Carol:
One Day You’re In, The Next Day You’re Out
So says former super-model Heidi Klum each week on Lifetime network’s reality show Project Runway. The show was “In” according to the ratings game if we look at the numbers for its opening night of the fall season. But, the Nielsen ratings for October 25 show it as coming in #13 behind the NFL, NBA, WWE and something called Pawn Stars (Source: The Nielsen Ratings) Such is the nature of success—one day you’re in…..
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| Circa 1860 |
Yet, Dickens was an unlikely success. Poor judgment and financial misadventures sent John Dickens to the notorious debtor's prison Marshalsea along with his wife and all of their children except for 12-year old Charles, who was put to work at Warren’s Blacking Factory. The trauma of that experience would figure in many of his novels, and debtor’s prison would become a setting for Little Dorrit.
One theme in that novel centers around the financial world. Mr. Merdle, a banker, concocts an elaborate financial scheme, dupes a number of investors based on the attraction of a “get rich quick” pay-off:
One theme in that novel centers around the financial world. Mr. Merdle, a banker, concocts an elaborate financial scheme, dupes a number of investors based on the attraction of a “get rich quick” pay-off:
The fund promised high and unwavering annual returns, but you had to know someone to get in on it. And that was really all it took to attract credulous investors, that and the sterling reputation of the banker behind it, a financier revered in privileged circles as ‘the Man of the Age.’ (Dickens qtd in Stanley)
Merdle’s elaborate scheme results in the ruination of several characters whose lives were intertwined with the novel’s young heroine Amy, known as “Little Dorrit” and the humiliation and downfall of his own family.
Despite his popularity, Dickens was criticized by his literary contemporaries, such as Oscar Wilde and George Meredith, who wrote
Despite his popularity, Dickens was criticized by his literary contemporaries, such as Oscar Wilde and George Meredith, who wrote
Not much of Dickens will live, because it has so little correspondence to life. ..
If his novels are read at all in the future, people will wonder what we saw in them (qted in Melani).
From the late 19th to the mid-20th century, in fact, his reputation waned and his books were relegated to the children’s/young adult section of the library.
George Meredith’s criticism of Dickens seems ironic today. A poet and novelist, Meredith published a best seller called Farina: A Legend of Cologne the same year that Little Dorrit was serialized. Yet, Dickens' novels are now considered masterpieces of British literature, and Meredith's name and novels are unfamiliar to most Americans.
What of Meredith’s comment that Dickens “has so little correspondence to life?”
Sixty years after the publication of Little Dorrit, a real-life Merdle was playing out his creative financial schemes in New England, targeting working people with the promise that their $10 investments would yield “high and unwavering” returns. Nearly ¾ of the Boston Police Department invested in the “get rich quick” scheme before investigations revealed the fraud and sent off to prison the mastermind of this financial scandal who became famous. His name? Charles Ponzi.
Just ask Mr. Merdle, Mr. Ponzi and, oh yeah Mr. Madoff. One day you’re In, the next day you’re Out.
George Meredith’s criticism of Dickens seems ironic today. A poet and novelist, Meredith published a best seller called Farina: A Legend of Cologne the same year that Little Dorrit was serialized. Yet, Dickens' novels are now considered masterpieces of British literature, and Meredith's name and novels are unfamiliar to most Americans.
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| Charles Ponzi circa 1910 |
What of Meredith’s comment that Dickens “has so little correspondence to life?”
Sixty years after the publication of Little Dorrit, a real-life Merdle was playing out his creative financial schemes in New England, targeting working people with the promise that their $10 investments would yield “high and unwavering” returns. Nearly ¾ of the Boston Police Department invested in the “get rich quick” scheme before investigations revealed the fraud and sent off to prison the mastermind of this financial scandal who became famous. His name? Charles Ponzi.
Just ask Mr. Merdle, Mr. Ponzi and, oh yeah Mr. Madoff. One day you’re In, the next day you’re Out.
Sources:
Melanie, Lilla. “Charles Dickens.”
Charles Ponzi—NY Times archives
Stanley, Alessandra: “Dickens and the Business Cycle: The Victorian Way of Debt.”
The Victorian Web: “Charles Dickens”
The Victorian Web: “Charles Dickens”
Megan:
A Successful Failure
Sometimes we get a topic and I think it’s gonna be really good.
It’s like ooh, what a clever title. Oxymoronic.
I think: Oh yes. Very interesting. I’ll write about the time that … um… I could say…
Sometimes I have no thoughts on a topic whatsoever. This is one of those times. For three days I’ve been chanting the title to myself, sometimes reversing it and … still nothing.
So, what is success? According to Merriam-Webster :
2 a : degree or measure of succeeding*3: one that succeeds*
*This ongoing problem reminds me of a time a prisoner held up a copy of the Oxford Concise English Dictionary and asked me if it was a good one. I said, “Yeah, pretty good.” He looked at it doubtfully and then said, “But Miss, does it have ALL the words?”
Merriam-Webster do not have ALL the words, that’s why they keep reusing them in the definitions.
Back to the topic... I could say something cliche about the American Dream of success and bootstraps and entrepeneurship and how it’s turned into a nightmare. I met a lot of people while I was living abroad who did not like Americans or George Bush’s foreign policy, but they all wanted to live here. I blame Bay Watch. And Friends.
I think success is a system by which we measure ourselves against each other. It seems to rely on achieving the recognition of other people (of society), of meeting their standards instead of your own. If you only had to satisfy your own expectations what would you require, what would you have to achieve, to call yourself a success? But that’s a question that doesn’t really work, because our points of view have been affected by society, our values have been shaped by our families, communities and laws. I can’t tell if the things I think I want (good job with steady income, family of my own) are really what I want, or what I’m supposed to want. Is there a difference? If I choose to reject society’s definition of success, will the cost be too high?
I could say that, having been turned down for yet another job that I really wanted, and still living with the parents – I am a successful failure. By the standards I arbitrarily set for myself (or that were set for me) awhile ago, this is pretty much my nightmare except: It’s not so bad after all. In fact, I like it. My parents like it too. The future is so uncertain right now that it’s really easy to just live for the moment. Today my two biggest problems are this essay, and then convincing my mom to go to a movie. She would rather go tomorrow. I say, what’s the difference?
Merriam-Webster do not have ALL the words, that’s why they keep reusing them in the definitions.
Back to the topic... I could say something cliche about the American Dream of success and bootstraps and entrepeneurship and how it’s turned into a nightmare. I met a lot of people while I was living abroad who did not like Americans or George Bush’s foreign policy, but they all wanted to live here. I blame Bay Watch. And Friends.
I think success is a system by which we measure ourselves against each other. It seems to rely on achieving the recognition of other people (of society), of meeting their standards instead of your own. If you only had to satisfy your own expectations what would you require, what would you have to achieve, to call yourself a success? But that’s a question that doesn’t really work, because our points of view have been affected by society, our values have been shaped by our families, communities and laws. I can’t tell if the things I think I want (good job with steady income, family of my own) are really what I want, or what I’m supposed to want. Is there a difference? If I choose to reject society’s definition of success, will the cost be too high?
I could say that, having been turned down for yet another job that I really wanted, and still living with the parents – I am a successful failure. By the standards I arbitrarily set for myself (or that were set for me) awhile ago, this is pretty much my nightmare except: It’s not so bad after all. In fact, I like it. My parents like it too. The future is so uncertain right now that it’s really easy to just live for the moment. Today my two biggest problems are this essay, and then convincing my mom to go to a movie. She would rather go tomorrow. I say, what’s the difference?
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