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01/07/01 There's this really wonderful John Cheever story (God, aren't they all wonderful?) called "Torch Song", that I read again this morning. The story details the life of Joan Harris, referred to in the first sentence as the "Widow", through the eyes of Jack Lorey. They both hail from the same hometown, and both to move to New York City. Joan goes through men like water. All of these men are alcoholic or sick or abusive or all of the above. Joan always seems to maintain her cool when their lives are ultimately destroyed. Nothing is ever her fault, and she is passive aggressive in her complaints. She also always dresses in black. Jack, on the other hand, tries to take the straight and narrow path, building a career and marrying (several times), but is ultimately downed by alimony payments, the war, and an illness. Their lives intersect several times throughout the story; Jack always tried to lend a hand to Joan. At the end, Joan visits Jack in his hotel room and offers him alcohol. He rants at her: "What kind of an obscenity are you that you can smell sickness and death the way you do?" and "Does it make you feel young to watch the dying?...Is that the lewdness that keeps you young? Is that why you dress like a crow? Oh I know there's nothing I can say that will hurt you. I know there's nothing filthy or corrupt or depraved or brutish or base that the others haven't tried, but this time you're wrong. I'm not ready. My life isn't ending. My life's beginning. There are wonderful years ahead of me. There are, there are wonderful, wonderful, wonderful years ahead of me, and when they're over, when it's time, then I'll call you. Then, as an old friend, I'll call you and give you whatever dirty pleasure you take in watching the dying, but until then, you and your ugly and misshapen forms will leave me alone." I was reminded of this story when a friend told me recently about a content site that would likely soon fail. I was familiar with the guys at the mid-level management level - the usual suspects. They had been laid off by another company a few months before; they had spent the entire time blaming all of their woes on the partners and upper level management. One, in particular, knew that the company was going to fail long before it did. He knew he was just going for a ride on someone else's money. And when it failed, he was the only one who wasn't surprised. And here they are again, at another company. I hear whispers of solid funding but a flawed business plan. The woman running the editorial division is rumored to not know what she's doing by the very same team she brought in to help her out. It's doomed, and it's dirty. When it fails, it will be her fault and the funders' fault and it will never, ever be the fault of the usual suspects. In time, they will find another company to kill. They are unstoppable.
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