Memoirist Michael Patrick McDonald has had enough of the wired society, he told Hartford Courant readers Sunday. It used to be that an author could maintain a certain distance between himself and his audience, and readers used to have to work to get in touch with their favorite authors. Not anymore:
“Today publishing a book means even more public life: online relationships with readers, lost relatives and friends finding you immediately by Googling, and my new full-time job as e-mail responder, as you are now expected to be on call for constant communication. Worst of all, the immediacy has meant the firing off of quick, less-thoughtful communications, and MORE communications. And all of this, of course, means less time for writing.”
And try as he might, McDonald just can’t quit the Internet. His lament was part of an entire suite of blog-themed articles in the Courant; you should also check out Elinor Lipman‘s anxiety about not blogging more and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie‘s elaboration on blog-reading habits, in which she names some of her favorites, starting with Moorish Girl, then “Bookslut and The Elegant Variation and Beatrice and Galleycat and Sarahweinman.” (Her favorite litblogger? Maud Newton.)