Hollywood and Strikers Watch Clock
Sun Tzu, the Chinese sage, warned of the danger in prolonged conflict. ?Let your great object be victory, not lengthy campaigns,? he wrote in ?The Art of War.? In the next week, that advice will probably be on the mind of David Young, a leader of Hollywood?s striking writers, who has closely studied the famous treatise in his time as a hard-nosed union organizer. Now 16 days into a work stoppage, screenwriters and their employers are scheduled to talk on Monday for the first time since Nov. 4. A rapid settlement would jump-start the entertainment industry. But anything less, and Mr. Young and the writers could be stuck on the wrong side of yet another of the master?s admonitions: ?Not to besiege walled cities if it can possibly be avoided.?
See "Hollywood and Strikers Watch Clock", Michael Cieply and Brooks Barnes, The New York Times, November 20, 2007