“How daring it was to represent the quarterly shortfalls in revenue with the color purple—the color associated not only with kings but also with the skin of slaves, an obvious yet powerful homage to Alice Walker’s seminal novel. By rejecting the fixed ironic conventions of green and black (colors of mold, death, and despair) for profits and red (blood and lust) for losses, you transcended the common criticism that capitalism is animalistic and decadent. The postmodern color scheme instead offered a fascinating contradiction, one that simultaneously said, ‘I am master of my destiny,’ and ‘I am trapped by the projections required as a condition of my employment, and am but a slave to outcomes that are way beyond my control.’. . .”

—Ross Brown, “Critique of Your Powerpoint Presentation Titled ‘Sales Forecast, Third Quarter,’” a recent feature at McSweeney’s.