The American Spectator

The Internet doesn’t really change anything, it just speeds it up. You are pretty much free of commercials except these damn pop-up things. You get everything faster. You can also get great pictures on the Internet. But, it is not pleasant to read things on the Internet with a backlit screen. It is hard on your eyes. Eventually maybe they will find a way to make it a lot easier to read.

The other problem is that you have to scroll. It is primitive in the sense that the Internet is a scrolling medium. A printed book with pages was such an advance over scrolling. To go back to scrolls is to step into the past. That goes back to monks in the 13th century. A lot has happened since the 13th century to improve the technology of reading, and so far no one has come up, for sheer reading ease, with anything better than hard copy pages.

p> TAS: Did you do any research using the Internet for I Am Charlotte Simmons? br> Tom Wolfe: No, I didn’t. I had students using the Internet. But I didn’t do any. Actually I wish I had now that I know there is a web site called ratemyvomit.com, which is pro-binge drinking, especially as I have vomiting as a recurring sound in the book. /p> p> TAS: Is the media discussed in your new book? br> Tom Wolfe: No, and that’s an accurate reflection of college students. They are not nearly as conscious of the media. I noticed that 9/11 was not a jolt that affected students. There was no mass ringing of hands unless the student was from New York. For most of them it was just something on TV. /p> p>