Atwood: Autographs Are SOOO Exhausting
Readers have been quick to defend Margaret Atwood after her recent literary blackout: she was only admiring her shoes, she likes listening with her eyes closed, she huffs copious amounts of paint thinner, she's Canadian — of course she's going to be boring. (Sorry, Ottawa!) But an astute member of the literati offered the best excuse on Atwood's behalf: the author is exhausted because she hasn't yet perfected her wacky virtual-autograph-signing robot. Per the New Yorker:
Her contraption is a kind of two-way video hookup with a robotic pen arm. An author can sit at the kitchen table in her pajamas and make a personalized inscription on an electronic screen, while, in a distant mall, the robotic pen replicates the message on the title page of a fan's propped-up book. Atwood came up with the idea last spring, during an expensive and exhausting three-week publicity tour for her novel "Oryx and Crake."
Our only question: does it vibrate?
P.S. Hang in there, Margaret — only three days left in the PEN International Festival for Really Obscure Novelists from the Slowly Developing World.
