The Book of Lark and Mole

The Book of Lark and Mole is a collection of fables that pose fundamental questions about the meaning of success and the good life in language that anyone --an open minded grown up or an intelligent child -- can understand. The books’s aim is to challenge thoughtful readers of all ages. In each tale, some kind of magic serves as the vehicle for delivering the message. In one of these tales, a wise man says that magic isn’t something you learn to do. “One doesn’t do magic. Magic is part of the world. Our teacher only taught us to see this more clearly.” Marder tells of a magic pen that seems to write messages of its own accord, but at the same time reveals secrets hidden deep in the user’s mind. Another tale tells us we can be tested by acquiring a countdown watch. The watch gives us the power to change the world but we must still choose whether to accept or reject that power. The Tales suggest the magical effect of devices people use every day and all the episodes move toward the discovery of a miraculous prism of rings at the end of life. For more than fifty years Eric Marder conducted studies in public opinion research and statistical analysis to discover laws that govern how and why people make choices in daily life. In addition to the lessons he learned heading a marketing research business, Marder names Grimm’s fairy tales and Nietzsche’s philosophy as sources of inspiration. Readers may recognize echoes of the Bible, and Ludwig Wittgenstein, Goethe’s Faust and Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams. The Book of Lark and Mole sets echoes of classic wisdom in the frame of fable and folk tale.