Publishing House Xiomondis (Ch.13e : Part 3)

Publishing House Xiomondis : Ch.13e : Part 3

‘You sound like you would like to write about this yourself,’ suggested Janus.

‘You are quite right,’ laughed Xiomondis.  ‘I would have liked to write about everything, but there was never any time.  It’s the usual story for most of us.  In this business I realise only too well that there is so much untapped potential.  Most of us stand no chance of achieving our ambitions.  We work one day after another under an unrelenting schedule.  It is very difficult to escape from that schedule.  For purely financial reasons alone it is not possible.  The ones who do write books or produce artistic works of other sorts are those with a strong belief in their own success.  Confidence motivates them to take the chance.  Academics of course know that their work is virtually assured some kind of market and as long as they remain within the specific confines of that market and obey its unspoken rules, they will succeed.’

‘Surely, given your position in this House, and your ambition to write, you must have written something over the years, even if you never completed anything publishable?’ asked Janus.  He was convinced now that there was more to Xiomondis than he was admitting.

‘I have done a few small writings over the years, some quick essays on certain subjects and once started a novel.  None of them were worth publishing, I can assure you.  After all, I should know, shouldn’t I?’ said Xiomondis.  ‘Writing takes a lot of time and it does not usually provide a very good living.  I had my career to think of.  I’m lucky I have a very interesting job, but to get it in the first place and to keep it I had to work very hard.  There was no place for serious writing in my life.  When I retire I hope to write, amongst other things.  But there will be little time left then and the motivation will not be the same when I have completed my career.’

‘But you did have the potential to write?’ asked Janus.

‘Yes, I suppose so, but no one really knows until they try it.  I never really tried it.  So I still don’t know that for sure.’

‘What did you write about?’ asked Janus.

‘I can’t even remember what all of them were,’ replied Xiomondis.  ‘It was so very long ago.  I did a piece on the economic system in which I wrote that we were producing unnecessary outputs, products and services and it would be better if we reduced our activities.  The resulting spare labour resources could be used to share the burden of unnecessary work and give a consequent increase in leisure time to the whole working population, which would also have the effect of expanding the leisure and entertainment sectors of the economy.’

‘So you are a bit of an economist as well?  I have said very much the same thing in my book on the present society – which is unfinished as yet,’ said Janus. 

‘I never studied economics in any depth but I learned some at school and on business courses.  Like you I appreciated early on that it was of central importance in understanding how the world and society works.  You have studied history and the economic history of the world in more depth than me.  I think your writings as far as I can see from the Creadd book are more researched, more detailed.  I merely expressed a straightforward view without the benefit of great research.  I now know far more than I did then because of my years of experience and observation.’

‘Has your opinion remained the same or has it changed?’ asked Janus.  He was by now quite excited to have stumbled across such a rare individual who had thought along similar lines, perhaps as much as thirty or forty years before.  Janus had never had this kind of conversation before with anyone.  He had stopped believing that anyone like this existed although he knew there were many intelligent people in the world.  He sought to publish his writings in the hope that he could spread his messages and help the people of the world to understand things better but all the time he had been writing over the last few months he had steadily been losing hope that there was a real audience who would understand him.  He was not aware of any recent writers or thinkers who came near to his views, and yet by the remotest chance he had found one now.

He waited now with sudden trepidation for Xiomondis’ verdict, which might reflect whether Janus’ own views might remain the same thirty of forty years later.  If Xiomondis’ views had changed maybe Janus’ ideas were flawed.  If they had not it would confirm him in his beliefs.  Whatever Xiomondis said would not shake his own views now, nor necessarily later but he hoped passionately that the kindred spirit he thought he had just found would not become merely another devil’s advocate or a man beaten down by the system into just  another moderate apologist for this sorry and unfinished society.

‘I was naïve and young when I wrote my article, said Xiomondis.  ‘Then I thought that the mere expression and dissemination of ideas would change people’s views and make society see sense.  I had the young man’s age old optimism that my generation and my own writing would change the world.  I wrote my essay and actually did try very hard to get it published.  I sent it over the Vidnet to countless publishers and news organisations, and to the main Vid stations, but none of them were interested.  I found out a great deal about publishing, and the way material is selected for public consumption.  Every organisation has its own market, or is looking to satisfy the demands of particular markets.  If your writing is not what they are looking for they will not touch it.  I now understand those markets better after years of experience.  House Xiomondis selects work for many markets.  Whatever comes to us, which we think will sell sufficiently to remunerate ourselves and the writer we will accept for publishing.  Back then there were markets I did not know about and could not find because nobody told me, or they lay deep within the Net.  I think now I would find a way to publish that Economic article, just like your writing, but it was not as well expressed as your writing, and very few would have read it.  My failure to publish it made me learn a lot and I realised that to change the world would not be easy.  So I gave up and joined the rest of the world in the search for wealth and survival.’

‘But have you changed your view on what you wrote in the article?’ asked Janus, still waiting in some kind of tension to find out what Xiomondis really thought.

‘I am aware as you obviously of the theories of economic growth, that if you put people to work in something new, or give wages to new people you expand the economy by creating more demand -  the population of people with money in their pockets has increased.  Therefore they will go out and spend or invest it.  By this action money circulates around an economy and money and resources are attracted towards activities which generate more money.  I don’t think I understand the way our economy developed into thousands of specialist activities, all taking their small but useful place in a huge economy.  I don’t think this economy can be easily made smaller, cutting out the unnecessary or bureaucratic bits.  To do this by sweeping centralised decree could be very dangerous.  If people worked fewer hours in the day we would certainly notice the difference in efficiency and service.  However I do still believe that our economy is too big, and it has grown far bigger now than it was when I wrote my article.  There are many things to do with law, insurance and accounting, finance, investment and all the rest, which have become far too complex, far too perfect, and result in us all having  to learn far too much, and work far too hard to make things perfect.  I would agree with my basic ideas from that time.  If we cut back on the competitive, legalistic, bureaucratic waste we would free ourselves for other things in life.  Our leisure and entertainment sectors would expand to fill part of the gap in the economy, but we could all lead more fulfilling and more useful lives.  The problem remains how to make these changes without producing suffering , without putting people out of work, without restricting the incentive to develop society, economy and science.’

Janus was thrilled.  Xiomondis seemed to echo his own views.  Janus was well aware of the pitfalls and dangers of putting the brakes on economic growth and the conventional economy.  His dream was the same as the one Xiomondis had held throughout his life.  But it was sad that Xiomondis had been unable to change the world.

Janus was conscious of having enjoyed himself more than he could remember at least in recent times, except that is for the thrills of artistic and literary achievement, but that was a different kind of satisfaction.  This was an easy enjoyment.  It required no effort.  All the preparatory work had been done and was a part of him and his memories.  Xiomondis merely pulled the right strings and it all spilled out of him.  He could pick the strands of his thinking from his different works and discuss his thoughts on the world and its history.  Xiomondis had been finding out about his other works, presumably with an eye to publishing them also.  He had found himself explaining his views on the Rise of Marta in the 12^th and 13^th centuries, the stagnation of Gallanolian society and its defeat, the horrors of the Martainian conquest with its pockets of religious and nationally induced genocide and population clearance.  Xiomondis had been particularly interested in his views on the Gallanolian ‘Revolution’ of Luneid Duneid, which Janus viewed as far more than a national resurgence by Gallanol but as a far reaching reform of the High Kingdom and the surrounding nations in which the principles of society acting as a common community, dealing with abuses and exploitations and aiming to improve the human lot materially and spiritually were pursued.

Gallanolian dominance deeply affected the Martan Empire also and created an ‘opposition’ culture in the Empire which lasted through the centuries until the recent past when it had been submerged by the all consuming economic system.  Janus explained also about his writings on Communalism and the more recent growth and establishment of the new world order which now gripped mankind in its leash of the work ethic, legal bureaucracy and supposed democracy.  Janus had illuminated Xiomondis on the relationship between Creaddism, the state of Luneid Duneid’s Gallanol and Communalism, the three periods when ideas for improvement of the quality of human life have actually  been held by leaders, and, what is more, real attempts have been made to put them into practice.