Description

Highfalutin Mountebank is, in part, an adaptation of a true Russian historical event in which a con goes violently awry. Alongside the adaptation of the true event is a fairy tale involving children and a precocious duck which ends happily ever after. While one con is a goner, there is another which explains how the hero is a highfalutin mountebank instead of a hustler, scammer or bunco artist.

Life as Prick characterizes P(at)rick Squent as a rich personality who has obsessive compulsive disorder but makes no attempt to mitigate it. It is a part of who he is The school nurse misdiagnoses his OCD as body dysmorphic disorder even though she has no way of knowing his penis is deformed.

Early in adulthood, outdated English laws (sumptuary laws), and the categorical imperative, along with solitude and evolving meditation lead him to a uniform disdain and independence from crystalline truth. This independence gave him confidence and a feline hubris, which, in turn, obliged him to make proclamations that are whimsical, inexact, and opaque. He considered his insupportable, free-from-encumbering-truth statements cunning alternatives which turned other people's opinions into mere cobwebs. (He boasted he alone had access to the Akashic record which legitimized his behaviors and verified the categorical imperative.)

Prick's Coma is a series of dreams within his coma-nightmare which challenge Prick to review his life as user, truth denier, man incapable of wrong-doing. Like Scrooge, Prick sees the nightmare as an opportunity to reshape his life for the better. However, the suggestion he could better his life is such an outlandish undertaking, he decides it is an effort not worth making.

Ol' George is a rustic farm boy whose innocence is a contrast to the Prick model. George's purity and trust in his friends foreshadow the difficulties he manages. Beginning with the tragedy his playmates could have prevented, George's life becomes even more clouded. Since he does not complain of disappointment or discontent, his existence is just matter of fact. His life is spent acquiring the sympathy of all he meets, and George is buried in that honor.

Working from Home reveals how Prick seems to land on his feet after failing as a Cavalier/Splendid Man of international esteem. He is, of course, a Splendid Man but of only a smidgen of esteem. The reader will see how he arranges his day at Brachupaca Enterprises doing things he thinks are worth doing such as writing memoranda, assigning code words to secret endeavors, delegating. Being a man of no small ego, his ideas for spring forward, fall back, and leap year are considered worthy of eponymic holidays. (I think he considered stealing the byline for "The Performance.")

The Candor Bureau was created just for people who treat truth with disdain by using dissimulation, dead air space filling tautologies, and clumsy casuistry. And then have the temerity to cover it up with affected equanimity. (What, who, me?) These are the people who, instead of solving problems through cooperation, throw up roadblocks making the process an even bigger pain in the ass.