Traveling in spacetime with Virgil - 11

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B071FB9SGV

Thirtieth – second  Scene

(The second Ante Hell: the guests are damned to gain money during the day and loose it at the end of the day; that’s forever, each and every day. The scene is occupied by  a Stock Exchange’s Hall (alternatively a video may be sent on); Virgil and Dante will observe, from a hidden point of view, lot of people, suited in a very fashion way, shouting and making signs each others;  some of them will be talking very busily, through small mobile phones very trendy and, from time to time, they stop talking in order to pass signs orders for selling and buying stocks).

 

1st man (making signs with his fingers)

            - I'll buy fifteen hundred!

2nd man

            - I'm  selling  three thousand of them!

3rd man

            - I need ten thousand quid!

4th man

            - Put twenty thousand a part for me!

5^th man

            - Swap them with the General Electrical, mate!

Dante (in an embarrassed tone of voice)

               - I can’t really understand what’s  going on over there, master?

Virgil (sighing)

                - They are making money...

Dante (a bit perplexed)

                - Do you mean, they are sort of landlords bankers???

Virgil

                - I didn't say that my son! They are actually mostly inventing money than producing it. They produce nothingness as matter of fact… I mean: not material stuffs…

Dante

                - I beg your pardon, sir, but I'm afraid I can't get the meaning of it!

 

Virgil

                - Of course you can't, my son!! It's not easy for anybody to understand. Listen to me, I'll try to explain to you the difference between production and speculation, real creation and virtual richness!  If you write a good book, for instance, and you sell it to a firm to be published and then the book is  sold in the shops: the buyers have a book in their hands; you, the editors ,the book sellers and all the people involved in the business share the profits; is that clear up to now?

Dante

                - Very clear indeed, master!

Virgil

                - That's right! Let's suppose  now  that your publisher hasn't got the  money  to publish your book!

How can he get it?

Dante

                - He goes to a Bank, I might suppose!

Virgil

                -And so do I, my son! But what happens if the banker hasn't got enough money himself?

Dante

                - I suppose my book won't see the light yet!!

Virgil

- It might be right, my son! Unless you don't consider the role played by those guys up there (he shows the stocks changers)

Dante (perplexed)

                - I'm sorry, master, but I'm still blind...

Virgil

                - Never mind it! Just follow me for a little more! The banker goes to those guys (he points out the stocks changers again) and asks them to sell the idea of publishing your book to the savers! 'You know what savers are, don't you my son?

Dante (readily)

                - Well, they are people who have more money than they need to live through!

Virgil

                - Correct, my son!

Dante

                - And of course they want their money to be safe for future needs!!

Virgil

                - That's still correct, my son!!! Put it like that: the savers trust the bankers and the stocks exchangers;  they even trust you and  your writing's skills! But this would not be a problem: financial investors have more instruments to convince savers in order to reach their targets! I'll show you later how a magic box  can wash people's brains just staying at home!!!

Dante (trying to understand)

                - So the banker asks the stocks changer to ask the savers to buy the idea of publishing my books...

Virgil

                - Yes, that's it!!! There are plenty of instruments: the publisher might have emitted some titles to guarantee the credits and the savers will buy those titles; or they can buy the future profits which are expected from the selling  of your books; they can even just lend their money on the promise of an interest to be paid...

Dante

                - And this money is given to the banker and borrowed by my publisher...

Virgil

                ... who publishes and distributes your books all over the world!!!

Dante

- All over the world,  master?

Virgil

                - Of course! Can't you write a Latin book to be sold all over the world?

Dante

                - Well, I suppose I can do it, master!!

Virgil

                - Well! And that's your first book, is n't it?

Dante

                - Yes, master! Though I don't see nothing wrong on it...

 

Virgil

         - But this is only the beginning, my son!!!

Dante

                - What do you mean , master?

Virgil

                - I mean that now, those guys (indicates the stokes changers like before) can ask the savers to buy your next book...

Dante

               - But I have just written my first one!

Virgil

                - It doesn't really matter my son!!! They will sell all the goods not yet produced like the wheat just seeded and all the events on the future to come!

Dante (very surprised)

                - Will they?

Virgil

                - And that's still nothing! If a firm is worth one million they can increase its value, just up there (shows the busy guys in the stocks exchange once again) up to ten millions or up to  hundred  millions, though its real value is still just only one million!! And that's thanks to the trust of people, 'till the game goes on!!!

Dante

                - Now I know master, what you meant, when you told me the guys over there make money from nothing!!!

Virgil

                - I'm glad you did it, my son!!! Come on, now, let's leave these incontinent people and go to the higher  states!!!

Dante

-          I’m feeling a sort of repentance master…

Virgil

-          Why? What Are you feeling guilty for ?

Dante:

-          For I was too scared to see the secret meanders of hell…

Virgil: Do you think so? I don’t agree you, my son… On my opinion we have seen more than enough of iniquities and desperation!

Dante

-          Didn’t we miss  Mao-Tse-Tung, Jossip Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini? And more: Eric David Harris and Dylan Bennet Kelbold, Ariel Castro, Marc Lépin, Rodney Glen King, Sang Huj Cho, Benne Gunness, Irma Grese and other horrible females…

Virgil:

-          (stopping him) Believe me my son: the hell is like  the universe… he expands to infinity. You cannot really visit the hell all around. It’s impossible!!!

Dante (only half persuaded)

-          I see… What about Zwingli, Calvin and Luther?

Virgil (with a mischievous smile and pointing up with his right forefinger)

-          All three upstairs!!!

Dante (admitting his fears)

-          Why am I so doubtful and suspicious when I have to move to a new place?

Virgil (laughing)

-          Come on Dante!!! We’re leaving the bloody hell for a surely better place!

Dante (reassured)

-          You’re right, master! So we’ll face now the upper lighting cone?

Virgil: Oh no, my son!!! We’re not allowed to travel in the future!!! We’ll cut the the walls of the upper cone instead!!!

Dante: How is named our next destination?

Virgil: We are going to visit   the nearest of the forty billions of habitable planets astronomers estimate existing in the Milky Way!

Dante: Gosh! I thought such a nearest place was Alpha Centaury!

Virgil: Update your astronomical knowledge my son! Have you ever heard of Trappist Systems?

Dante: Please tell me what are them, master!

Virgil: Well, I’ll tell you of them in the way to Purgatory. Let’s go!

Exeunt.

Endo of the Forst Act

to be continued...