For Missy
Margaret Atwood's new invention:Atwood is developing a remote book-signing machine that will allow readers to get their novels autographed without the author having to traipse to bookshops across the globe. The idea occurred to her while undertaking gruelling tours with Oryx and Crake last spring.
"Last time I did a tour in Britain it was pretty horrendous," she said. "This will mean a lot less angst, inconvenience, starvation, sitting in airports and eating out of minibars."
I thought of you immediately. :)
P.S. Everyone:
If you look under the Blogger button at the right, you can see what I've started. We can either just put a bunch of favorite links under one heading (example #1) or each have a few fav links under our own names (example #2). I'd love to spruce this up a bit. Which one do you guys think is better?
posted by amcorrea @ 1/27/2005 05:17:00 PM
12 Comments:
okay - not to be cynical on my very first comment, BUT...well... SERIOUSLY??
don't get me wrong, i like atwood as well, but traipsing all over the world to bookshops and meeting those annoying people who call themselves your fans is part of the life. it would be better for her just to say that she'd rather not bother than to send a robot in her stead. really, would YOU show up to the Margatet Atwood automated book-signing?
but then again, maybe atwood has made enough money now that she doesn't really need readers anymore. or, she could invent a machine that could buy and read her books too??? hmmm...
Nicole!!! :D
Nice.
For more on "book-touring femmebots," see here: http://maudnewton.com/blog/index.php?p=4657
Ana Maria: thanks for the Maud Newton link, which led me to this priceless gem contained therein:
Ayotollah Ali Khamenie: "The Fatwa is so on, baby!"
Salman Rushdie: "Oh no it's not!"
Okay, hopefully someone else found that funny...
Vic--Sorry, have not read it.
Zack--Yes, it's hysterical...but true. Last week I was freaking out, but now that I've read his response, it seems that it may have not really meant what it sounded like.
Does anyone have links they'd like posted?
Just found out Atwood was totally kidding:
http://www.tampabay.com/aboutbooks/review.cfm?reviewID=110244
Or...er...maybe not?
http://www.sarahweinman.com/confessions/2005/02/margaret_atwood.html
Vic--Been meaning to respond to your note in the Christmas card about joining the Margaret Atwood I'm-an-Obsessive Fan Club. See? I wasn't lying all those years ago! Haven't read Onyx yet--is on this year's reading plan for March, but should I move it up to February (as have not started "The Agony and the Ecstasy" yet--perhaps should wait until have Romantic Week in Villa Outside of Florence (which has not stepped out of imagination and into reality yet) planned instead)?
Handmaid's Tale, however, is a timeless favorite. Have read mine to pieces. Made Jason read it. Recommend it to everyone I know. Am going back tonight and reading it again, just because I got so excited writing this.
Oo, oo. I need to go home and calm down.
Ok, this Unotchit (pronunced you-no-touch-it) hoopla is getting pretty nuts--lots of "yes-it's-true" and "oh-no-it's-not" floating around...
Updates (and an actual confirmation note from the Executive VP of Random House Canada):
http://www.sarahweinman.com/confessions/2005/02/margaret_atwood.html
But Neil Gaiman agrees with Nicole:
"You know, I find author tours as exhausting as the next person (assuming that the next person is also an author who gets long lines of people to his or her signings and winds up on extremely lengthy and often fairly punishing signing tours) but I would like to go on record as saying that I think Margaret Atwood's remote mechanical book-signing apparatus is the work of the devil, or at least a really really stupid idea."
(His entire post--http://www.neilgaiman.com/journal/2005/01/why-automatic-kissing-machines-are-bad.asp)
Btw, I'm with Nicole--no one who has read her seething poetry (and it takes a lot for me to attempt claiming a poetic license here) could take this without a healthy tablespoon of spiteful sarcasm. If not, I'm wholly disappointed that she's lost her (granted, slicing and dicing) sense of humor.
VIC - yeah, i read oryx this summer - but i'm not sure i'd be the one to ask cause i'm not sure i took it in as a peice of feminism...
Well, she's given me my Valentine's Day anthem! :)
You fit into me
like a hook into an eye
A fish hook
An open eye
~ Margaret Atwood
A letter from Margaret Atwood:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20050212/ATWOOD12/TPEntertainment/TopStories
Item #1?
"The primary questions have been answered in the main information sheet posted on our Web page: http://www.unotchit.com. But here, in true Agony Aunt style, are the answers to some of your more anguished intimate questions.
1. Is it all a hoax?
No. It's real. Trust me. You need to have more faith."
Hm...
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