Hey guys—

 

A pass from Doubleday.  Gerry’s comments here are starting to point to an overarching issue for which having this outline document might be very, very helpful.  Enough people have said, now, that there’s a concern about perspective / being too close to the material to tell the story in a quasi journalistic way (journalistic only in the sense of have enough distance to lay out a discernible narrative).

 

Barrett, have you made any progress on that front?  If so, I may be able to use it to stave off passes from editors who’re on the bubble.

 

Mind you, we have a number of editors intrigued as is, so I’m not waving the white flag.  

 

ALSO:  I leave tomorrow for a conference in St. Louis, will be out of town till Sunday afternoon—so we’re going to figuring out our schedule on the fly, with my assistant Stephen Barr’s help.  PLEASE CC HIM ON EVERYTHING going forward, and please be sure to give us both your cell #s and your contact info for when you’re here in New York.

 

More to come today!

 

-Dan

 

 

Dan, I know there is a book in this subject, but I am not at all sure there is a book in this proposal.  I had the hardest time finding any narrative through line in here, but I can’t  really tell if that was because I am of the pre-digital generation and don’t think about  things in the proper post-digital fashion, or if this is simply not well constructed in the narrative sense. It feels to me as if Gregg Housh is so in the middle of things that he doesn’t have the perspective to know what a reader does not know and would need to be told.  Add to that layer of uncertainty my ambivalence as to whether Anonymous is actually a force for good in the world or a bunch of folks who basically like to fuck shit up, and I have to conclude that I am not the right  editor for this project.   

 

 Thanks for  the look, though, and good luck in finding an editor who feels differently.

 

Best,

 

Gerry  

 

 

Dear Gerry,

 

Here, as discussed, is the proposal for an absolutely fascinating behind-the-curtain glimpse at the notorious—and apparently fearless—‘hacktivist’ collective known as Anonymous.  The targets for Anonymous’s particular brand of outlaw activism—all part of their global campaign against injustices and abuses in the realm of freedom of speech and freedom of information—have included (so far) foreign governments (Egypt, Libya, Tunisia), major corporations (Sony, Visa, MasterCard), sanctimonious ‘religious’ organizations (the Church of Scientology, the Westboro Baptist Church) and powerful governmental agencies (FBI, CIA, NATO).  Nobody, apparently, is off-limits.

 

As Kevin Mitnick’s current New York Times bestseller Ghost in the Wires has demonstrated, there is a real fascination out there with the culture of hacking and the internet.  Gregg Housh and Barrett Brown, the authors of ANONYMOUS: Tales from Inside the Accidental Cyberwar—and the two most visible public figures known to be associated with Anonymous (both of whom have provided invaluable access & insight regarding the modus operandi of Anonymous to reporters hungry to make sense of it)—take Mitnick one step further, showing how that culture can be harnessed as an engine for social change.  Even when (as is often the case for Anons) the “engine for social change” rhetoric is really just a terrific excuse to indulge in some weaponized chaos…

 

And therein lies the magnificent contradiction of this culture.  Patriotic vigilantism?  Animal House pranksterism?  Both?  Whatever the true alchemic mix is, it’s a wild and fascinating ride, laid bare here for the first time.

 

Call me when you’ve read this, OK?

 

—Dan

 

 

Literary Agent

Writers House

(212) 696-3825