Double Saddam's Doubles

So yesterday I wrote that I was writing a play on a nameless dictator and his doubles. Then I open my copy of the The Guardian newspaper to find a short story by Martin Amis about a dictator and his (many, many more) doubles.

I knew that it was not exactly an original idea so I am not miffed (after all, I don't kid myself that I am challenging Amis fils for a place in the literary pantheon); moreover, I've written in a different medium. I suspect others will be miffed, though. I dimly recall a friend telling me of an novellist chum who had also written a short story with this theme.

In fact, this does give me an idea: I could approach the finely dentured scribbler and suggest that I write on his behalf – a literary doppleganger as it were – taking the critical flak. Then again, recalling the reaction to Yellow Dog, perhaps he has already got one.