It's a mad, had world

I read an article in the Sunday New York Times, (May, 2007), about a publishing house that plans to pare down the literary classics into succinct, easy-to-chew morsels, editing out all the 'boring' parts. To celebrate the occasion, well-known authors were invited to suggest how they'd pare down certain classics. One of the many authors who delighted in the exercise was Stephen King, who reduced the 800+ pages of Gone with the Wind to a bit of dialogue and a two sentence paragraph.

At the very least, it's discouraging. What does that say to potential authors like me? That all my storytelling, all the word pictures I've labored to craft, the sensual imagery, the stern, courageous self-editing, has the potential to be dismissed as not worth the effort? Still, I take the risk.