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From that moment until the lunch hour and again from one o’clock until six, Olaf lived and breathed the exchange of foreign currencies. Under his practiced hands, dollars became pounds sterling; rubles became marks; pesos, kroner; yen, francs. Whatever exotic combination was called for, Olaf arranged with a smile, a kind word, and a question about the countries which minted the currencies he passed under the barred window. Over years, he had built nations in his mind; continents. Every country that existed, he could name, along with its particular flavor of money, its great sights and monuments, its national cuisine.

Daniel Abraham is an author who I have only sampled briefly and his short fantasy story, “The Cambist and Lord Iron: A Fairy Tale of Economics” is a reminder of why I need to read more. Olaf is a very unassuming character leading a quietly satisfying life, quiet that is until the day the despicable ruler Lord Iron decides that his amusement for the day will be the destruction of Olaf Neddelsohn. Olaf is given 24 hours to enact an impossible monetary exchange and in his desperation to hang on to his beloved career Olaf discovers the truth of value exchanged for value. In so doing Olaf sets a chain of events in motion that will not only affect his life but that of Lord Iron as well.

I first read this story last month when it was reprinted in the January issue of Lightspeed magazine. It struck me then as a story I would like to share with you. Following the jump is a spoiler-filled examination of the story. Before proceeding please take a few moments to go and read the story for yourself. It can be found here in its entirety:

“The Cambist and Lord Iron: A Fairy Tale of Economics”

Olaf is a man of simple pleasures and the quote above, from near the opening of the story, endears him to the reader. He is a kind man who takes pleasure in his work and who collects stories of strange lands as he converses with those who come to exchange currency. You get the sense that those who end up at Olaf’s window to do business end up transacting it with a man who is eager to hear tales of their adventures and listens not in an envious manner but as an interested party who is swept up in their remembrances.

He had a reputation as a man of few needs, tepid passions, and great kindness. The romantic fire that the exotic coins and bills awakened in him was something he would have been hard pressed to share, even had he anyone with whom to share it.

Olaf returns to his modest boarding home at night, occasionally dines with the other boarders, and then would “read to himself from the men’s adventure books that were his great vice”. A man who surrounds himself with story by day and by night shares a kinship with those who take pleasure in the same and thus in a few pages Daniel Abraham has birthed a sympathetic character that the reader identifies with, making the interruption of Olaf’s life by the petty whims of Lord Iron feel acutely painful.

On the surface Abraham’s tale is one of extremes, and as an economic tale one of values. There could be no clearer men to represent opposite sides of a spectrum of good and evil. In bringing these two together Abraham sets forth some very interesting economic theory. I am not very studied in economics but was fascinated by the discussions of worth that arose from Olaf’s efforts when pressed by Lord Iron to find an exchange rate for what appeared might be worthless currency. The reader can immediately feel the tension in Olaf as his life, in the form of his beloved career, hangs in the balance. Thus the cheer that arises unbidden when Olaf uses his clever wit is all the more satisfying. “The measure of a thing’s worth is what you can purchase with it” is indeed clever and one could see passionate economists discussing and debating such a postulation for hours. I use the word “clever” because it is apparent as the reading continues that the entire story is a clever examination of that one statement and as the story progresses it becomes clear that while each man exists as opposite sides of a coin, there is a complexity there that begins to bring the scales into balance when each man’s worth is measured against the other.

In order to avoid rehashing the entire story here I will quickly acknowledge for those who might not have chosen to read it that after Olaf’s success he is called upon by Lord Iron on two further occasions to measure a thing’s worth: first the day in the life of the King vs. that of a prisoner and then the measure of the worth of a soul. It is in this last exchange that we begin to see that Lord Iron is more than a two-dimensional representation of vice. He is

Not a supernatural being, but a man driven by human fears and passions to acts that could only goad him on to worse and worse actions. A man like any other, but with the wealth to magnify his errors into the scale of legend.

Ah, Daniel Abraham can turn a phrase. When Olaf points out that the answer to Lord Iron’s question about the worth of a soul is simple because it is obvious that Lord Iron doesn’t value his own at all you see again just how clever Olaf is. Abraham gives the exchange a further twist by revealing that Lord Iron is not intending to sell his soul, but rather wants to acquire one. Redemption is what Lord Iron would purchase and he is a fortunate man indeed that his acts of cruelty brought him into contact with Olaf Neddelshon.

In the end both men make an exchange, Olaf ceding his place in the Exchange to Lord Iron who appears to have been truly reformed and who begins to see the value in an honest life of hard work and simple pleasures. Olaf on the other hand now has means to the wealth that allows him to live his adventures instead of just hearing and reading about the adventures of others. That Olaf the uses those experiences to write his own adventure stories feels like icing on the cake. The more I thought about it, however, the more that final line “He named his protagonist Lord Iron” can be seen as more than just a witty way to bring the story to a close.

Would it be reading too much into the story to see Olaf’s writing efforts as his part of the exchange? Is he not in his own way continuing to redeem Lord Iron by rewriting his reputation, creating fictionalized adventure tales in which the stories being told about Lord Iron are now heroic ones? In the time in which the story is set it is word of mouth and writing that conveys the news and Lord Iron in his disappearance would continue to be the object of discussion. His reappearance in the form of fictionalized adventure stories would not in any way lessen the impact of those stories, would it? Would not the fiction eventually become the truth of who Lord Iron was in the minds of those who knew, or more accurately knew of, the real man? I was listening to NPR a few days ago when they were discussing the Oscar-nominated films Argo and Lincoln and their historical inaccuracies and the potential danger inherent in the liberties taken because films (or stories) have the power to become the sources of what we believe about history. And thus I am giving Daniel Abraham credit for not simply ending the story with a nod to Olaf’s predilection for men’s adventures stories but instead bringing the story full circle and showing that these novels bring about the redemption of both men.

Which leads to the final question in my mind which is what was Olaf Needelsohn’s life worth? The first time I read the story I felt that he had a nearly perfect existence in the sense that he lived a contented life. He enjoyed his career and derived pleasure from the fact that he was passionate about that career. He had company in his life should he choose to avail himself of it, he took care of himself physically and spiritually, and he was an avid reader. I would look at Olaf as he is initially presented and think that, other than the companionship of love, what more could one hope for in life? While not moving entirely away from that line of thought, for I believe there is some truth in it, subsequent readings have caused a shift in my thinking.

I believe Abraham has painted a picture in which one could see both Olaf and Lord Iron as men lacking the pieces to make of their lives a complete whole. Olaf is a good, decent man who obviously craves adventure but lives all of his adventures vicariously through the lives of others. Lord Iron is a man who takes adventure by the hands day after day but his selfish nature and lack of firm character strip the very life and joy out of those adventures to the point that he must take more and more risks and act worse and worse to derive any impact out of his actions. There is then not a single redemption which takes place but a double redemption. Lord Iron is saved and given a second chance in life but is not Olaf’s redemption as complete? I would point out here that it would be a mistake to see money as the only thing that prompted Olaf to step outside of his comfort zone to have his own adventures as I believe Abraham lays the groundwork for this change earlier in the story as Olaf begins to be discontent with his normal routines because of the agony caused him by Lord Iron. More than this, though, I believe that once Olaf has that initial revelation about worth that the seeds are sewn and he begins to examine the worth of his own life against what it could be if he was no longer content on merely experiencing life through the voice of other people.

I’m curious about your thoughts on this. What do you think of Olaf? Of Lord Iron? What stands out in the story for you and what, if anything, did you take away from the time spent? Did you like the story? Why or why not? These are my initial attempts at analyzing story and the danger of doing so without finely honed skills is reading much more into the narrative than the author intended. However I also think that as long I am admitting that this is the way that I experienced the story, and not a declarative statement of what the author certainly set out to do, then I see value in it and it is a value I hope to barter with others in the exchange of viewpoints regarding story. I am deriving personal enjoyment out of this, at any rate, and so I will continue to do this for a while as my Sunday offering.

If you are interested in Daniel Abraham’s thoughts on his story, I would encourage you to read the Author Spotlight that accompanied this story.

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Next Sunday I will present my thoughts on “The Sounds of Old Earth” by Matthew Kressel. By way of whetting the appetite, this is what I wrote in my review of the story:

In Matthew Kressel’s “The Sounds of Old Earth” we are introduced to Abner, one of the remaining hold outs on a decayed and dying Earth. Abner lives in a small wooded area behind a protective screen of his devising in an ancestral home listening to the frogs croak on the nearby pond, reliving memories from when Earth was a vibrant place. Most of Earth’s inhabitants have been transferred to New Earth, while some of the less fortunate live on corporate-owned orbital platforms. Abner wants nothing to do with New Earth and aches as he sees his children and grandchildren so easily abandon the home of mankind. Matthew Kressel’s short story visits the small tragedies and triumphs that make up a life and in the process presents a touching narrative on what it is that makes a home.

This one is science fiction, albeit very accessible science fiction, that tells a satisfying story. Until next time, I hope your week is filled with adventures in real life as well as those of the fictional kind.