Silly Little Country

Not a good sign

I typed 'Margaret Atwood' into this dialogue and noticed two things I found quite disturbing.

One is that Alice Munro's name appears to be misspelled.

Worse, Anne Tyler winds up positioned close to Atwood. This shows me that the criteria they are using have nothing to do with me and what I care about when I read. Atwood for me is a cold fish, almost lacking any sense of human empathy, while Anne Tyler's novels spill over with the glorious messiness of real life and make me care totally about her characters. I cannot recall ever having a single sympathy with an Atwood character. (Mind you she has a wonderfully savage sense of humour.)

Perhaps I should try more than one experiment.

UPDATE: Tried 'James Joyce'. Again the artifice determined the mapping more than the heart.

UPDATE2: Tried "Scott Turow". And got John Gresham nearby????

posted by Alan Adamson @ 8:41 AM