Why read a book when you can go to the movies?

Why go to the movies when you can watch TV at home?

Why watch broadcast TV when you can watch cable?

Why watch basic cable when you can watch pay cable?

Why watch HBO when you can watch a DVD?

Why watch a DVD when you can watch YouTube?

Why watch You Tube when you can go to the movies?

Why go to the movies when you can read a book?

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Why watch a play when you can go to the movies?

Why watch a movie with real actors when you can watch a cartoon?

Why watch a cartoon drawn by artists when you can watch a cartoon generated on computers?

Why watch a computer-generated cartoon when you can read the funnies?

Why read the funnies when you can read a comic book?

Why read a comic book when you can read a graphic novel?

Why read a graphic novel when you can watch a cartoon?

Why watch a cartoon when you can watch a movie with real actors?

Why watch a movie with real actors when you can watch a play with really real actors?

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Why be a poet when you can be a novelist?

Why be a novelist when you can be a graphic novelist?

Why be a graphic novelist when you can be a playwright?

Why be a playwright when you can be a screenwriter?

Why be a screewriter when you can be a director?

Why be a director when you can be an actor?

Why be an actor when you can be a star?

Why be a Paul Newman or an Angelina Jolie or a Tom Hanks, or even a Linda Hunt for God’s sake, when you can be a Mickey Mouse or a Mr. Incredible or a dancing penguin?

Why watch the damn penguin in the first place when you can watch Savion Glover, which is what the penguin is made out of?

Why be a screenwriter in the first place when you can make a DVD at home and post it on YouTube and get millions of people to watch it and thereby gain a new career as a screenwriter or a novelist or a playwright or a director or a star (Linda Hunt if you’re lucky)?

Why not be a star in the first place and write a book with a first printing of a million copies, that people buy not because it’s a great book but because your name is Jamie Lee Curtis or Madonna?

Why post a home-made DVD on YouTube when you can watch a home-made DVD on YouTube, read e-mail, do instant messaging, watch cable, watch DVDs, listen to downloaded music, listen to AM, FM, XM, all at the same time, possibly all on the same screen, have your meals brought to you (if you’re lucky), never see your friends (assuming you still have any), and eventually melt down into a little puddle of protoplasm?

Or why not just get up out of your chair, walk out the door, take a breath of spring, and see what the gods bring you?

Frank Joseph
www.tolovemercy.com

P.S. Movies are on my mind. My Agent Michele calls my novel To Love Mercy “cinematic”. She has sent it to Hollywood, and not just shlepper Hollywood but Brillstein-Grey, one of Hollywood’s top-tier agencies. Imagine me sucking in a breath.

P.P.S. To Love Mercy has just been awarded Honorable Mention, General Fiction, Reader Views 2006 Literary Awards. The original Reader Views review is posted at www.ReaderViews.com and also on Amazon (”Amazing Story of Race and Religion,” reviewed by Cyndy Zoch). Check it out at www.amazon.com/gp/product/customer-reviews/0974478539/sr=8-1/qid=ARRAY(0×5876f794)/ref=cm_rev_next/002-4146889-0300022?ie=UTF8&customer-reviews.sort%5Fby=-SubmissionDate&n=283155&s=books&customer-reviews.start=11&qid=1173619562&qid=1173619562&sr=8-1