Each time I resolve technology is going to be our planetary downfall—that
some evil whiz kids from Novosibirsk are going to come here on a scholarship to
Julliard and blow up New York with a bomb they made from beaver urine—I get
some new high-tech toy and convince myself everything is just peachy.
I am the kind of person who actually worries that some chemist for the CIA’s
Chemical Warfare Division has whipped up a new toxin that will make members of
the Green Party eat cheeseburgers until their aortas explode. I despair over
pollution and the gnawing, daily fear that Los Angeles is soon going to be like
Mexico City or Indonesia: possessing year-round ale that looks like everyone is
simultaneously having a Dionysian cookout, using extra lighter fluid. And
without that inviting, smoky flavor.
Just when I envision some new designer drug coming out of a lab in San Berdoo
that will turn teenagers’ hands into hooves and lead them to slurp the blood
of their parents, I get hooked up with something like
.
And I feel all is well with the world.
The brainchild of New York literary agent, Noah Lukeman, Prepub.com is
a Web site that enables the user to access a database of info on books about to
be published. It is searchable using key words for editor, publisher, agency or
agent. In addition to number of pages, pub date and author, you can sometimes
lick your chops and note sales figures.
I have to figure that book scouts, producers and, yes, even writers of books
and scripts will benefit from this service, which provides more voluminous
research than that gleaned from the "Rights" column of the venerable Publishers
Weekly.
It was indeed pleasant to search through certain agencies, noting the variety
of upcoming titles in diverse fields such as self help, memoir, fiction, short
story and even the recent carnage in Kosovo.
Yes, I’m just a wee bit dismayed by this plethora of touchy-feely books
like Chicken Soup for the Hermaphrodite’s Soul and Conversations
with Angels, Aliens and My Dead Uncle which unfairly clog up the New York
Times Best Seller List, when the top 10 should be populated with wrenching
narratives about Milosevic stalking the Balkans in a genocidal trance.
You see, that feel-good buzz one gets from new technology wears off fast.
And that’s why I want less books about tv and film stars who beat bulimia,
crack cocaine addiction, sadomasochistic sex club binges and the incessant urge
to pick at scabs. I want more reminders of the misery we have brought upon
ourselves.
Although, I have really enjoyed getting a review copy of the CD-Rom Automated
Contacts for the Film and Television Industry, written by attorney Mark Litwak.
Released by Entertainment Publishers (www.entertainmentpublisher.com), it
contains 60 "fill in the blank" contracts in such areas as literary
submission and sale, artist employment, production, distribution and
merchandising. It’s the kind of useful technology that makes one wonder how we
got along before its invention.
It’s Y2K compliant as well, which is most useful since we all know around
Jan. 1 the world will be plunged into a hyper-vortex of techno-ruination, ending
life as we know it.
But until then, I’m kind of digging my computer.