There was a time when failure to cheerlead unquestioningly for business and free enterprise was interpreted as Communism. You had no alternatives in those days. Even as a high schooler, I do recall both 'Merchants' and 'Piano' as being very scary books when I read them. It was like they were being deliberately subversive, just short of treasonous. After all, even though they weren't suggesting a change of government per se, they were questioning the very fundamental concept of the American consumer economy. Fortunately, those days are long past now...

I liked Nichols and May, too. I used to have one of their albums.

Marketing, eh? That explains a lot. 8)