In Teddy Wayne's new novel Kapitoil (see the trailer here), Karim Issar—an unsung computer programmer from Qatar—arrives on Wall Street in 1999. And using an algorithm he's developed (something about analyzing word choices in newspaper articles on Iraq) he can hyper-accurately forecast the price of oil. What follows is a story about the complications—and thorny decisions—that come with knowing what you shouldn't. Narrated in Karim's idiosyncratic brand of English, it's also damn funny. Here, the New York native talks about the dreary inspiration behind Karim's compelling voice and the widespread misuse of the word "random."
I first saw your name on Comedy Central, where you created the Web series "The Worst Speeches of All Time," and you've written shorter humor pieces for McSweeney's and Vanity Fair too. There are elements of humor in this book, but a novel of this scope is still quite a departure. Where'd you start?
In my early twenties, I had a job editing application essays to business school over the Internet.
That's a bizarre job.
Before your readers get too jealous, I should point out that the pay wasn't great; it was, like all ethically dubious vocations facilitating the acquisition of MBAs for strangers, a labor of love. The majority of applicants were from China, Japan, and South Korea, and while their grammar was usually butchered, their techno-financial vocabularies were expansive and all-consuming.
Give us an example.
"I will broaden my skill set and leverage best practice methodologies to achieve my short- and long-term objectives." That planted the seed for a protagonist who had learned English and assimilated American values through the filter of late-capitalist jargon. The challenge was not reducing Karim Issar's voice to these sterile origins, but imbuing it with some humanity, lyricism, and humor that didn't condescend, Borat-like, to his ESL tics. I did, however, consider titling the book Nice!!! I Like!!!
Karim creates an algorithmic program called Kapitoil that predicts the price of oil futures with how often the phrase "Middle East" and other loaded words appear in the New York Times. Is there really a correlation? It seems plausible, not to mention dangerous.
As we speak, Times columnists Thomas Friedman and David Brooks are engineering a bloodless coup in Iran via subliminal messages. Using news events to inform trades is standard practice, of course, though I'm not sure anyone has gone so far as to create a program like Kapitoil that sifts and analyzes language with this (fictional) degree of sophistication.
You make a lot of funny observations about how Americans use language. Karim has trouble understanding what "par-tay" means, and he corrects a girl in a nightclub for how Americans misuse "random". You're a white dude from New York. As a native speaker, does this really bother you?
"Random" kills me, though there are bigger issues to worry about in the world--such as the SNL-spearheaded trend of punctuating every sarcastic observation with, "Really, [object of ridicule's name]? Really?"
There's this uncomfortable conversation in the book that Karim has with his boss's wife, who says she very much supports the Palestinians—just to let Karim know that "not all Americans are willfully ignorant about foreign affairs." I feel like I know that lady.
I feel like, at times, I am that lady: Just as you assert your liberalism, you end up betraying your own covert prejudices you'd rather didn't exist.
The book is set in 1999—Karim is in New York City helping fix Y2K bugs. Why set it in the not-so-distant past?
With a few exceptions, I haven't been so taken with the raft of "9/11 novels" that have come out in the past decade. Many exploit the World Trade Center attacks as a means for adding instant gravity to otherwise mundane narratives, or solipsistically turn national tragedy into an occasion for navel-gazing. And though I'm a secular white male, I'm even less pleased with how just about every novel or film about a young Muslim man now inevitably becomes about his descent into terrorism or fundamentalism or victimization. So, I set Kapitoil in the twilight of the American empire but hope that it can be read as a précis of the post-9/11 political landscape.
Really, Teddy? Really?
Yes. It's so random.