When combined with the context of the book's second essay, Calasso's reflections on utilitarianism and the metaphysics of free-market economy in this chapter reveal thematic and structural affinities to the Dialectic of the Enlightenment: the book comes to resemble an updated, condensed version of Adorno and Horkheimer's magnum opus laced with narratives, anecdotes and biographical sketches from the period in which that work was written.
