and it reminded me of these lines so i stuck them in. apt. enjoy...
“And what is your line of business?” he inquires of David, more than curious.
“Marketing. I’m with the Woolworths Group. How about you?”
“Oh, I’m in between. I used to teach at a university in the United States, now I’m looking for a position here.”
“Well we must get together. You must come over for a drink, exchange notes. Do you have children?”
“I am a child. I mean, I live with my father. My father is getting on in years. He needs looking after. But come in. the telephone is over there.”
So David Truscott, who did not understand x and y, is a flourishing marketer or marketeer, while he, who had no trouble understanding x and y and much else besides, is an unemployed intellectual. What does that suggest about the workings of the world? What it seems most obviously to suggest is that the path that leads through Latin and algebra is not the path to material success. But it may suggest much more: that understanding things is a waste of time; that if you want to succeed in the world and have a happy family and a nice home and a BMW you should not try to understand things but just add up the numbers or press the buttons or do whatever else it is that marketers are so richly rewarded for doing.
J. M. Coetzee, Summertime