What MySpace Is Good For

I have discovered by accident and through my many hours of putting off starting a new novel, that there is a whole group of "friends" on MySpace (or is it a single person?) engaging in a new form of literature: the Proustian wormhole Match Game/Tattletales/Laugh-In school of multiversal internet identity-theft fan fiction. This has little or nothing to do with the Gilmore Girls School of Literature that I tried to get cranked up a while back. The interesting thing about this Match Game bunch is the way fiction and nonfiction overlap. For example, Charles Nelson Reilly really DID have a MySpace page, and many of the (assumedly!) fictional members of this new literary cult befriended him. One may bounce around from "friend" to "friend" to discover more of their ongoing story. I suggest starting with this account of Dick and Dolly Martin's tea-and-crumpet party. Gene Rayburn claims to "blog" from heaven. How many are the real deal? How many are in on the joke? What is the joke? Is it a joke? Would Borges be too strong of an allusion here? To get the full effect I recommend befriending (as I did) "Donna Pescow," whose profile is set to private. (Pictured, Borges and Donna Pescow. Or they will be. Right now something is wrong with that button. But imagine how awesome this "post" would be with hilariously contrasting photos of Borges and Donna Pescow! Yeah!)