Sunday, April 06, 2003





I'm tired of Whitley Strieber guilt-tripping his website readers into thinking they're somehow starving him financially. The site isn't even that good. I can think of at least five completely free general interest "fringe" news sites that leave Unknown Country in the dust. That said, Strieber's site isn't exactly pay-per-view. Yet. But full site access now costs $4 a month. What does this get you? As far as I can tell, some recordings of Strieber talking about his books; I think I'll pass, thank you very much.

Strieber has an annoying tendency to remind his readers that his website exists on the razor's edge of existence because of scarce funds. Give me a break. We're talking about an author who's just sold the rights to two of his books to major movie studios. And he can't maintain a site that's largely an ad for his body of work? This strains credibility and it strains my respect for an author who has been willing to offer frank, intriguing commentary on the close encounter phenomenon.

By attempting to lure paying subscribers to his site, Strieber has placed himself squarely in the line of fire of debunkers who will accuse him of lying for profit. And for once I won't blame them.

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