Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth (26 page)

of Christ,
67–69
,
141

Samson,
59
,
108

scales, as symbol,
23–27
,
30–31
,
32
,
33–34
,
39–40
,
152

Scrooge, Ebenezer,
3
,
78
,
86–99
,
120
,
129
,
164
,
169–73

as miser,
87–88
,
91
,
93
,
98–99

moral debt paid by,
170–72

and pact with Devil,
88–90

“Scrooge Nouveau,” vision of.
See
environment, mankind’s payment of debt to; environment, threats to

Sekhmet,
29
,
31
,
34

Seton, Ernest Thompson,
1

Seven Years’ War,
142

Shadow figures,
150–51
,
152
,
155
,
159–60

sharing,
17–18
,
28
,
148

Sharp, Becky,
101–103
,
105

Shylock,
152–58

sin.
See
debt, and sin

Sin Eater,
59–64
,
68
,
63–64
,
73

Solon,
181–82

Systems of Survival
(Jacobs),
49–50

taking,
49–51
.
See also
trading
A Tale of Two Cities
(Dickens),
149
taxation,
77–79
,
134–43
,
165

Christ on,
139–40

and destruction of records,
78–79
,
141–42
,
143
,
146

to finance war,
135–36
,
140
,
142
,
146

of Jews,
145–46

rebellions against,
135
,
140–43
,
165
,
182–83

and Roman tax farming system,
138–40
,
193

and services rendered,
135–38

Themis,
24–25
,
30
,
34
,
39

time,
166–73

and death,
167–68

for Doctor Faustus,
168–69

for Scrooge,
169–72

for “Scrooge Nouveau,”
174–203

TIT FOR TAT
(computer program),
20–21
.
See also
reciprocity

trading: and cheaters,
19–20

and “eye for an eye,”
14
,
20–21

fairness in,
16–19
,
148

gifts as form of,
50

and reciprocal altruism,
18–19

and recordkeeping,
75–76

and taking,
49–51

The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus
(Marlowe),
74
,
82
,
88–90
,
94–95
,
164
,
168–69

Tyler, Wat,
141

Uncle Tom’s Cabin
(Stowe),
105

usury,
96
,
97
,
144

Vanity Fair
(Thackeray),
101–105

Virgo (constellation),
24
,
30

Waiting for Godot
(Beckett),
86

The Water Babies
(Kingsley),
21–23
,
39
.
See also
Bedonebyasyoudid, Mrs.

wealth, societal view of,
94–99

“William Wilson” (Poe),
150

women: and debt as plot,
101–103
,
104–108
,
114–19

and “ruin,”
106–108
,
114–17

and slavery,
58–59

World Bank,
193

Wuthering Heights
(E. Brontë),
100

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Margaret Atwood is one of the world’s pre-eminent writers — winner of the Booker Prize, the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Governor General’s Literary Award, the Premio Mondello in Italy, Le Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France, and the Prince of Asturias Prize for letters in Spain, among many other honours. She is the bestselling author of more than thirty-five books of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, including
The Handmaid’s Tale, Alias Grace, The Blind Assassin,
and
The Year of the Flood.
She lives in Toronto and on Pelee Island in Lake Erie. She and her spouse, writer Graeme Gibson, are the Joint Honourary Presidents of the Rare Bird Club within Birdlife International. She is an International Vice President of
PEN.

THE MASSEY LECTURES SERIES

The Massey Lectures are co-sponsored by
CBC
Radio, House of Anansi Press, and Massey College in the University of Toronto. The series was created in honour of the Right Honourable Vincent Massey, former Governor General of Canada, and was inaugurated in 1961 to provide a forum on radio where major contemporary thinkers could address important issues of our time.

This book comprises the 2008 Massey Lectures, “Payback,” broadcast in November 2008 as part of
CBC
Radio’s
Ideas
series. The producer of the series was Philip Coulter; the executive producer was Bernie Lucht.

ABOUT THE PUBLISHER

House of Anansi Press was founded in 1967 with a mandate to publish Canadian-authored books, a mandate that continues to this day even as the list has branched out to include internationally acclaimed thinkers and writers. The press immediately gained attention for significant titles by notable writers such as Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje, George Grant, and Northrop Frye. Since then, Anansi’s commitment to finding, publishing and promoting challenging, excellent writing has won it tremendous acclaim and solid staying power. Today Anansi is Canada’s pre-eminent independent press, and home to nationally and internationally bestselling and acclaimed authors such as Gil Adamson, Margaret Atwood, Ken Babstock, Peter Behrens, Rawi Hage, Misha Glenny, Jim Harrison, A. L. Kennedy, Pasha Malla, Lisa Moore, A. F. Moritz, Eric Siblin, Karen Solie, and Ronald Wright. Anansi is also proud to publish the award-winning nonfiction series The CBC Massey Lectures. In 2007 and 2009 Anansi was honoured by the Canadian Booksellers Association as “Publisher of the Year.”

ALSO BY MARGARET ATWOOD

FICTION
The Edible Woman
(1969)
Surfacing
(1972)
Lady Oracle
(1976)
Dancing Girls
(1977)
Life Before Man
(1979)
Bodily Harm
(1981)
Murder in the Dark
(1983)
Bluebeard’s Egg
(1983)
The Handmaid’s Tale
(1985)
Cat’s Eye
(1988)
Wilderness Tips
(1991)
Good Bones
(1992)
The Robber Bride
(1993)
Good Bones and Simple Murders
(1994)
Alias Grace
(1996)
The Blind Assassin
(2000)
Oryx and Crake
(2003)
The Penelopiad
(2005)
The Tent
(2006)
Moral Disorder
(2006)
The Year of the Flood
(2009)

NONFICTION
Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature
(1972)
Days of the Rebels 1815–1840
(1977)
Second Words: Selected Critical Prose 1960–1982
(1982)
Strange Things: The Malevolent North in Canadian Literature
(1996)
Negotiating with the Dead: A Writer on Writing
(2002)
Moving Targets: Writing with Intent 1982–2004
(2004)
Writing with Intent: Essays, Reviews, Personal Prose 1983–2005
(2005)

POETRY
The Circle Game
(1965)
The Animals in That Country
(1968)
The Journals of Susanna Moodie
(1970)
Procedures for Underground
(1970)
Power Politics
(1971)
You Are Happy
(1974)
Selected Poems
(1976)
Two-Headed Poems
(1978)
True Stories
(1981)
Interlunar
(1984)
Morning in the Burned House
(1996)
Eating Fire: Selected Poems 1965–1995
(1998)
The Door
(2007)

FOR CHILDREN
Up in the Tree
(1978)
Anna’s Pet
[with Joyce C. Barkhouse] (1980)
For the Birds
(1990)
Princess Prunella and the Purple Peanut
(1995)
Rude Ramsay and the Roaring Radishes
(2003)
Bashful Bob and Doleful Dorinda
(2006)