And, computers are hype! No doubt about it. And Internet publishing is too cheap and easy! Damn that Gutenberg. This all started with his mechanical printing press. Hand-scribed documents on prepared parchment: now there's a book. Think of all those monks out of work. (Insert vigorous head shake here.)

Bill Henderson* is quoted by Mark Garvey in an article entitled "Unplugging for the new milennium."** Henderson says, "I think the real danger for writers is that they think, ' I won't even try to get this published. I'll just blast this off over the Internet, and I'll be published right away.' What they are calling publishing is not publishing at all. They never bother to revise, they probably never get much feedback. It's just too damn easy to kiss it off into the wind and think that all those million of people around the world are reading it. Well, they're not, it's just joining the rest of the garbage stream."

Bill Henderson is also critical of the typewriter. In 1996, he published The Minutes of the Lead Pencil Club.*** His premise is that all you need to write is a pencil, paper (and language, I presume). He obviously considers more than these to be dangerous to the art of literature. He regards the ubiquitous promulgation of computers and networks to be the result of "hype," driven by commercial interests.

I disagree with the 1994 New York Times Op/Ed article by Bill Henderson, but I will defend his right to this curmudgeonly attitude to the very last IBM Selectric(tm) typewriter. Which, by the way was produced years and years ago.

Here is the fallacy of his argument: we live in a demand economy with ruthless competition as a driver. Technology which is only hype and has no advantage does not survive the market test. The reason small businesses all over the western world have adopted computers, is because they are much more than hype. They are power. They are leverage which increases production, increases accuracy, extends the ability of each and every employee.

Hype? Tell that to the thousands and tens of thousands of ex-employees who used to be required to "man" the typewriters. Down-sizing was not hype; it was painful. Change or die, Bill Henderson.

The Internet has come under attack-by-slur in his article. It is very popular to say that if it only appears on the Internet, then it hasn't been "officially" published--only thrown before the ignorant masses huddled before the flickering light of CRTs.

Would it surprise anyone to learn the very same argument was made regarding printed vs scribed books? The ignorant masses with their cheap books and tracts and broadsides would ruin the high art of literature--which was a holy thing; and not to be cheapened by mass distribution.

We've heard it before. It is the cry of FLAT EARTH!