Unotchit!

Has Margaret Atwood lost her mind? Her website about a rumored, blogged, hyped, buzzed invention to allow writers to hold semi-virtual book signings is replete with technical jargon such as "gizmo" and "doodad". A page of supposed "answers" duplicates her article of last Saturday on a British newspaper's site. Vague descriptions and confusing references read like a kindergartener's cut-and-paste production. I wouldn't be so hard on an author except that the prolific Atwood was known for her exquisite writing. I adore The Handmaid's Tale. I'm not the only writer knocking this U-No-Touch-It, which Atwood claims is Blackberry-speak resulting from potential trademark infringements if she called it something more reasonable. Neil Gaiman weighed in early, hitting on my most poignant issue with Atwood's idea. Readers don't attend book signings to get books signed. They go for the same reason they stand outside buildings when they know someone rich and famous is going to walk by. We want to say, "I saw her, really I did, in the flesh", not in the machine.

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