Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth

Toronto-based author Margaret Atwood was asked several times over numerous years to deliver a Massey Lecture, which would be broadcast over the radio on CBC Radio One's Ideas and published by the House of Anansi Press. When she finally agreed, she chose her subject to be sociobiology of literary criticism, and specifically how an author's gender and age affects critical reception.^[3] However, after delivering lectures at Oxford University and Cambridge University on similar topics she re-considered her choice.^[3] She began thinking of 'debt' as a topic after writing "Letter to America" for The Globe and Mail in March 2003 (later reprinted in The Nation) regarding the pending invasion of Iraq and asking whether Americans understood the debt to which they were committing.^[4][5][6]

Atwood was scheduled to release her new novel in fall 2008 and deliver the Massey Lectures in fall 2009. At the insistence of Atwood's American editor at Doubleday, her Canadian and British editors and agents agreed in January 2008 to postpone the release of her novel by one year to avoid competing with the US Presidential election for attention. The people organizing the Massey Lectures, Sarah McLachlan of House of Anansi Press, John Fraser of Massey College, and Bernie Lucht of CBC's Ideas, discovered this rescheduling via a newspaper article. They asked Atwood to deliver her lectures in fall 2008, meaning the text would be due in June. She agreed on condition of Massey College providing research and technical assistance. The text was written between late January and June 2008, during which Atwood took time for two vacations (birding in Cuba and in France). The original title was to be Debt but Scott Griffin, owner of House of Anansi Press, convinced Atwood to change it to something less depressing.^[3]

The content is divided into five parts. The first part, Ancient Balances, considers psychological and historical aspects of debt. Atwood calls debt an imaginative human construct derived from a sense of need or greed and a sense of fairness in reciprocity and equivalent values. She cites a study by Frans de Waal that suggests a sense of fairness may be a genetic trait shared with other primates, and a study by Robert Axelrod which illustrates, given a level playing field, that the tit-for-tat strategy (or 'Do unto others as they have done unto you' strategy) was the most superior strategy in game theory. Debt and borrowing mechanisms from ancient and biblical societies are compared, including provisions from the Code of Hammurabi, Ancient Egyptians, and the Greco-Roman mythologies.

The second part, Debt and Sin, explores the theological side, including moral or ethical characteristics attributed to debtors and creditors by society and religion. Debt, like certain vices, such as cigarette-smoking, have experienced times when it was considered sinful, and other times fashionable. Biblical references, like the Book of Deuteronomy, the Lord's Prayer, and sin-eating, are examined. The growth of debt is linked to the growth of the written media with the relationship symbolized by the Faustian contract with the devil.

The third part, Debt as Plot, examines the "Debtor" game from Eric Berne's Games People Play and its derivative "Try and Collect". Debt as a motif and theme is explained, especially in 19th century literature, with examples from "The Devil and Tom Walker", Wuthering Heights, Vanity Fair, Madame Bovary, House of Mirth, and The Mill on the Floss. Atwood posits a theory that Charles Dickens' Ebenezer Scrooge is the reverse character of Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus; although Scrooge is rich, he is unwilling to spend his money and is living miserably before he is saved., while Doctor Faustus is rich, happy, and generous but ends in hell.

The fourth part, The Shadow Side, looks at what happens to debtors and creditors when debts are not re-paid. Some debts that are a matter of honour to which the debtor must repay by an equivalent value or creditor must either forgive or exact revenge. Debts to society, after committing crimes, are paid through vengeance-based imprisonment. The United Kingdom had debtors' prison for those who could not pay, but this was abolished for economic reasons as it prevented labourers from working and had a burdensome cost of operation. Other societies used the services of their family members or themselves as collateral. Sometimes the debtors overthrew the creditors, like King Philip IV of France against the Knights Templar, or the Ugandans against the Asians. Atwood applies the trickle-down economics to debt and examines the psychology side through the Jungian Shadow.

In the final part, titled Payback, Atwood examines ecological debt. She recounts the journey of Scrooge in A Christmas Carol but placed in a modern setting. The modern-day Scrooge is visited by the spirits of Earth Day. In the past, Scrooge witnesses debts to nature being repaid through animal and human sacrifices and through pestilence in over-crowded or unsustainable populations. In the present, Scrooge witnesses current unsustainable practices, over-fishing and deforestation, creating a debt to nature being repaid through effects on the climate and impacts on people. Finally, in the future, Scrooge is shown two versions: one showing an eco-friendly human society balanced with environmental systems, the other showing a dystopian future in which a disaster affects fuel or food resources, causing hyperinflation and rendering money useless.

The book was released in October 2008 as Atwood began the Massey lecture series in St. John's, Newfoundland, on October 12. The second lecture took place in Vancouver on the 15th, followed by Winnipeg on the 17th, Montreal on the 20th, and ending on November 1 in Toronto. The series was recorded then aired on CBC Radio One's Ideas between November 10 and 14.^[7] At each event Atwood fielded questions from the audience and participated in book signings.^[3]

Payback entered The Globe and Mail bestseller list at #6 and peaked at #1 on October 25.^[8] It became the best selling Massey Lecture book to date and was in its fourth printing by the end of November.^[3] Excerpts were printed in The Times and the Financial Times.^[9][10] In April 2009, it was a finalist for the annual National Business Book Award and won a silver medal in the Business Ethics category of the Axiom Business Book Awards.^[11][12] That same month, the National Film Board of Canada acquired the film rights, with plans to adapt Payback as a feature-length documentary. They announced the involvement of Jennifer Baichwal as director and Ravida Din as producer.^[13] In June 2009, the book was awarded a Canadian Booksellers Association Libris Award for Non-Fiction Book of the Year.^[14][15]

Almost all reviewers commented upon the timeliness of the book's release as the magnitude and causes of the 2008 financial crisis were becoming apparent.^[16] Some reviewers also commented upon the timeliness of her previous books, like her novel in which society is devastated by a genetically engineered virus, Oryx and Crake, which coincided with the SARS outbreak.^[16] Playing off this theme Canadian magazine The Walrus, at a fund-raiser gala for its charitable foundation, auctioned a crystal decanter with five predictions written by Atwood sealed inside.^[17] Journalist Rebecca Eckler was the winning bidder and wrote about the predictions, which include the diminished use of fabric softener and the rise in use of industrial hemp, in an article for Maclean's magazine.^[16]