The Deep Whatsis - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0007524358 ISBN 13: 9780007524358

Publisher: Other

Synopsis

A gripping and hilarious satire of hipsters, consumerism, contemporary art and urban culture featuring a lost soul who navigates a toxic corporate world and, against all odds, stumbles toward redemption

Meet Eric Nye: hipster, player, philosopher, drunk, sociopath. A ruthless, young Chief Idea Officer at a New York City–based ad agency, Eric is in charge of downsizing his department, which entails firing dozens of long-time employees before their pensions kick in. In his free time, he guzzles the finest Sancerre, balances a hodgepodge of prescription pills, obsesses over his lavish furnishings and chases women.

One day, he meets Intern, whose name he can’t remember—it might be Megan or Caitlin or Sari—at a bar in Bushwick. After a few drunken sexual encounters with her, he loses his appetite for food—and seems to be losing his mind, too. Is she in love with him, or is she stalking him? Will she be the cause of his downfall or the cure for his sociopathic tendencies?

A timely meditation on the inherent absurdity of corporatism and our ubiquitous culture of branding, The Deep Whatsis follows a brilliant anti-hero’s quest for contemporary self-identity, with echoes of American Psycho, Cosmopolis and Fight Club.

About this title

About the Author

Peter Mattei is a writer and director who has worked in both theatre and film and has written pilots for HBO and other networks. His feature Love in the Time of Money was developed at the Sundance Filmmakers Lab. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

   I fire people. It’s my job.
   But not only do I can them, in the process I help them, or should I say I wake them up, or I should say I take the time to write for them an honorable if not epic death, a death more dramatic and meaningful than the one they would otherwise be entitled to.
   See, I was hired to “clean house” here at Tate, the ad agency in New York City where I am the Executive Creative Director slash Chief Idea Officer. I was brought in to create a culture of innovation and creativity, meaning get rid of the dead wood, shitcan the old and the slow and the weak, and that’s what I’m doing, because it’s my job. 
   At first it was something I dreaded. I hated myself. I knew I was being paid handsomely to be the one to blame, the one with the Dirty Deed, but still, it was distinctly not cool. Then I grew up. I read on page 334 of The Fountainhead where Howard Roark, say, cuts his own testicles off with a fork in front of his cousin or something, I don’t remember, not that exactly, but he does some extremely fuckedup shit that is totally ridiculous but in the end is worth it. That hit me when I read it. So after firing a handful of pathetic art directors and copywriters in their forties and fifties my attitude changed. I realized that my problem with this aspect of my job was purely in my head and that if I were to be totally honest with myself I would admit that there was something heroic about it. The thrill of the hunt, I guess. I had my prey cornered, I had the HR Lady watching me (I call her Lady but she wasn’t much older than me; tall, anorexic— lives on bagged nuts, coffee, and wine) and I had my sentence to speak, which thankfully she had written and rehearsed with me: “I’m very sorry to say this but we’re going to have to let you go.”

About this edition

• Publisher: Other
• ISBN 10: 0007524358
• ISBN 13: 9780007524358
• Binding: Paperback