Book Box | Lessons from Frankfurt on the Everything War
That classic German drama about selling your soul? It's actually about Amazon
Dear Reader,
I am in the city of Goethe, where steel and glass buildings rise through wintry fog. On the outskirts, silver oaks and beech trees stand skeletally against a grey sky. It's cold outside but cocooned inside our black Mercedes cab, we glide over the autobahn at 160 km per hour.
As the landscape blurs by, I think back to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German poet, politician and scientist, born here in Frankfurt, two hundred and seventy-five years ago. I think of Faust, his story of a scientist who barters his soul to the devil. It feels like a nice literary reference—until Goethe’s ghost begins following me through Frankfurt, whispering uncomfortable truths about our modern lives.
It starts one morning when we are running late for a trade fair. Three different people call up Uber rides on their phones, including the hotel concierge. All their rates turn out to be drastically different and we go for the concierge's phone rate which is 17 Euros lower than ours.
Driving down the autobahn, I wonder whether we are not all like Faust, having surrendered our souls—and our data—to the algorithm. And whether the price-discriminating Uber rates via an algorithm is a preview of our larger surrender.
In The Everything War, Wall Street Journal reporter Dana Mattiolli confirms these suspicions.
Revealing the dark machinery behind such algorithms, she says, "While most consumers question little about the bits of code that determine what they see, hear and buy, algorithms are anything but neutral...Shoppers presume that algorithms are fair and neutral. Because of that naivety, algorithms have become an area where companies can hide a lot of sins without customers -and even regulators- finding out.”
I imagine Goethe observing our modern rituals - and recognising in each online shopper another Faust, as we click 'I Agree' to terms we never read. Standing here in Frankfurt, I realise just how deep our digital damnation runs. The devil, it seems, doesn’t need our souls anymore. Our data will do just fine.
And if you think that’s unsettling, read more until you see the bigger picture.
The Everything War traces the rise of Amazon, from the early days of Jeff Bezos leaving his private equity job in New York and driving across the country with his then-wife Mackenzie to find a state with lower taxes, where he could begin his new e-commerce venture. As it traces the rise and rise of Amazon, the book brings in the protagonists - people like Yale law School student Lina Khan who wrote a paper on how Amazon had become a monopoly. There’s Jay Carney, a former press advisor to Obama who joins Amazon as head of public relations and media policy. There’s Walmart CEO Doug McMillon and Chris Smalls, the Amazon worker who begins a rebellion against Amazon’s working conditions and ends up meeting President Biden.
The book tells many stories we already know—the Quidsi takeover, Alexa fund betrayals, Amazon's private label scandals—but seeing them laid out in one place is staggering. It’s not just about one company’s dominance; it’s about how we’ve collectively surrendered to the digital marketplace. Mattioli’s book feels like a modern-day Faust, where instead of unlimited knowledge, we’re chasing unlimited convenience. And just like Faust, we’re only beginning to understand the price of our bargains.
It’s a wake-up call. I want to buy a copy of The Everything War for everyone I know, starting with my husband this Valentine's Day weekend. As both buyer and seller on Amazon, he mirrors our modern paradox - simultaneously empowered and constrained by the digital marketplace. But here’s the sublime irony of this: to ensure the book reaches our Mumbai home for the Valentine’s Day weekend reading, I will have to order it on Amazon. Here’s my Faustian bargain.
What about your dear Reader? Have you been struck by the algorithms that dictate your choices—what you sell, what you buy, even what you pay? Or does the convenience justify the hidden costs of these digital deals? Would love to know your thoughts. And if algorithms are not your current cup of tea, check out these romantic reads for this weekend. Until next week, happy reading.
Sonya Dutta Choudhury is a Mumbai-based journalist and the founder of Sonya’s Book Box, a bespoke book service. Each week, she brings you specially curated books to give you an immersive understanding of people and places. If you have any reading recommendations or suggestions, write to her at sonyasbookbox@gmail.com
The views expressed are personal
