Doris Lessing falls in same hole as 1,000 other pundits

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2224159,00.html

“Writing, writers, do not come out of houses without books. We are in a fragmenting culture, where our certainties of even a few decades ago are questioned, and where it is common for young men and women who have had years of education to know nothing of the world, to have read nothing…

We never thought to ask how will our lives, our way of thinking, be changed by the internet, which has seduced a whole generation with its inanities so that even quite reasonable people will confess that, once they are hooked, it is hard to cut free, and they may find a whole day has passed in blogging.”

Er. Who wants to tell Doris about the free books projects, about the authoritative and insightful articles which spread as far as they eye can see on subjects from Aardvarks to Zeppelins? Who wants to explain that it takes all sorts, this blogoshpere. Some of us have read quite a lot, others not so much. Some of us use the internet for porn and free movies. Others for enlightenment and education, games, communication and – yes – reading (and porn, and free movies).

It’s not a new viewpoint either; “your media is not real media. This box is not a worthy thing, the internet is a load of old bollocks” sounds achingly familiar. It’s just a pity that Lessing has fallen into the same trap; somehow, I expected more of her.

My head is full of gunk. This chap puts it much better: http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/steven_poole/2007/12/a_writers_companion.html