You are reading a blog posting about Mark A. Rayner’s most recent book, The Fridgularity. You had been hoping to find a funny picture, and maybe a microfiction that played off that image, but instead, you find yourself reading another self-promotional piece about the author’s efforts to sell his satirical tale about the technological singularity.
What kind of man writes a satire about a hypothetical future in which robots — or artificial intelligences — take over from human beings, anyway? Despite your misgivings, you are intrigued, and continue to read. Is this posting going to be self-congratulatory as well as self-promotional, or will there be some merit to it. Will this blog posting waste my time? Make me angry? Or will I find in it a sense of whimsy and humor that finally encourages me to buy the damned book, so this fellow will stop going on about it?
Your finger is about to click on the mouse, and then you see there is a photograph.
This is promising. It is an amusing photo of a panda taking a picture of a young boy. It is in sepia tone, which appeals to you for some reason. Perhaps the story you had originally hoped for will now be forthcoming. But you see instead, a link to a listing of media outlets that has a news story about the author’s book, The Fridgularity: Western News, The Londoner, The Beat, Metro (London), The Daily Political, and others.
You have given this post all the time you are going to, but then you see there is an audio file as well. He did an interview with Al Coombs on CJBK radio, which is possibly entertaining. If nothing else, you would be interesting in hearing what this freak sounds like:
