Sucker by Daniel Hornsby

Author:Daniel Hornsby [Hornsby, Daniel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2023-07-11T00:00:00+00:00

14

I heard the Kenosis origin story so many times during my first months there that, after a while, I began to dream about it. I could see myself there in the library, listening like a kindly parish priest as Olivia spoke of her troubles. I gave the same little speech over and over, pointing to the Gutenberg Bible as my sermon reached its climax. I could see Olivia’s face as she absorbed my wisdom and filled herself with renewed resolve. Every detail was perfect. Which is funny, because it was all bullshit.

Not that it mattered to me. I knew that, like any etiology, the story wasn’t about accuracy, but more about feeling. The Googlers have their garage. Nate Zuckerman has his now-cliché dorm-room bullshit at our shared alma mater. These nerds know a story is nothing more than a bit of code with a job to do. You carefully string together your commands and cues, then let it loose to program whoever runs it (okay, I admit I know next to nothing about computers, but bear with me). Olivia’s origin story was properly sequenced—it referenced her elite education and venerable dropout status, chronicled her tear-jerking struggle with cancer, and alluded to an obvious genius forebear—and it served its function well, namely, to hack into people’s wallets by way of their hearts. I was never under the impression that it should be true.

Much more important to me, a question I still ponder, and probably will forever, is whether or not she believed her own story. Was she knowingly lying? Or had she suckered herself, too?

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