What is the scariest novel based in a workplace?
My nominee would be Moby Dick. The scene in which Ishmael realizes that he is stuck in a vast expanse of ocean on a whaling ship captained by a mad man with unquestioned authority still gives me the chills.
3 comments:
I know I've posted this before, but you can easily look at Ahab as a very inspirational, though quite evil, leader - imagine hijacking a legitimate mission for a personal, and totally mad, vendetta. And getting total buy-in from the crew mostly through the use of a talisman-like gold coin, symbolically nailed to the mast.
If a modern CEO were to suddenly say instead of making widgets, the real purpose of our company is to blow up the moon because the light of it was keeping him up at night, he'd be put away. If that CEO managed to get all the company to actually join in his monomaniacal quest, you would have to admit that he has to have a certain amount of leadership.
:~) (this symbol is supposed to represent tongue in cheek).
As far as the scariest novel based on a workplace, can "War and Peace" qualify? If you look at the army as the workplace, and the total lack of control the leaders of the Russian Army showed during many battles, and the realization of how much chaos there was, well sometimes I wonder how much we are drifting along similarly with only the illusion of control.
The only successful general, the one defeating Napoleon, was the one who recognized how little he really could do, and how much of being a good leader was accepting that fact and letting things happen naturally.
I think many people feel exactly like Ishmael - only they find themselves trapped in an awful job situation, surrounded by a sea of cyclical unemployment.
CincyCat,
"Call us Ishmael?"
Dan,
"War and Peace": Truly as great as its reputation!
Michael
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