International Bibliographic Index (IBI)

[Wu Han]

Title: Cats and Casino in Dah City
Author(s): Brown, Walter F.

Published: Kaliburg: Riggs Publishing House
Year: 4785
Language(s): Vrassan, Egelian.
Physical Details: 435 pps. xxiv
Subjects: Political theory; economics.
Wiki Page: N/A.

Summary: Cats and Casino in Dah City is an extended allegory of the Dual Economy in Kalistan. The book takes the form of a dialogue between "the Philosopher" and the Author, who is a fictionalized version of himself. The Philosopher is unnamed, but he is identified as an out of work theorist. The Author approaches The Philosopher, and challenges him to justify the Dual System in Kalistan. Over the course of an evening, the Philosopher describes a trip taken by a cat on LSD to Dah City. The Cat, who had gained the ability to speak and ostensibly gamble, won a massive sum of money in a casino. While still under the influence of drugs, the cat spends his new money on more drugs and proceeds to binge hard drugs and alcohol. After an unspecified time, he becomes sober enough to learn that he had somehow acquired a controlling interest in a massive corporation, and now has to run it. The Cat, having no idea how to operate an industry, proceeds to enrich himself on the experience and labor of those who still work at the corporation. Meanwhile, the Cat uses his salary and dividends developing a massive cocaine habit. In order to sustain his habit, the Cat must cut costs in his company. After severe mismanagement, the Cat discovers that his addiction has led not only to his own utter impoverishment, as he is stripped of his shares by a hostile board, but also to the death of several of his workers. The allegorical nature of the story is then explained as a justification for the abolition of need under the dual system, while the substance addiction is revealed to be the capitalists' addiction to profits. It is revealed that the Author is on drugs the entire time and, he is revealed to be a faithless narrator, unsure whether the dialogue even happened, or if he simply hallucinated the entire thing.

Notable Quotations:

"We find that addiction to profits and addiction to substances is much the same. You can never get enough, and even if you have more than you need or could use, it is never as good as when you got your first taste." - The Philosopher

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Originally posted by Doc, on Jul 16, 2020.