IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/crpeac/v29y2015icp54-64.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Accounting for meaning: On §22 of David Foster Wallace's The Pale King

Author

Listed:
  • Michaelson, Christopher

Abstract

The Pale King (2011) is David Foster Wallace's iconic portrait and parody of a modern workplace that is also, not accidentally, an accounting institution – namely, the United States Internal Revenue Service. Many reviewers summarize its topic as boredom – of work in general, and tax accounting in particular. However, its longest section is a nearly one hundred-page, first-person narrative of how one Chris Fogle found his “calling” in accounting, including an accidental encounter with a professor who deemed it to be nothing less than “heroic.” Examined through the lens of ethical criticism, §22 of The Pale King is an important text for examining moral questions about what makes work meaningful and whether we have obligations to perform it ourselves and provide it to others. Through the lens of literary critical theory, it can also be read as a commentary on the meaningfulness (or meaninglessness) of accounting and what its methods imply about what has meaning and value in work and life.

Suggested Citation

  • Michaelson, Christopher, 2015. "Accounting for meaning: On §22 of David Foster Wallace's The Pale King," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 54-64.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:crpeac:v:29:y:2015:i:c:p:54-64
    DOI: 10.1016/j.cpa.2015.01.013
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1045235415000246
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.cpa.2015.01.013?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Aranya, Nissim & Lachman, Ran & Amernic, Joel, 1982. "Accountants' job satisfaction: A path analysis," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 7(3), pages 201-215, July.
    2. S. Mc_W Cheryl & Yannick Lemarchand, 2010. "Accounting as story telling," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 23(1), pages 14-54, January.
    3. Lisa Evans, 2009. "“A witches' dance of numbers”," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 22(2), pages 169-199, January.
    4. Beard, Victoria, 1994. "Popular culture and professional identity: Accountants in the movies," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 303-318, April.
    5. George Lan & Chike Okechuku & He Zhang & Jianan Cao, 2013. "Impact of Job Satisfaction and Personal Values on the Work Orientation of Chinese Accounting Practitioners," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 112(4), pages 627-640, February.
    6. Tony Tollington & Gabriella Spinelli, 2012. "Applying W and and W eber's Surface and Deep Structure Approaches to Financial Reporting Systems," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 48(4), pages 502-517, December.
    7. Jeffrey Moriarty, 2010. "Participation in the Workplace: Are Employees Special?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 92(3), pages 373-384, March.
    8. Pasquale Gagliardi, 2006. "A Role for Humanities in the Formation of Managers," Chapters, in: Pasquale Gagliardi & Barbara Czarniawska (ed.), Management Education and Humanities, chapter 1, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    9. Thornton, Daniel B., 2013. "Green accounting and green eyeshades twenty years later," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 24(6), pages 438-442.
    10. Doupnik, Timothy S. & Richter, Martin, 2003. "Interpretation of uncertainty expressions: a cross-national study," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 15-35, January.
    11. Thornton, Daniel B., 2013. "Green accounting and green eyeshades twenty years later rejoinder to critics," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 24(6), pages 474-476.
    12. Dimnik, Tony & Felton, Sandra, 2006. "Accountant stereotypes in movies distributed in North America in the twentieth century," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 129-155, February.
    13. Sandra Felton & Tony Dimnik & Darlene Bay, 2008. "Perceptions of Accountants’ Ethics: Evidence from Their Portrayal in Cinema," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 83(2), pages 217-232, December.
    14. McSWEENEY, BRENDAN, 1997. "The Unbearable Ambiguity Of Accounting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 22(7), pages 691-712, October.
    15. Roger Lister, 2010. "Rejoinder to Commentaries on 'A Role for the Compulsory Study of Literature in Accounting Education'," Accounting Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(4), pages 385-391.
    16. Ingo Winkler, 2011. "The Representation of Social Actors in Corporate Codes of Ethics. How Code Language Positions Internal Actors," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 101(4), pages 653-665, July.
    17. Molisa, Pala, 2011. "A spiritual reflection on emancipation and accounting," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 22(5), pages 453-484.
    18. Krom, Cynthia L. & Williams, Satina V., 2011. "Tell me a story: Using creative writing in introductory accounting courses to enhance and assess student learning," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 234-249.
    19. Roger Jeffrey Lister, 2010. "A Role for the Compulsory Study of Literature in Accounting Education," Accounting Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(4), pages 329-343.
    20. Christopher Michaelson & Michael Pratt & Adam Grant & Craig Dunn, 2014. "Meaningful Work: Connecting Business Ethics and Organization Studies," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 121(1), pages 77-90, April.
    21. Andon, Paul & Chong, Kar Ming & Roebuck, Peter, 2010. "Personality preferences of accounting and non-accounting graduates seeking to enter the accounting profession," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 253-265.
    22. James, Kevin L. & Hill, Cecil, 2009. "Race and the development of career interest in accounting," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 210-222.
    23. Laurence Romani & Betina Szkudlarek, 2014. "The Struggles of the Interculturalists: Professional Ethical Identity and Early Stages of Codes of Ethics Development," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 119(2), pages 173-191, January.
    24. Suddaby, Roy & Gendron, Yves & Lam, Helen, 2009. "The organizational context of professionalism in accounting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 34(3-4), pages 409-427, April.
    25. Lori Holder-Webb & Jeffrey Cohen, 2012. "The Cut and Paste Society: Isomorphism in Codes of Ethics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 107(4), pages 485-509, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Apostolou, Barbara & Dorminey, Jack W. & Hassell, John M. & Watson, Stephanie F., 2013. "Accounting education literature review (2010–2012)," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 107-161.
    2. Ariela Caglio & Mara Cameran, 2017. "Is it Shameful to be an Accountant? GenMe Perception(s) of Accountants' Ethics," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 53(1), pages 1-27, March.
    3. Claire France Picard & Sylvain Durocher & Yves Gendron, 2013. "From Meticulous Professionals To Superheroes Of The Business World: A Historical Portrait Of A Cultural Change In The Field Of Accountancy," Post-Print hal-00993019, HAL.
    4. François Brouard & Merridee Bujaki & Sylvain Durocher & Leighann C. Neilson, 2017. "Professional Accountants’ Identity Formation: An Integrative Framework," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 142(2), pages 225-238, May.
    5. Chen, Clement C. & Jones, Keith T. & Scarlata, Audrey N. & Stone, Dan N., 2012. "Does the Holland model of occupational choice (HMOC) perpetuate the Beancounter-Bookkeeper (BB) stereotype of accountants?," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 370-389.
    6. Richardson, Peter & Dellaportas, Steven & Perera, Luckmika & Richardson, Ben, 2015. "Towards a conceptual framework on the categorization of stereotypical perceptions in accounting," Journal of Accounting Literature, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 28-46.
    7. David Smith & Kerry Jacobs, 2011. "“Breaking up the sky”," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 24(7), pages 904-931, September.
    8. Guénin-Paracini, Henri & Malsch, Bertrand & Paillé, Anne Marché, 2014. "Fear and risk in the audit process," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 264-288.
    9. Rambaud, Alexandre & Richard, Jacques, 2015. "The “Triple Depreciation Line” instead of the “Triple Bottom Line”: Towards a genuine integrated reporting," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 92-116.
    10. Deegan, Craig, 2013. "The accountant will have a central role in saving the planet … really? A reflection on ‘green accounting and green eyeshades twenty years later’," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 24(6), pages 448-458.
    11. Jeff Everett & Constance Friesen & Dean Neu & Abu Shiraz Rahaman, 2018. "We Have Never Been Secular: Religious Identities, Duties, and Ethics in Audit Practice," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 153(4), pages 1121-1142, December.
    12. Jukka Mähönen, 2020. "Comprehensive Approach to Relevant and Reliable Reporting in Europe: A Dream Impossible?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(13), pages 1-38, June.
    13. Gray, Rob, 2013. "Back to basics: What do we mean by environmental (and social) accounting and what is it for?—A reaction to Thornton," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 24(6), pages 459-468.
    14. Virginia Bodolica & Martin Spraggon, 2015. "An Examination into the Disclosure, Structure, and Contents of Ethical Codes in Publicly Listed Acquiring Firms," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 126(3), pages 459-472, February.
    15. Fred Phillips, 2010. "Deriving Four Lessons for Accounting Educators: A Commentary on 'A Role for the Compulsory Study of Literature in Accounting Education'," Accounting Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(4), pages 369-371.
    16. Jeacle, Ingrid, 2008. "Beyond the boring grey: The construction of the colourful accountant," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 19(8), pages 1296-1320.
    17. Carnegie, Garry D. & Napier, Christopher J., 2010. "Traditional accountants and business professionals: Portraying the accounting profession after Enron," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 360-376, April.
    18. Santiago Mejia, 2023. "The Normative and Cultural Dimension of Work: Technological Unemployment as a Cultural Threat to a Meaningful Life," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 185(4), pages 847-864, July.
    19. Ramirez, Carlos & Zicari, Adrián, 2024. "Between a corporatist past and a globalised future: Argentina's accounting profession and the social balance sheet," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    20. Ingrid Jeacle, 2009. "“Going to the movies”: accounting and twentieth century cinema," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 22(5), pages 677-708, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:crpeac:v:29:y:2015:i:c:p:54-64. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/critical-perspectives-on-accounting/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.