Artificial: A Love Story

in which Amy debuts a video she worked very hard on about a book she worked very hard on

Dear readers,

Once upon a time, I started writing and drawing a book. In two days, on October 17th, that book will be a real book (despite the title) on shelves and in homes, and if you’d like it to be in your hands, you can order it here on Bookshop or here on Amazon or here on Barnes & Noble (Give the people more links! They like clicking things!!)

Artificial is a family memoir about me and my father, futurist and inventor Ray Kurzweil, and his father Fredric, a Viennese musician who escaped the Nazis in 1938 and died of heart disease in 1970. Artificial chronicles my father’s quest to “resurrect” his father through a union of AI and salvaged writing. AI, you’ve heard of it, yes? Perhaps you think it will liberate us from existential toil; perhaps you think it will turn us into paper clips and steal our creative labor. In my story, AI becomes an occasion and a way to connect to other humans. This is why I had to keep editing the book’s jacket copy — the blurbers used the phrase “deeply human” too many times. Anyway, I promise you the book goes deep with the human stuff, and there’s even a real love story (oo la la).

I confess, I do not know if I’m allowed to share an excerpt from the book with you, but I will link you (links!!) to an excerpt in The New Yorker here. TNY has what’s called First Cereal Rights, which means they get to decide what I eat for breakfast until the book is officially published in two days. (I think I got that right.) Welcome to publishing folks.

But this brings me to my main event and the BEST LINK yet in this short ToonStack post. Below is a video, and if you click it, it will play the official Artificial book trailer. That’s right, books have trailers now! This video took me and my friend Timour two weeks to make, but it will only take you 90 seconds to watch. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, then you’ll get very sleepy and when I snap my fingers you’ll wake up and order Artificial for your mom’s book club.

Thanks for your support,

Amy

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ToonStack NewsStack

• Amy Kurzweil wants to link you to yet more things: She is going on a book tour, so check out the tour schedule, and join her in person somewhere.

• Navied Mahdavian’s graphic memoir, This Country: Searching for Home in (Very) Rural America is out, and it’s getting rave reviews!

• Ellis Rosen’s DINK! is the perfect gift for the pickleball enthusiast in your life!

• Check out Jason Katzenstein’s Patreon!

• Amy Kurzweil teaches cartoon classes on Patreon! Sign up now to get the recording of every past class!

• Be sure to check out Shelby Lorman’s newsletter, Please Clap!

• The same goes for Sofia Warren’s advice newsletter, You’re Doing Great!

• See more cartoons from Ellis Rosen’s weekly Junk Drawer!

• Also! Hilary started a film club here on Substack!