RANGE: The lair or den of the Corporate Giants is widely believed to be in Delaware. Yet some suggest that this emphatically American ogre makes his home offshore, in the beautiful Bahamas. Little reliable information about the Corporate Giants’ scope of activities exists—some of those who tracked them to their lair having been consumed and others simply co-opted. Evidence of their presence can be found throughout the country, however—Houston and Dallas are possibly boot prints where they have stomped. Each is but a man step for Giantkind. HABITS: The behavior of Corporate Giants attracts little scrutiny or comment in America. And perhaps it is this undeserved lack of attention which spurs the mammoth creatures on, in their attempts to exceed even their Giant forbears in acts of voracity, rapaciousness, and in fact, every trait for which Giants from Goliath to Andre The have been famous. Although they are enormous and ubiquitous, Corporate Giants are terribly difficult to find, as more than one investigating committee has discovered. The Corporate Giant lives outside the law, in Delaware and New York. It is presumed that they dress conservatively, in three piece anti-antitrust suits. Their indiscriminate gobbling up of Small Businessmen has so adversely affected their digestion that they issue booming quarterly reports. Their mating customs remain mysterious, but they are certainly not monogamous. Citizens of both sexes everywhere complain of “having been shafted” by these Keynes Kongs. Alas, everyone who has gotten close enough to a Corporate Giant to speak about him with authority later proved to be an unreliable Communist in the pay of Karl Marx or had already declared himself to have been certifiably insane before taking a job with the Corporation. We can only be certain that, in some way, Corporate Giants are hard at work shaping America’s future, employing everything from “Better Ideas” to “Stupid Slogans” to further their ends. No matter what magical means they use to exercise it, the Corporate Giants’ influence upon the direction of American commercial enterprise is to be deplored. If the Giants’ collective lock upon the wattled throats and withered minds of our captains of industry is not soon broken, many great capitalist ventures will come to grief, in the time-honored manner of all Giants’ works and pomps. For example, after devouring everything within walking distance (including streams, wasps’ nests, oil-rich tundra), a Giant tends to doze off. Should he ever wake (a fifty-fifty proposition, according to Giant lore), he will discover that in his sleep he has been looted (by Jack the Giant-Killer), or blinded (by crafty Ulysses), or castrated and worse (by Ralph Nader). HISTORY: Even the ethnic roots of Corporate Giants are difficult to discover; probably, they are multinational. In Greek mythology, they are mentioned as shipping tycoons, who wrecked the Titanic monopoly. Yet they seem to have sprung from earlier, well-travelled and prolific stock, for we read of Frost Giants menacing promiscuous and socialistic mythological characters of old Scandinavia and doing well in the rug trade as Djinns of ancient Persia. They were long associated with cannibalism, stupidity, and dumb jingles like “Fee Fi Fo Fum.” Many jocular stories have survived, detailing Giants’ absurd attempts to squeeze whey from stones, their defenseless-ness against goose burglars, and their notorious inability to distinguish between a traveller they wished to club to death and a pile of pillows. Banished from the Old World for their lack of guile, or, for that matter, common sense, the Giants have sought to conceal their idiocy in the New World by acting through committee. Corporate Giants, as they have come to be called, try to influence or discourage legislative sessions. But they adore board meetings. SPOTTER’S TIPS: It is unlikely that an investigator’s approach will go unnoticed. Express an interest in a Corporate Giant, and he’ll find you. They may be stupid, but they have a nose for blood—especially the blood of an Englishman. Those who approach a Corporate Giant do so at their peril. They return either as zombie “Veeps,” mindless except where foreign markets are concerned—or as discredited babbling hulks, bearing the marks of welding equipment on their person. Corporate Giants? Don’t ask.
棲息地 大企業の巨人たちの棲
み家はデラウェアにあると広く
信じられている。 しかし、 この
いかにもアメリカ的な人食鬼た
ちが海外(おそらくは美しいバ
ハマ諸島) に居を構えていると
考えている人もいる。 大企業の
巨人の活動範囲についての情報
はほとんどない彼らをその
居住地まで追っていった人びと
はその巨大な胃袋に飲まれてし
まうか、合併されてしまうから
だ。
しかし、 彼らの存在の証拠は
全国いたるところに見られる
ヒューストンやダラスは巨
人族の足跡といえる。
習性 大企業の巨人の行動につ
いては,アメリカではくわしく
調べられることも書きたてら
れることもない。この不当なる
無視の仕方が,彼らをよりいっ
そうのさばらせている原因だ。
大企業の巨人たちはからだも
巨大で, あらゆる場所に散らば
っているにもかかわらず、姿を
発見するのはひじょうにむずか
しい。
この巨人たちはだいたい保守
的なスリーピースのスーツを着
ていて, 彼らの結婚習慣はいぜ
んとして謎である。 ただ, 一夫
一婦制でないことだけはたしか
だ。 一般市民たちは男も女も、
この巨人たちに「だまされた」
と不平をいっている。
大企業の巨人に近づき, 彼ら
を権威をもって解釈した人たち
信
は、だれもがあとになって,
頼にたらぬ共産主義者だと判明
し、 また、 あるものたちは, 大
企業との取引きをはじめるまえ
に,あのときはまったく常軌を
逸していたのだと宣言する。
ある意味で, 大企業の巨人た
ちがアメリカの未来を形づくる
のに懸命になっていることはた
しかである 自分たちの目標
「よりよい
を達成するためには
アイデア」から 「ばかげたスロ
-ガン」 まで, ありとあらゆる
ものを取りいれるからである。
巨人たちがアメリカの商業企
業の方向を左右するのに, どん
な魔術を使ったにせよ, その方
法は明らかにされるべきであ
る。そうでなければ, はりきっ
ている資本家たちの多くが悲し
みを味わうことになるだろう。
たとえば, 巨人たちはあらゆ
るものを自分の手もとにすいよ
せたあと、 うたた寝をしている
ことが多いが, 目をさましたと
ことが多いが,目をさましたと
き, なにか盗まれていたり(豆
の木のジャック),眼をつぶされ
たり(賢いユリシースによっ
て), 去勢されたり、もっとひど
い目にあう (ラルフ・ネーダー
によって)ことがある。
歴史 巨人の民族学的ルーツも
よくわかっていないが, おそら
くは多国籍と思われる。
ギリシャ神話のなかではこの
巨人はタイタンの独占販売をや
めさせた海の大君だった。 しか
しその起源はもっとそれ以前,
スカンディナビアの巨人フロス
ト族などにあると思われる。
巨人たちは長いあいだ, 人食
いとか、愚鈍だとか呼ばれてき
た。 石から乳のしぼりかすをと
ろうとしたり、 まんまとガチョ
ウをとられてしまう話, 旅人の
かわりに枕を棍棒で殴りつける
話などまぬけな巨人の話をくわ
しく描いた話はたくさんのこっ
ている。
悪知恵がたりなかったために
ヨーロッパ大陸から追い出され
た巨人たちだが, アメリカでは
大企業の巨人と呼ばれるように
なった。
私立探偵の報情 相手に知られ
ずに調査員が彼らに近づくのは
むずかしい。 大企業に少しでも
興味があるようすをすれば, す
ぐわかってしまう。 巨人たちの
頭はからっぽかもしれないが、
血の臭いをかぐ鋭い鼻をもって
いる とくにイギリス人の血
を。
大企業の巨人に近づくものは
命を賭けることになる。 無事に
帰ってこれたとしても, 生きる
しかばねの 「副会長」 となって
しまうしかない。
EPA.
209
Habitat
It’s widely believed that corporate giants make their home in Delaware. However, some think these quintessentially American man-eaters have set up residence overseas — possibly in the beautiful Bahamas. Very little information exists about their range, because anyone who has tracked them back to their lair has either been swallowed by their enormous stomachs or absorbed through merger.
Yet evidence of their existence can be found nationwide — Houston and Dallas are essentially giant footprints.
Behavior
Corporate giants’ activities are neither closely investigated nor widely reported on in America. This undeserved neglect is precisely what allows them to run increasingly rampant.
Despite their enormous size and presence everywhere, they are extraordinarily difficult to spot.
These giants generally wear conservative three-piece suits, and their mating habits remain a mystery — though one thing is certain: they are not monogamous. Ordinary citizens, men and women alike, complain of being “taken advantage of” by them.
Anyone who has gotten close to corporate giants and interpreted them with authority has invariably later been revealed as an untrustworthy communist — or else declares that before entering into dealings with big business, they must have been completely out of their mind.
In one sense, corporate giants are certainly working hard to shape America’s future — because to achieve their goals they’ll incorporate anything from “better ideas” to “idiotic slogans.”
Whatever magic the giants use to steer the direction of American commerce, their methods ought to be exposed. Otherwise many enthusiastic capitalists will end up deeply disappointed.
For instance, after absorbing everything within reach the giants often doze off — but when they wake up, they sometimes find something stolen (Jack and the Beanstalk), get blinded (by clever Ulysses), castrated, or worse (by Ralph Nader).
History
The ethnological roots of the giants are poorly understood, but are likely multinational.
In Greek mythology this giant was the great lord of the sea who ended the Titans’ monopoly. But his origins are thought to go back even further — to the Frost Giants of Scandinavian mythology.
Giants have long been called cannibals and dimwits. Countless stories survive of their stupidity — trying to squeeze milk from a stone, getting their goose stolen, clubbing a traveler’s pillow instead of the traveler himself.
Lacking the cunning to survive in Europe, they were driven out — but in America came to be known as Corporate Giants.
Field Intelligence
Approaching them undetected is nearly impossible. Show even a flicker of interest in big business and you’ll be made immediately. Their heads may be empty — but they have a razor-sharp nose for the smell of blood. English blood in particular.
Anyone who gets close to a Corporate Giant is risking their life. And even if they make it back alive, the only fate awaiting them is becoming a walking corpse of a “Vice President.”
209
A Fair Folk match for NYC (there may be more than 1).
The giant has “16” on one hand and “13” on the other, 1613 is the year that the Dutch established a trading post on Manhattan Island.
There also appears to be a “King Kong” theme, which the Giant taking the place of Kong. This clue points to the Empire State Building. The ESB could be the “grey giant” in verse 10.