MEDIATHEK

Living in interesting times perhaps means that, like Offenbach, we should reserve the right to rewrite Dante’s Divine Comedy as black farce. The difficult, bizarre and tragic circumstances people across Europe find themselves in suggest that, like Jarry, we could draw on the chaotic energy of the absurd. AntiMidas, or, Bankers in Hades distorts the myth of Midas for modern ends.

Antimidas, the Banker King, has a simple problem: everything he values turns to excrement – literally. What neither he nor his fellow usurers understand is that they are all already dead, visiting and revisiting the sufferings they caused in life, unable to grasp what they did wrong, or that what they did was wrong. Satan, it would appear, is too subtle in his punishments: they go on living a luxurious life, causing misery to others: where is the justice?

Antimidas even enjoys the company of his wife and daughter, though his wife soon realizes that the reason his curse has not afflicted them is a simple one: he doesn’t value their love. And his daughter reaches a startling conclusion concerning his business: the only way for any transaction to go ahead, is if Antimidas doesn’t value it. Money must be abolished. People must be forced to make, to grow, to build things, without any remuneration – and to give them away, for fear of losing everything. They must be fed and clothed, absolutely gratis. Absolute Socialism is established for the first time in human history – in Hell.

Of course, when Antimidas finally realizes the error of his ways, he is overcome with gratitude and love – with unexpected consequences for his family, fellow bankers, and Hell itself… The Devil, it would appear, is more subtle than Dante gave him credit for.

no picture is made to endure nor to live with
but it is made to sell and sell quickly
with usura, sin against nature,
is thy bread ever more of stale rags
is thy bread dry as paper
(Ezra Pound, Canto 45)