Cartoon: The Great Computerized Novel

Cartoon of angry man at pc. Man says, “How am I supposed to write the great American novel when my computer thinks my manuscript stinks?”

This is a classic cartoon I did back in 1996 for the sixth edition of the "New Rider's Internet Yellow Pages."

No matter how far technology advances, computers will never be able to write the great novel. Why? Because none of us ever know what it is until we see it. The arts are just too wonderfully mysterious.

In Michael Gelb's book, "How to Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci," he called the mysterious, "sfumato." It means going up in smoke. It's the ambiguity and uncertainty in the arts. No computer will be able to mimic that. A PC will go up in smoke if it has to embrace ambiguity.

New Rider's Publishing and me own the copyright to this image. Please do not use without permission.