“Debt is like air,” says Margaret Atwood, “something we take for granted until things go wrong.” In her eerily prescient book, the internationally acclaimed author writes of the debtor/creditor relationship in the broadest sense – from pawnshops to human sacrifice. Madam Bovary’s real problem was not her adultery, explains Atwood, it was her bad credit.
“Every debt comes with a date on which payment is due,” says Atwood. “What we owe and how we pay is a feature of all human societies, and profoundly shapes our shared values and our cultures.” Atwood’s witty arguments on the topic of debt go beyond politics and economic issues, to show that cultural issues underlie all our borrowing and lending.
The book is based on five lectures Atwood gave on Canadian radio earlier this year. Those lectures are available for free at CBC Podcasting until December 19th. In January they will be sold on iTunes.
Debt, for Atwood, is not just the topic of financial professionals or CEOs and hedge fund managers. Her captivating and wide ranging intellectual musings explore financial debt as well as emotional debt, debts of honor, forgiveness, and vengeance. They range from Star Trek to Dante’s Divine Comedy to debtors’ prison, to the fury of cheated monkeys, and much, much more.
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