Showing posts with label classical literature. Show all posts
Showing posts with label classical literature. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

The Tao of Enron - excerpt from the book Dead Boys

Dead Boys by Gabriel Squailia
"Our Goddess isn’t gracious, nor loving, nor any of the other fine words we impute to her in our prayers; she’s fickle, fickle as a kitten, and yet we think the same old blessings repeated for eternity can win her affections. Not so!” He cupped his hands above his brow. “We have to shake her up to keep her close! And feeling that truth in my bones, I placed what little time remained to me on the tabletop, and cursed the Lady with all my might,...-- and lo, when I stood up again, I was richer..." From the preaching of Brother Griswold

When I read this excerpt from Dead Boys by Gabriel Squailia, I thought, "Maybe blasphemy really can bring luck to some people if the ruling gods' attention is gained by spitting right in their eye." This is a dangerous path, for sure. But greed brings people to perform strange acts. It has the tinge of the 'left-handed' paths in various spiritual traditions; going so far in the 'wrong' direction.


One of the curses further on in this chapter is very contemporary:  “May all statistical improbabilities impact thee unfavorably!” This was the downfall of the stock market in 2008 when all the mortgages went South as a result of banks poorly assessing the statistical risks of sub-prime loans. The improbability (black swan) manifested itself but only after making tons of money for the blasphemers!!! Of course, few were punished.


So, how  did the author come up with the Tao of Enron?

Perceptive, but the perversity of attracting god's attention through misbehaving is twisted.


"There's a scene in the documentary, "Smartest Guys in the Room" where these two traders are talking while they're forcing power blackouts in California during the forest fires, and it's really obvious that they equate the grandmothers they're killing with the money they're making on some cosmic level," answered Gabriel.


Dead Boys is a novel chock full of such insight as well as entertaining banter, inspired characters.



Light-hearted and macabre, Dead Boys’ comic-book flash illuminates a framework of Buddhist philosophy and classical allusions that give it an appeal far beyond the boundaries of generic fantasy. http://squailia.blogspot.com/