Contact?
Chris' post below about Murakami's email contact with readers did make me wonder. What do people email him about? I have no wish to quiz authors on the books they write. I'd rather email the book itself.
Also, Chris is wrong in thinking Murakami is the first to have such an intimate relationship with his audience. I'd guess that Shakespeare was in daily contact with the inhabitants of the flea pit. Perhaps they asked him to write more lyrically, to use more arcane language, to write lines that only a knowing elite could understand, and to write about introspective Danish princes. Perhaps the public was Shakespeare's genius. What do you think?
