Internet Perfidity

[Peter Giordano]

Peter Mead said:
>The internet is just a big carrier wave now graphically interfaced to
>reach subhuman levels.  [...] We want the Internet to be a complete
>world, but it is a big telephone party line with the same veracity.
I say:
Perhaps IAM can compile a book of all the different versions of "the
internet really is ...." (As in the internet is really a cocktail party,
the internet is really a giant book that we're all writing together, the
internet is like a Hell's Angel bar, etc.) - The above is as valid as any
but there is a major difference - The internet is also archived and is a
form of text (and possibly semi-permanent text)
I had said:
>> I would add second Number two above - What is remarkable is how much people
>> want to believe
Peter Mead says:
>Less so than how much they want to take on the communication and pass it
>along, capturing some of its effect for themselves.
I say:
I take the above to heart - Isn't that what I did by passing along the
article?  I found a piece of (verifable) information which supports and
argument  I'd been making, namely that is is possible for a major author to
be offended by the lies told about him on the internet, and that the
internet is used to deliberately spread lies - My effort was to present
something solid to support my opinion but it's still my opinion
Peter Mead said:
>Pynchon's work is full of urban folk lore.  The albino alligators, the
>truck full of parrots to name two but the list runs into the scores.
>His writing indicates (to me) an awareness of our tendency toward
>consensual hallucination, which is what Gibson called Cyberspace, which
>is the internet. Jeez, it IS all connected!
I say:
I like the above - To relate it to my discussion of this list (and without
intending to hurt anybody's feelings) I think that there are some who, in
their desire to get closer to an author with whom they will never be close,
choose to accept whatever straws are waved in front of them - Perhaps I am
guilty of the same thing to a different degree - As I said above, I found
an article which I found useful so I used it (I did by the way check to
make sure that the article was correct [or as correct as I could determine
it to be])

Fiction is a vital force and I want it in my life but I want to be able so
sort out fact from fiction - Perhaps those who need to create myths about
the private lives of their favorite authors should consider writing novels
- It is a time-honored genre of the novel (see for example Colin Macinnes'
novel about Shakespeare THREE YEARS TO PLAY)

Peter Giordano
Williams College
Williamstown, MA