Atwood and the LongPen
JA
July 18
Aside from her hugely successful career as a writer, it turns out that Margaret Atwood is also an inventor of sorts. For a few years now, she’s been championing a device call LongPen, which she envisioned and then commissioned Unotchit Inc. to design in 2004.
The basic premise is to allow authors to ‘autograph’ books via digital communication technology no matter where they are. The invention comprises of a pair of two-way video screens for fans and writers to converse and a wacom tablet, which allows the author to ‘sign’ electronically. This autograph is then reproduced at the other end via some sort of computerised pen. I’m afraid I lack the language to get any more technical than that, so have a look as the handy pictorial explanation below, courtesy of photojunkie.
Apparently, Atwood was exhausted from all the long book tours she’s had to do over the years. When she saw the electronic signing pad used by couriers, she got the idea for a similar device that would enable authors to conduct book signings from the comfort of their own home. I’m a big fan of Margaret Atwood, but I’m not sure if having computer screen and a wacom tablet really match up to being in the prescence of a living flesh-and-blood author. To me the LongPen looks just a little bit too cumbersome and a little bit too quirkily sci-fi. (And if you’re big on signed books, keep a look out for a short essay by Pepi Ronalds in the forthcoming September edition of Meanjin.)
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Comments
02 Aug 09 at 14:33
I saved this to return to a week or so ago. Here's a link to a fairly old article by the crime (?) writer Lawrence Block on the tyranny of signing which gave me some pause when I read it a while back. http://www.villagevoice.com/2004-04-20/news/signature-collection/
Perhaps it had some bearing on the development of Atwood's ghostly innovation? (And hey, the site is looking wonderful! worth the wait.)
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