.”
+[[The Macrodata Refiner's Orientation Booklet]] is an official Lumon training document intended for newly-Severed employees. It is not intended for public distribution outside of Lumon. The booklet also features [[Sevy]], a cartoon personification of the Severance chip, as a sort of mascot to help guide employees through the information.
-A cartoon mascot called [[sevy]] is used throughout the book.
-In the book, [[macrodata_refinement]] is detailed in a multi-step process. It also includes workplace rules on dress, hygiene, fraternization, and communicating with one’s [[outie]]. On the last page, the [[core_principles]] of Lumon are listed and described.
+The booklet describes the Severance procedure, an overview of Macrodata Refinement along with step-by-step instructions on how to refine a file, and incentives refiners can earn as they progress. It also explains Lumon's workplace policies on office dress code, expected hygiene practices, and rules for inter-department fraternization and communication between Innies and Outies. Finally, it lists the [[Core Principles]] that every Lumon employee should embody.
 ===== See Also =====

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