Question to Adam Gopnik, writer:
How much time — if any — do you spend on the Web? Is it a distraction or a blessing?
Too much, too much. Writing is the process of finding something to distract you from writing, and of all the helpful distractions — adultery, alcohol and acedia, all of which aided our writing fathers — none can equal the Internet. Like everyone else, my life now is simply a string of e-mails fueled by caffeine, and when not e-mailing I am hopping from political blog to political Web site to ice-hockey fan “boards,” on one of which I live a second, secret life as an unduly opinionated commentator called “SherbrookeW.” Of course, the writer’s task is to put obstacles in the way of writing, and yet writing still somehow always has gotten done, whether through fogs of Scotch or through fields of pixels. I rush to add that I find the Web infinitely useful for rustling up information, settling arguments or locating the legends of rock stars. (I somehow recalled the name of Emmitt Rhodes the other day, a pop musician of the ’70s whom I heard exactly once on the radio 30-some years ago; I Googled his name and found in an instant his sites, his tracks and his whole tragic story.)
From here.
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