From: media_fiend@hotmail.com   
      
   Even a quick visit to his website will reveal the egotistical (cyber) punk   
   in all his glory. He is such a wonderful (SF) writer he can't even check his   
   facts. For instance, trying to make a point about why he doesn't respond to   
   fan email, he uses as example of media obsession with celebrity a television   
   story on the birthday of one "Harry Dean Anderson," whom he claims starred   
   in the TV series MACGYVER. Well, you don't have to be a MACGYVER fan or even   
   watch television regularly (as I'm sure, with all those brilliant   
   word-strings he is obliged to come up with, he can not) that he really means   
   RICHARD Dean Anderson, currently the star of the biggest SF hit on TV   
   period, STARGATE SG-1 (no, I am not a fan or watch regularly). Now, maybe he   
   was thinking of Harry Dean STANTON, laconic indy film icon and a late night   
   snack for the titular character in the original ALIEN. The rest of his site   
   is dull and verbose, just like his recent books. So why bother? Because this   
   is postmodernism, folks (or is it modernism, I don't know, I read nothing   
   written after 1950 or so). This man is the current darling of the hopelessly   
   unoriginal "cyberpunk" genre, a contradiction in terms, as computers do   
   everything to destroy literature save actually burning the books (and this   
   will come when the machines take over in twenty years or so - see the   
   nonfiction writings of Vernor Vinge). One need not be a "luddite" to   
   appreciate that 99% of ALL great art was created long before the invention   
   of the typewriter, let alone the glowing word processor. Neal, just stop.   
   You are now stepping into Stephen "I retire, I unretire, I retire, I   
   unretire" King's domain of long outstaying one's welcome. If you were really   
   "cutting edge," or the slightest bit original, you would ignore paper and   
   printing all together and just upload your groundbreaking fiction to a pay   
   site and be done with it. Then all of your fans (a few hundred 12-17 year   
   old scriptkiddies) could swipe their parents credit card and buy all the   
   verbose meanderings you care to fart electronically into "cyberspace." The   
   rest of us will be breathing fresh air and hiking in the woods. And plotting   
   the downfall of the Megamachine ....   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)