It Means

The bargain was never really the sin,
No matter whether the artificer
Tricks and wins or has to pay in the end.

For the audience, the artificer’s
Gross indulgence serves justification
For the punishment, plus thrills by proxy.

Just watching whichever version of Faust,
The wish-fulfillment becoming unhinged,
Followed by the full horror of the cost,

That’s as much of the morality play
As any moment of contract itself.
The bargain, the great metaphor, is one

Of those cultural knots twined to attract
As much meaning-making as possible.

Collaborators

This show lists thirteen writers
For each single episode.

It would be fun if things were
That linearly related—

More creators, better show.
Sadly, not all creators

Contribute equally.
Sadly? Not all creators

Can handle co-creation.
For them there are religions

Requiring only one god.
It's curious, however,

That with both gods and stories,
One, two, or three creators

Predominate at one end,
Then it jumps straight to dozens.
 

It’s true of scientific
Peer-reviewed research as well—

One, two, or three authors, then
An explosion, scores of them.

There’s some kind of law, somehow,
Operating in the brain.

It may have nothing to do
With quality of output,

But the sociality
Of creators

Who have to work together
To make anything happen.