Scholar Ed Simon takes us on a historical tour of the Faustian bargain, from the Bible to blues, and illustrates how the impulse to sacrifice our principles in exchange for power is present in all kinds of social ills, from colonialism to nuclear warfare, from social media to climate change to AI, and beyond.
These highly charged and politicized arguments about the evils of late capitalism transform Devil’s Contract from a work of cultural history into something close to a polemic, one with which you may or may not agree. Simon’s style, moreover, can sometimes veer into the over-emphatic ... Still, these cavils aside, Devil’s Contract reminds us of how often we deludedly exchange something of inestimable value... for what is ultimately glittery trash.
Provocative, if clunky ... Mr. Simon is at his most inventive when he links Faustian tradeoffs with a panoply of real events and figures ... I commend his passion while remaining skeptical of his patronizing tone and excess of references.
One might wish for it to be expressed through slightly less heated rhetoric and a more limited focus ... Scholarly and impassioned if sometimes hysterical.
