Kindling myths

Just read Roy Blount Jr’s worries over Amazon’s new Kindle 2 in the NYT. Apparently its text-to-speech feature will kill the audiobook business, destroying the livelihoods of all writers for centuries to come.

Oh for heaven’s sake. Has Mr. Blount actually HEARD text-to-speech? Or an audiobook? (Despite his claims to the contrary, I doubt it.) Comparing TTS to an actor’s performance on an audiobook is a bit like comparing a rock to a Ferrari: Both roll down the hill, but that’s about it.

Absolutely, positively proves the old adage: Write about stuff you know.

Authors’ livelihoods are in jeopardy for many reasons: Books are being subsumed by the Web, reading ain’t exactly in fashion, recession-caused advertising woes are killing writing jobs right and left, newspapers are dying. And the head of the Writer’s Guild chooses to spend his precious NYT op-ed space on the Kindle?

Give me a break. And somebody elect a new guild president.

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