ComptonWorld

*ComptonWorld* follows Bartholomew Whitmore IV, heir to a paper-towel fortune and aspiring connoisseur of authenticity, as he transforms a defunct Southern California paintball field into an immersive attraction based on a branded fantasy of Compton.

The workers hired to provide "lived experience" begin negotiating pay, safety, credit, and control while a documentary crew discovers that the business beneath Bartholomew's mission is more revealing than his intended story. When a founder interview goes viral, condemnation increases attendance and every institution touching the park-media, law enforcement, corporate counsel, investors, labor organizers, and eventually the workforce itself-develops a different reason to define what ComptonWorld means.

The novella uses deadpan institutional comedy to examine cultural commodification, image ownership, labor, documentary ethics, and an economy capable of turning even its own criticism into inventory.

For readers who prefer social satire where the joke keeps functioning after it stops being comfortable.