Talk:Riders of the Purple Wage
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The following is the draft for a story outline. I moved it from the article. Move it back into it when it's done. --Pablo D. Flores 22:58, 2 August 2005 (UTC)
- Also, I don't mind if anyone wants to help on it... or else, it could be quite a while until it's finished. But I'll try to work quick if I can. --24.63.228.25 16:27, 8 August 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Story Outline (In progress and incomplete-- I know, I'll finish it later...)
In Riders of the Purple Wage, Farmer makes extensive use of wordplay, especially puns. This is not his style throughout all his works, however; as Harlan Ellison remarked in the original forward, Farmer almost never uses the same style twice... but he always writes well.
The novella is split up into sections (but not distinctly chapters), each with a heading which marks a new scene. Most of these are plays on words or common phrases, such as (I'll add examples later on).
The plotline follows, in part, the story of Chib Winnegan, who has been hiding his eccentric great-grandfather (who chose his name in honor of a distant ancestor of his (with faked identity papers) whose saga was immortalized in the street ballad Finnegan's Wake) in his house for several years, after he stole $200,000,000 (I think, I'll check it later) in cash, and pretended to die of a heart attack.
In the final scene, Grandpa Winnegan's (empty) coffin is opened. Inside is a banner which unfurls into the sky, reading "Winnegan's Fake!".