Margaret Atwood has come up with a device for remotely signing books to save her the trouble of early flights and mini-bar food according to stories like, Online answer to writer’s angst, (The Guardian, Charlotte Higgins, Jan. 8, 2005.)
The company she has founded to develop this device is called Unotchit (U No Tch It – get it?) While having a video conference with an author followed by some personal message (spell checked, of course) faxed to me might be OK, I don’t see how this will substitute for book-signing which is about presence – being close to the authority. Hell, a book is mediated authority, why would I want more of the same instead of a moment of real presence?
What’s interesting is how gentle bloggers and journalists are being with Atwood. It’s a stupid idea that says a lot about Atwood that none of us want to consider because we like her writing so much.
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