Hedged Thoughts.

The semantics of language has always been an interest of mine; how language is adopted into our vernacular and changes meaning. The way in which new manifestations of words or phrases, formed together, become popular, and adapt into entirely new meanings. In my writing, I have always been drawn toward developing the alternate comedic world, different from the one in which we live, with rich characters trying to succeed amidst a lack of information.
A couple of years ago, when I began to overhear people yammering about how rich this guy was who worked at a “Hedge Fund,” or was delighted by a magazine article espousing the obscene wealth of these funds, my interest was piqued. What was missing from the discussion, however, was what a hedge fund actually was. All that we were exposed to were the spoils of being linked to one- like the grandson of a Vanderbilt or a Commodore. These people had everything: villas in the Hamptons, private jets, and private Carribean islands. I read once how a hedge fund manager had bought a ticket to space on a Russian rocket. How ridiculous, I thought, but what is a hedge fund?
When I started writing, I didn’t want to know too much about hedge funds. I wanted to take the idea of one, of that now ubiquitous financial thing, and use the limited and peripheral knowledge I had of one to try and compose a comedy. A limit-order I guess you could say. I wanted to explore the abstract feelings and meanings I had grown to associate with a hedge fund, and those that our society had done to embellish and prosper that meaning.
Therefore, HEDGE FUND is written by an outsider to the financial world, not unlike it’s characters. I believe this to be crucial in my comedic formula, as it allows for a greater freedom as well as interpretation. Does anyone really know what they’re buying or selling?

CM