Mark Zuckerberg's Paper
Friday, February 4, 2022
I got a message from Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook fame that I should come up north to meet him to discuss the possibility of using me as a writer for a new Facebook concept called “Paper.” I immediately arranged a flight and went to his campus-like office. What surprised me the most was that his office was small, and it seemed he didn’t have a table to work on.
When I walked in, he watched Fernand Léger’s film “Ballet Méchanique” on a giant screen TV that I found odd and slightly off-putting. He got up to shake my hand and told me that he has a hard time following straight narratives, so he prefers experimental or artistic films. We took place on his couch and watched the silent film together. While the images were in front of me, he told me that he admired my series of journals that I posted on Facebook. He wanted to know if I would be interested in working with him on his new project, “Paper.” Since I was basically unemployed and going slowly broke, I said sure. It was at that point he turned around to face me directly. He told me that Facebook is a landscape where things can happen, but now with “Paper,” he wants programming and written out narratives for the site.
For instance, he was fascinated by how people on Facebook reacted to the Woody Allen case. Most probably consider this an old issue, and who cares at this point and time. Alas, this doesn't seem right because a typical citizen of Facebook is very much concerned with the world around them, but they need that ‘world’ to be defined or packaged in a way for people to address that specific narrative. Or, if it doesn’t have a narrative, then it must have one attached to the piece. Another example is the unfortunate death of Philip Seymour Hoffman. Here’s a tragic incident where a very talented actor dies before his time, but alas, there is a narrative in the works here as well. People strongly believe that he should have done something besides being a junkie. Even though the story is not finalized, individuals are already putting their narrative to his death—so many issues are involved here. The never-ending sobriety process is odd enough because the very word ‘sober’ means being severe, sensible, and solemn. Which is nothing wrong with that, but shouldn’t there be a much better term to express fun, adventure, and enlightenment without getting smashed?
Mark and I looked back at the screen. It’s funny thinking back that both of us were mainly looking at the movie instead of each other while talking. In a nutshell, Mark asked me to go through the day's stories and re-write them in a more entertaining style or a narrative where there is a beginning, a middle, and an end. Mark told me, “Shit happens, but not on Facebook, Tosh.”
I told him I’d take the job. He said cool and then called his secretary in. She entered the office and introduced herself to me without waiting for Mark to make the actual introductions. “My name is Joan Vollmer, and I will be assisting you while you work on this project,” I said goodbye to Mark, and then Joan led me to my office, which like Mark’s office, didn’t have a work table. I did have a giant screen TV with a DVD package near it. It was Marcel L’Herbier’s “I’Inhumaine, ” another silent film.
Joan said that she has been with Facebook for ten years, and before that, she was married to a writer in Mexico. When she left the office, I put on the L’Herbier film and wondered what my life would be like now.