The Forbidden Fountain of Oz food, which occurs most famously in the "forbidden fruit" of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Book of Genesis, but in other contexts too. The idea of water that purges the drinker's memory is also ancient. In Greek mythology it occurs as the river Lethe: the souls of the dead lose their memories of their earthly lives by drinking its water. The same idea can also be found in Eastern and other literatures, as in the "Well of the Waters of Forgetfulness" and other guises. "The 'Drink of Forgetfulness' is found in Greek, Hindu, Norse, and
The Brief History of the Dead itself expands and contracts to accommodate the recently dead or the death of the last people to remember them. On earth things have continued on the trajectories predicted at the beginning of the century: The polar ice caps are melting and biological terrorism is a major societal concern. However, the Coca-Cola Company is trying to make the best of both developments by planning to use water from Antarctica in its soft drink; they use publicity stunts which exploit people's fears in order to build brand interest. As part of their latest publicity stunt, they send a team of scientists to