Disch's The M.D. and The Businessman: A Tale of Terror (1984; see separate entry) are closely linked by themes and subject matter. The Businessman offers a more extensive view of the spirit world and how it interacts with the world of the living, and much of the plot flows from a conflict between good and evil spirits. As in The M.D., evil is portrayed as grotesque, debased, and downright stupid, and as in The M.D., literary conventions are turned topsy-turvy as it is the living who haunt the dead. The comedy in The Businessman is broader and plainer than in the M.D., although it too has satirical purpose, as when a statue of the Virgin Mary hops madly along in an effort to catch the elevator to Heaven.