Inertia in 'The Four Railroads of Iserlohn"

Lars Gustafsson’s short story “The Four Railroads of Iserlohn” is preoccupied with the metaphoric value of railroads. Gustafsson’s preoccupation deals greatly with the concept of inertia. This is seen in the exploration of characters contentment with model railroads which within the story explore characters inertia. This is philosophically complicated with the metaphorical representation of railroads which traditionally symbolize forward motion, opposing the concept of inertia. By confusing the readers traditional understanding of the thematic significance of the railway Gustafsson uniquely frames a consideration of what it means to be happy, an appropriate concern in an anthology titled: Stories of Happy People.

The four railroads of Iserlohn are as follows: the ‘true’ railroad that moves people in and out of town, the ones owned by both the upstairs and downstairs neighbors of the unnamed female character and finally the internalized model railroad that the female character dreams about. The intangible aspect of the woman’s railroad cements the philosophical preoccupation of the text. This railroad represents: “a possibility of death, perhaps, but also of freedom and of change.” (Gustafsson 24) This truly underscores the importance of combating a personal inertia by reflecting the thematic connotations of the railroad internally suggesting that the pursuit of happiness is one to be endeavored upon internally.

The crux of Gustafsson’s story mimics Scandinavian philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard’s argument pertaining to happiness in the human condition:

“A man who as a physical being is always turned toward the outside, thinking that his happiness lies outside him, finally turns inward and discovers the source is within him.” (Kierkegaard, 108) 

Over the four short sections of “The Four Railroads of Iserlohn” we see the concern of the story itself turn inwards. The woman’s internal railroad: “That was the third railroad of Iserlohn.” (Gustafsson, 24) came only after dealing with two concrete railroads before it. The thematic continuation through a shift from physical to spiritual world dramatizes the pursuit of happiness by following the lines of Kierkegaard and: “finally turns inward.”

This introspection is follows a logical and linear narrative progression as the physical presence of the railroads in the story are minimized – full scale to model to imagined – the thematic importance of them is amplified. This is touched upon in the opening passage of the story: “It is hard to say which one was the most important; that would depend on what perspective they were viewed from and, in particular, from whose.” (Gustafsson, 13)

In exploring the thematic significance of the first railroad the reader is provided with vital narrative framing which presents the concern of inertia as not only being one that is present in the physical world but also in the spiritual world. These are embodied by the unnamed narrator who is both geographically and spiritually experiencing inertia. There are several passages which suggest a double entendre strengthening this reading: “I realized that I must have lost my way.” (Gustafsson, pg. 15) This is again strengthened by the textual emphasis of his lack of agency and the portrayal of a melancholic resistance towards change:

“I strolled along pensively, pondering problems that were entirely my own, when it suddenly struck me that perhaps I ought to get back to the hotel and find the hosts for that evening’s reading.” (Gustafsson, 14)

The significance of this passage is in the way it highlights the narrator’s failure to defy the monotonous and uniform motion of his life: the inertia in his life. By being introduced to the story in this way, with a narrator who is both physically and emotionally embodying inertia the metaphor of railroads as life is neatly framed.

Through the despondent introduction of this narrator the reader begins to understand the first train as negative, this is further emphasized by the introduction of the characters the railroad worker and the woman. The railroad worker suggests that the first train of Iserlohn is responsible for what is essentially construed as a spiritual death: “… I do my job, actually. I do it with the same blind precision as an electronic machine. I may have the worst hangover some mornings, but the signal box gives you no scope for imagination, no improvisation, you know. … Then you’ve got no time for a spiritual life.” (Gustafsson, pg. 17) This can be read as a comment that the resignation to monotony and the menial and the acceptance of inertia symbolized by the first railroad is stifling to the spiritual self and ultimately bad. This is alluded to again by language suggestive of railroads: “Once you’ve gotten onto the wrong track in a conversation, it’s almost impossible to get away from it.” (Gustafsson, 18) The first - the “real” - train of the story thus becomes the most oppressive and the least spiritual due to its being firmly grounded in the physical world or in the words of Kierkegaard the “outside.” It is from this point that the narrative concern is thus turned inwards, through the perspective of the woman.

Much as the trains in the narrative graduate in physical presence, the characters in the narrative differ in terms of spiritual self-awareness. The woman teeters on the line between the physical and spiritual worlds and despite the philosophical writings of the railroad worker she is – or at least becomes – more spiritually grounded throughout the text. When she initially discusses the first railroad of Iserlohn she comments that: “I’ve always had to be content with the ordinary railroad.” (Gustafsson, 19) which efficiently highlights the characters discontent by binary interpretation. It is through this character that the symbolic downsizing of the railroad first takes place; her enthusiasm for model railroads opens up our reading of symbolic significance. This move from real to model railroad is a necessary in shifting the thematic focus from the “outside” or the real into the personal and spiritual world.

The reader is moved into the spiritual world through the model railroad by understanding that a model railroad is inherently more personal than the “ordinary” railroad in the fact that is individually owned and is to an extent subject to individual agency. When the woman remarks: “if I had your job I’d look at it quite differently. I’d consider myself as having access to a large, wonderful model railroad. On a scale of one to one.” (Gustafsson, 20) she articulates a desire to exercise agency over the railroad and in turn break the inertia it represents spiritually. The dialogue that follows in the text is what truly moves the narrative into the philosophical world. The railroad worker articulates: “Except that a model on a scale of one to one can never be surveyable. It ends up over the horizon, you can’t follow the trains all the time.” (Gustafsson, 20) what can be seen in this passage is the articulation of the innate fear of the unknown which is present within all humans. The preoccupation then of the characters with the real world can be read to be the source of their discontent. Their focus on the “outside” and the physical (represented by the first railroad) leaves “no time for a spiritual life” which in the perspective of both Kierkegaard and Gustafsson is necessary for happiness.

The personal struggle of the woman to come to terms with this spiritual life is presented within the text through the repetition of the numbers three and four, which correspond to the four railroads in the title. When the woman moved she had “four big boxes”, (Gustafsson, 21) she moved into “a quiet house in which three families were living” (Gustafsson, 22) and she woke “regularly… at three or four in the morning.” (Gustafsson, 22) The repetition of these numbers illuminates the symbolic struggle to come to terms with and acknowledge the presence of the third railroad despite the fact it does not exist in the physical world: to acknowledge the introverted pursuit of happiness. This struggle is brought to a thematic forefront when we encounter the second railroad of Iserlohn.

Immediately the woman knew that her neighbor’s “unusual happiness” and “unaccustomed hopefulness” (Gustafsson, 23) were contingent upon the model railroad: “It just occurred to me that it must be” (Gustafsson, 23) By noting the (seemingly) trivial significance of the model railroad her awareness of third – and progressively more significant – railroad is illuminated. This implication positions the reader to understand and accept the significance of the third section of the narrative. When the reader and the woman acknowledge the model railroad as a coping mechanism of the existential anxieties faced in his divorce: “retreated to the paradise of your boyhood, to a surveyable world, the model railroad.” (Gustafsson, 24) the integral symbolism of the pursuit of happiness and the defiance of inertia are thematically recognized: “it was just a symbol for something else.” (Gustafsson, 24)

  What is recognized in the pursuit of happiness is the necessity to accept the unknown. This acceptance denies the surveyable world and the confining inertia of monotony. The narrator poses us the question: “… if the meaning couldn’t be located anywhere else but within us, in the darkness that is your own self, beyond all moral traps, then we also have to remain forever unknown to ourselves. Was that how it was?” (Gustafsson, 26) but when reflecting on the text we see this question has already been answered: “And in life the trains disappear over the horizon.” (Gustafsson, 20) Thus by defying the inertia and relinquishing the control that is given to mankind in the acceptance of the quotidian, the surveyable world and accepting the unknown of the internal horizon then we can find happiness. Accepting the unknown allows the woman her previously unknown happiness: “She became aware of a faint feeling of happiness mounting, a happiness of some new, unknown kind. / Like the happiness before a long journey.” (Gustafsson, 26)

As readers we are implicated in the philosophical exploration of the story and asked to continue the progression that has just played out. The concluding lines of the text read: “Here ends our impossible story.” (Gustafsson, 27) Gustafsson here concludes the narrative but also alludes to the impossible conclusion of its philosophical concern. Keeping with the neatly framed analogy of the railroads, the reader in the text is given only a model railroad and has been told as much: “Perhaps the fact is, … that literature is a whole lot easier to deal with than life. Literature is a small scale model.” (Gustafsson, 20) So much like the woman in the narrative, the reader must also heed Kierkegaard’s advice and turn inwards and continue in spite of the fact that conclusion is impossible.

Having been told that “… everyone was fleeing and would flee forever.” (Gustafsson, 25) the reader is presented with the opportunity to turn towards the horizon and accept the unknown. It is through this acceptance that inertia ends; no longer is life characterized by resistance, no longer are we perpetually fleeing. It is suggested by Gustaffson in this text and Kierkegaard before him that it is only accepting the horizon that man is imbued with potential energy: “the possibility … of freedom and of change.” (Gustafsson, 24) and that this possibility is the true source of happiness.

Works cited:
Gustafsson, Lars. “The Four Railroads of Iserlohn” Stories of Happy People New York: New Directions Books, 1986. 13-27. Print.

Kierkegaard, Soren. A Kierkegaard Anthology New York: Modern Library, 1959. Print