Omaha, Raen and I went to see the 5th Avenue Theater's showing of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. I have to say that if you wanted to find a play that punched my "feel bad about myself" buttons, you couldn't have done a better job than this play. The main character is glib, personable, and readily capable of identifying opportunities as they're flying by.
Which, basically, doesn't describe me at all. My biggest problem in life is simply identifying when someone presents me with an opportunity, understanding that it is an opportunity, and pursuing it successfully. The main character is everything I'm not, and not in a good way.
The problem is that he may once have seemed like a comic hero, bumbling his way up the ladder by assuming that a satirical book is meant to be followed as gospel. But the book, The Dastard's Guide to Succeeding In Business Without Really Trying, has been off the shelves and long forgotten by our age, just as our children will be utterly bewildered if they come across anything by Jeff Foxworthy in a used bookstore. (Assuming, of course, that there are used bookstores one generation out.) We don't get that joke. We take the book the character holds in his hand at something approximating face value. To our eyes, sensitized by our awareness of just how many people in the C Suite are driven by motives and impulses that seem predatory and psychopathic, he just seems like a casual psychopath. Especially when his attitude toward the girl chasing him is mostly utilitarian: how can he exploit her to move up yet another step?
All in all, dated beyond repair. I really didn't want that smarmy little jerk to succeed.
Which, basically, doesn't describe me at all. My biggest problem in life is simply identifying when someone presents me with an opportunity, understanding that it is an opportunity, and pursuing it successfully. The main character is everything I'm not, and not in a good way.
The problem is that he may once have seemed like a comic hero, bumbling his way up the ladder by assuming that a satirical book is meant to be followed as gospel. But the book, The Dastard's Guide to Succeeding In Business Without Really Trying, has been off the shelves and long forgotten by our age, just as our children will be utterly bewildered if they come across anything by Jeff Foxworthy in a used bookstore. (Assuming, of course, that there are used bookstores one generation out.) We don't get that joke. We take the book the character holds in his hand at something approximating face value. To our eyes, sensitized by our awareness of just how many people in the C Suite are driven by motives and impulses that seem predatory and psychopathic, he just seems like a casual psychopath. Especially when his attitude toward the girl chasing him is mostly utilitarian: how can he exploit her to move up yet another step?
All in all, dated beyond repair. I really didn't want that smarmy little jerk to succeed.
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