Novel Assignment

California State University, San Bernardino Department of Accounting and Finance ACCT 5360, Corporations&Partnerships, Summer6Wk1 2021

Course and Instructor Information

Instructor: John R. Dorocak, J.D., LL.M. (Tax), C.P.A.

The Ultimate Rip-Off: A Taxing Tale

by Iris Weil Collett

(pseudonym for Larry Crumbley

Professor, Louisiana State University)

Class Discussion Suggestions

This material continues our study of Administration (IRS) and Practice (practitioners)from West's Federal Taxation, Comprehensive Volume, Chapter 26. The material and Chapter 26, as well as numerous real-life examples cited in class (tales from John Dorocak boy-accountant, boy-attorney, or boy-professor) are all intended to meet the syllabus objective of coverage of the role of accountant.

At one class, we will discuss the novel. The intended and suggested format for discussion will include each student offering a 1-2 minute oral assessment of his or her experience of reading the book. This assessment may include (and need not be restricted to) the student's thoughts and feelings about the story line, the relevance of material learned for future endeavors, the helpfulness (or not) of learning through fiction. The professor will not be offended nor grade you downward for not agreeing with him. Frank and straight forward discussion in class, as always, in fact is greatly appreciated. As indicated in the syllabus, participation can only help your grade.

It is strongly suggested that you avoid cheating yourself and the hoped-for future students of this course, by [1] reading the novel (besides answering the take-home questions) and [2] keeping your knowledge of the story and the take-home to yourself and your current classmates. (Concerning these two points, see I. Berger, Zen Driving, (1988) at 163-164.)

Additional attachments to stimulate your thoughts, feelings, unconscious, intuition, etc.:

1. Heinlein, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, (Ace, 1987) at 109.

2. Csikszentmihalyi, The Evolving Self, (1993) at 42.

Concerning the need for the academic accounting curriculum to combat the negative stereotype of the accountant (particularly through fiction), this instructor has previously cited scholarly work, including the following:

Suzanne N. Cory, Quality and Quantity of Accounting Students and the Stereotypical Accountant: Is There a Relationship? 10 Journal of Accounting Education 1 (1992).

Victoria Beard, Transformation of a Stereotype: 30 Years of Accountants in the Movies, (AAA Western Region, April 30, 1993).

John R. Dorocak and S.E.C. Purvis, Using Fiction in Accounting Courses: Why Not Admit It, (AAA Western Region, May 12, 1995).

John R. Dorocak and S.E.C. Purvis, Using Fiction in Accounting Courses: Why Not Admit It, 1 Advances in Accounting Education 69(1998).

John R. Dorocak and S.E.C. Purvis, Using Fiction in Courses: Why Not Admit It? 15 Cardozo Journal of Law and Literature 65 (2004).

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Heinlein, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (Ace 1987) at 109:

I used to question Mike(s endless reading of fiction, wondering what notions he was getting. But turned out he got better feeling for human life from stories than he had been able to garner from facts; fiction gave him a gestalt of life, one taken for granted by human; he lives it. Besides this (humanizing( effect, Mike(s substitute for experience, he got ideas from (not-true data( as he called fiction. How to hide a catapult he got from Edgar Allan Poe.

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Csikszentmihalyi, The Evolving Self (1993) at 42:

The future, however, is not constrained by rules and predictable outcomes. We need to cultivate more than logic if we want to thrive in it. We must foster intuition to anticipate changes before they occur; empathy to understand that which cannot be clearly expressed; wisdom to see the connection between apparently unrelated events; and creativity to discover new ways of defining problems, new rules that will make it possible to adapt to the unexpected.

Logic can be programmed into a computer because its rules do not change easily with time. But human evolution cannot be tied to strict rules. It must remain flexible so as to seize whatever opportunities are presented in the kaleidoscopic landscape of its environment. Intuition, empathy, wisdom, and creativity are themselves part of the human evolutionary process - they change with time, events, and our understanding of them. If we programmed these qualities into a computer, they would become obsolete almost immediately because with each generation the conditions that affect human consciousness change in subtle but important ways. For example, attitudes toward women that a few decades ago were perfectly acceptable may now seem blatantly sexist. This change was not logically preordained, but has been the result of many discrete human experiences. The computer would not know how to rewrite its programs because it takes a mind dependent on a body, as it lives in a unique historical and cultural milieu, to figure out how to compute that which is not yet rational.