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A L S O_ T O D A Y 21st Log It's Linux show time!   T A B L E__T A L K Would an anti-virus software company create new viruses just to prove the value of its product? Check the rumors in Table Talk's Digital Culture area   Search for technology books, software and more at barnesandnoble.com Search by:  Keyword Title Author     ____________________ Technology news from Java to run on Linux ____________________   R E C E N T L Y In defense of day traders By Paul Kedrosky Don't blame them for Net-stock volatility. They're just doing their job: Making the market more efficient (03/01/99) Crips, Bloods in the Web 'hood By Greg Brouwer Are gang sites for real or for wannabes? (02/26/99) Hotline's civil war By Janelle Brown The company behind a hot program takes its teenage inventor to court -- while devoted users stew. Second in a two-part series (02/25/99) Hotline to the underground By Janelle Brown It was invented by a teenager. It's simple to use. And it can turn anyone's computer into a server of legal or illegal files. First of two parts (02/24/99) The Drudge dynasty By Janelle Brown Matt isn't the only member of his family to stake out a place on the Web (02/23/99) - - - - - - - - - - BROWSE THE 21ST FEATURES ARCHIVES - - - - - - - - - -

TERRORS OF THE AMAZON | PAGE 1, 2 - - - - - - - - - - Once the book actually hit bookstores, it didn't take long for readers to start speaking their minds. The first of them, as it happens, was a friend of mine -- since his name's Max, let's call him Max. "WARP is one clever, stylish, and sleepless weekend in the abyss that is life-after-college," wrote Max. He gave it four out of five stars. So far, so good. But matters went downhill from there. "This book is infantile trash," wrote the next reader. "Rarely have I read a book quite as puerile as this one." One star. "Unreadably trite. The main character is extremely self-absorbed and the narration suffers from the author's arch media references." Two stars. "Worthless tripe ... The world doesn't need any more books like this." One star. I'm a proud man, but my poor book was being pilloried in a public marketplace. Action was called for! You can probably guess what happened next. As a novelist, I'm comfortable with fictional alter egos, so I went undercover. "I loved this book," I wrote, posing as "a reader from" (for some reason) "Philadelphia." "I highly recommend it." Five stars. But the readers struck back. "Lame, lame, lame ... I kept waiting for the book to get better. It didn't." One star. "Nothing to write home about. Read this book in 30 minutes standing up in a bookstore. Didn't seem to demand closer reading than that." One star. Thanks for nothing, Washington, D.C. How could I stand by and watch this happen? It was like seeing your kid die onstage in his fourth-grade musical. "To the person below who gave the book 30 minutes, I say, keep reading!" I wrote, this time assuming the guise of a reader from Atlanta. "It's hilarious the way Grossman weaves the story together ... The best debut I've read in ages." Five stars. For a few months, silence from both sides. Were they on to me? Could the readers, like killer bees, like rattlesnakes, smell my fear? Fuck 'em, I say! "Fabulous," I wrote, a little hysterically, as "reader from New York" (my disguise was wearing thin). "Utterly original ... Don't miss this -- really." Five stars. At least I'd managed to up my average rating (helpfully computed for me by the folks at Amazon) to a break-even two and a half stars. Amazon's Curry estimates that over the course of its four-year history, Amazon's 6.2 million customers have contributed around 2 million reader reviews. (Barnesandnoble.com also allows readers to review books, although it didn't add the feature until last October, and participation has been sparse. So far, a spokesperson told me, they haven't had a single author stop by to comment on his or her own book.) To my eye, the vast majority of the reader reviews are surprisingly articulate and well-intentioned, although Curry did recall one instance when a review of the Bible had to be removed because it was signed, "God." Christopher Morse swears by his reader reviews. "Not only do I read them," he told me, "but every author I know reads them, and so do agents and editors. It's the only forum I know of where the readers can review a book -- and as an author I'm not suspicious of some hidden agenda, which I often am with professional reviews." Now that Amazon is selling CDs, musicians are getting into the act, too -- if you're a fan, don't miss Kristin Hersh's eloquent commentary on her latest album, "Murder, Misery, and Then Goodnight." What happened to me when my readers started writing back? It wasn't just the loathing, although God knows that stung. It felt like an invasion of my turf, something that flew in the face of my conviction that I, a "professional" writer, had somehow earned the write to speak, while my readers -- rank amateurs! -- hadn't. But there's a broader dynamic at work. According to German philosopher Jurgen Habermas, readers and writers have been growing apart over the past 400 years or so. In the 17th century, the theory goes, most of the literate English-speaking people in the world more or less knew each other, and they all read and wrote, and they all read what each other wrote. But in the 18th century a rift opened between readers and writers. So many people were becoming literate that not everybody could publish anymore -- there were more readers but proportionally fewer writers. Writing became a separate, professionalized craft, something qualified writers did to make money, rather than something all literate people did as a matter of course. Which pretty much brings us up to the present day. But Habermas didn't count on the Internet. Whatever else it may or may not be doing, the Net is pushing the pendulum back the other way, narrowing and blurring the Habermasian rift between professional writers and their readers by giving the readers a chance to talk back. Writers are getting to know their readers again -- and like two people who've been in the sack together but have never actually seen each other by daylight, sober, the encounter is more than a little awkward. In October, exactly a year after "Warp's" official publication date, the last (so far) of my customer comments appeared. It stuck to the formula. "Not only did I not like this book," a reader from Los Angeles wrote, "but I resent the fact I spent time reading it. I strongly suggest that this book remain unread." One star. I blinked. Yes, it still hurt. De Botton tells me that he doesn't even read his reader reviews on Amazon: "I get too sad if anyone is nasty about me." I sympathize. But I'm also toughening up. Rereading my latest pan today, I think: Is that the best you can do, reader? This town is big enough for the two of us. Bring it on, I say! I've seen worse. SALON | March 2, 1999 Lev Grossman is the producer for Time Digital. He's currently at work on his second novel.