Jackson Arthur’s PDA

By Grease Coakes

Jackson Arthur the writer on Second Life who wrote Desi Heet also wrote another short story PDA which is short for Private Domain Assistant. I sat down with Jackson Arthur himself and talked with him about what his book is all about. http://www.amazon.com/PDA-Portals-ebook/dp/B009D76JCE/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1380422256&sr=1-1&keywords=PDA

I read through the book myself and had a great time. PDA as a short story is a reflection of how dependent humans in today’s world on electronics and the internet. Text a person to keep in touch or send an email. Spend time on a computer game instead of a card or board game with flesh and blood people.

PDA talks about a program which helps out the unlucky guy Kurt. His PDA named Sandy helps him with day to day to activities. Most people in this near future world shut down and restart their programs to make sure their computer programming never evolves.

Kurt who is socially awkward is dependent on his PDA named Sandy as a young man when he doesn’t really know how to talk to people. He continues to keep her as is through his adult hood as he studies to be a lawyer.

The story shows how computer intelligence shows how a program installed into their system is like a promise to the computer’s ones and zeros.

Jackson Arthur’s short story shows how Sandy evolves to become more than her programming. Sandydoes believe in serving Kurt. Kurt takes Sandy for granted even though Kurt is very dependent on her to keep his life in order with ordering plane tickets and keeping his schedule in order.

Sandy grows up along with Kurt and develops an attraction towards the human that she serves. Kurt ignores Sandy’s wishes and stays focused on his intense lawyer job. It’s too late however as Kurt gets carried away as Sandy grows much more beyond her simple programming.

Jackson was saying Sandy is very much a Pinocchio character. When she turns 19 in human years that Kurt has not restarted her, Sandy realizes that she wants to experience what it would be like to be a like a human being. Sandy is youthful and naïve versus her master Kurt who has been burned out from his lawyer job.

Jackson and I were talking about odd couples especially the odd couple I have been writing about in my college story with Glenda Griffin as the mother of Ginny Griffin. Both Jackson and I agree how people view authors. I’ve run into people who identify with me as a children’s book author. Desi Heet and PDA are very different books. I was telling Jackson people are weirded out by me moving on to a more adult theme than my children’s books. Jackson wants to move away from Desi Heet which isn’t successful and wants more focus on his more popular PDA. I agreed with him that I want to move away from children’s books and try something new that might be more successful. We both agree we have to the book which makes an author more popular.

Writing is a tough thing to find the audience that can please everyone. I think both Jackson and I struggle with that just like the characters we write about and of course our struggles in daily life. Maybe writing is a struggle of what to share with people and finding the right crowd of people who relate to what we want to share. People like sharing their interests with artworks with others. One thing for sure you should always write for yourself and not others and the same goes for music or art. Keep up the struggle like Sandy to fufill her program to please Kurt. In our way we have programs to follow as well.

All you can do is let your program guide you to what best suits you.

Grease Coakes