Two thirds into Ballard's latest offering, Kingdom Come, and it's tripping all kinds of ideas. But it's a genuinely sinister one that's got me quite excited. The idea is about a contract killing agency and set up specifically for corporate killings. It examines the increasingly competitive nature of the workplace, and was part inspired by an agency I used to work.
This previous agency introduced and fostered a "cock fight" culture; colleagues were pushed and pressured to compete with each other. And this resulted in many quality staff leaving.
Though in-house competitiveness is rife anyway, I like the idea of stretching this to an extreme. Whereas Bret Easton Ellis' Patrick Bateman kills Paul Owen in American Psycho in a bid to win a major banking account, my idea sees this kind of behaviour becoming common place.
Indeed, turning a colleague into hamburger to gain their job, or slicing and dicing a competitor to help win a bit of business becomes the equilibrium, rather like the bizarre trend of teenage suicide in Micronesia.
Driving this will be a shady security agency that emerged in the wake of security paranoia following early 21st century terrorist attacks. I have worked with such a security agency, although in no way would they condone this kind of killing, corporate or otherwise. I fancy this as a book, play, movie, or - hey, why not? - all three. Will I actually get around to writing it? Will even get around to finishing the Ballard book? Probably no to the former, but yes to the latter at least. I can barely get round to buying medicine to ease the suffering of this damned, shit cold.
