meeting Mr. Cassandra

I don't have any great unique insight into what happened this morning in London. This afternoon, though, I did run into Mr. Robert Spirko, author of a thriller novel called The Palestine Conspiracy. I was browsing in the university book store, and Mr. Spirko approached and told me all about his book, which he wrote in the mid-1980s. In the novel he predicted many of the recent disasters of terrorism, but no one was willing to publish it until a few months ago. He came to Kent State's book store to see how it was selling - I guess days like this tend to be good for terrorism thriller novel sales.

Mr. Spirko struck me as a modern-day Cassandra - blessed with great prophetic vision, but doomed to be continually ignored. He explained to me his perspective on the future of terrorism, the need for more sophisticated preventive measures, the increasing ability of terrorists to evade the tightest security. Then he offered to personally sign a copy of his book, at which point I had to awkwardly try to explain that I really appreciated all he had told me, but I didn't want to buy his book.

After all, it was $15. For a paperback. And besides, I don't read thrillers, and there was a blurb on the back by "A New York City book reviewer". No name, no publication, just "New York City" - I would have been only slightly less impressed had he quoted the critical acclaim of his mom. I didn't tell him all this, I just sort of squirmed uncomfortably. I figure that if I start reading crappy thriller novels, the terrorists will already have won.

Mr. Spirko seemed to take it pretty well - he said that writers are used to rejection. Still, I couldn't help feeling bad for him, as though I had just pissed all over his birthday candles. Sorry, Mr. Spirko - please let us know about any future wooden horses you come across!