I doubt that Scott French's novel - co-written by a computer programmed to imitate Valley of the Dolls-era Jacqueline Susann - places us, as the accompanying promo packet claims, "at a crossroads of technology in the [AI] industry." The live-fast-die-young characters, plot, and language of Just This Once do read like a 1970s bestseller, and for that French deserves credit. But if it took the computer a decade to formulate turn- page pulp like Susann's, how long would it need to write, say, like Toni Morrison? Or Joyce?
Great imitation, Just This Once proves that programming computers to duplicate fine prose is - surprise! - still too evolved for an expert system. For now, we writers need not fear losing our livelihood to automation.
Just This Once, by Scott French, US$18.95. Carol Publishing Group: (800) 447 2665, +1 (212) 486 2200.
STREET CRED
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Hi-Fi-Fo-Fum, Pick the Wallets of the Dumb
Just This Once Is Too Much
Ada, the Enchantress of Numbers
Tumbling into the Paperless Office
