Philosophy of modern song was called to be a publishing milestone: the first book of Bob Dylan in 18 years he collected 60 essays focused on artists like Hank Williams, Nina Simone and Elvis Costello.
The artist characterized by his little predisposition to public exposure returned to the scene with a set of “mysterious and fickle, sharp and profound” texts, which “many times make us laugh out loud”, according to the review of the Spanish publishing house.
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But the first news was far from laughing. When buyers of the limited edition of 900 copies signed “in person” When the 81-year-old legend emerged to share his autographs online, something started a strange verse. The rubrics were similar, but always following a pattern of 17 subtle variations and with a pen pressure that seemed uniform in all cases.
The conclusion was obvious: could only have been machine made. Hard news to digest for those who had paid no less than $599 for the book and a letter that certified the authenticity of the work and the dedication
When the scandal broke, the English publisher, Simon & Schuster, should recognize the strategy and Offer refunds to dissatisfied customers. The artist’s response was still missing, which arrived on November 25. “In 2019 I suffered from an ugly case of vertigo (episodes of dizziness, sometimes associated with nausea and vomiting) that continued during the pandemic years,” he explained.
“To advance in the signing sessions you need a team of five people working alongside me, and we couldn’t find a practical and safe way to continue doing it while the virus worsened.”
The combination of vertigo and confinement meant that, in the face of the delivery dates set by the contract, “someone suggested me the idea of using a signing machineassuring me that it was something that was done “all the time” in the worlds of art and literature”, confessed the artist, to immediately assume his part: “Using a machine was an error of judgment and I want to rectify it immediately. I’m working with Simon & Schuster and my partners at the gallery to do exactly that. With my greatest regret, Bob Dylan”.
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What is the gadget about?
The first signature machines consisted of a pencil driven by an electric motor that followed, guided by the horizontal and vertical axes, the traces engraved on a plate or matrix. The current ones use a digital memory to store the signaturesand can even replicate entire pages of writing once a custom font is created for the user.
In 2005 the US Department of Justice. the president’s right to sign bills with the machine. And although the confidentiality of its use is one of the great secrets of the leaders, already in 1968 Lyndon Johnson -successor to John F. Kennedy- had allowed himself to be photographed next to his for a report that the national investigator titled “The robot that assists the president”.
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It is known that Barack Obama also authorized this option during a vacation in Hawaii. And Canadian writer Margaret Atwood went a step further by creating the LongPen, a combo that enables video conversations with readers while a book is signed remotely.
Bob Dylan He was not the first nor will he be the last to use this technology. But as he recognized the Nobel winner himself, his fans had a right to knowamong other reasons, because an automated signature is much less valuable than those that did come from the handwriting of genius.
FM J.L.
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