Lee Siegel: The Internets Is Ruining Us All - Gawker Comments

Lee Siegel: The Internets Is Ruining Us All

ShoplifterOfTheWorld — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 00:11:17 EST

@olafhumbert: You check back?
I have to concur. Perhaps the internet is to blame for clever meta-writing a la Juno, Little Miss Sunshine.
Resistance is futile.

ShoplifterOfTheWorld

Lee Siegel: The Internets Is Ruining Us All

Carol Gardens — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 10:41:23 EST

@smartster: So we can say anything we want about him and he won't know!

Carol Gardens

Lee Siegel: The Internets Is Ruining Us All

Seeräuber Jenny — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 10:51:59 EST

@AndSheSaid:
I watched the recorded show last night. I thought Stewart's decision not to go into the Sprezzatura business showed real class.

I think we now know beyond dispute* who is the more "brave, brilliant and witt[y]."

[www.dailykos.com]

*OK, this was a disputed point to just one person.

Seeräuber Jenny

Lee Siegel: The Internets Is Ruining Us All

A_Boojum_You_See — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 08:04:02 EST

"Love In A Dead Language" was written by a different Lee Siegel.

A_Boojum_You_See

Lee Siegel: The Internets Is Ruining Us All

hageesheart — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 04:49:27 EST

@picardia: I think you're both right. Social issues aside (Gawker does not equal internet, but much of the internet uses this tone: just not quite as well written), a big downside includes energy consumption.

But the social issues are pretty big. And frankly, I'm not a huge fan of the democratization of cars, and their social ramifications. Though I own one, and my life would be drastically different if I didn't.

Not to be too much the Luddite. Don't get me wrong. There's good too. I've been turned on to all sorts of things thanks to this big waste of electricity sitting in front of me that I wouldn't have found otherwise. And it's a social outlet, of sorts, that I wouldn't have otherwise, nights like these, when it's way too late to talk to anybody sane. Met and spoken to people who've become incredibly important to me. But I think a little caution and ambivalence are probably reasonable. We're all still learning how to use this, what it means. It's good to have voices of dissent along with the bubbly enthusiasts who think it'll be the salvation of mankind, freer of Red China, and freakiest Buddha ever.

hageesheart

Lee Siegel: The Internets Is Ruining Us All

ellagood — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 02:13:18 EST

ok. so we are all supposed to hate him. ever read "love in a dead language"? fucking amazing.
sure, he might be full of shit sometimes, but he wrote one hell of a book in the late 90s. and that's one more than most of us.

ellagood

Lee Siegel: The Internets Is Ruining Us All

picardia — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 00:13:14 EST

@olafhumbert: Gawker =/= the Internet.

I've made friends via online forums that I've been close to for more than a decade. (In meatspace too, not just via pixels.) I've made good professional contacts, gotten tons of research done, discovered music and books I'd never have gotten turned onto before, and seen LOLcats. Other than the omnipresent threat of carpal tunnel, I'm not seeing a down side here.

picardia

Lee Siegel: The Internets Is Ruining Us All

smartster — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 21:28:27 EST

in the interview with Stewart, Lee Siegel claims that we don't read words on the internet, we watch them. so, if words are on paper or other analog material then we can read them - digital words however, we can only watch. maybe that is why the internets is so baffling to Lee Siegel, he can't read words on a computer screen. he just watches the words and he thinks "ok when are these words going to do anything?".

smartster

Lee Siegel: The Internets Is Ruining Us All

meechybee — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 19:16:04 EST

@adminslave: first! oh, shit.

meechybee

Lee Siegel: The Internets Is Ruining Us All

meechybee — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 19:15:32 EST

Strange, I've just finished my book, "Being An Electronic Mob in the Age of Humans", publishing on-line of course.

meechybee

Lee Siegel: The Internets Is Ruining Us All

SheWalkedWithAZombie — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 18:49:01 EST

I was annoyed that Jon Stewart didn't call him on his little escapade on internet. Also. There was something about that guy that made my skin crawl. Anyone else feeling the skeeve?

SheWalkedWithAZombie

Lee Siegel: The Internets Is Ruining Us All

Arundel — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 18:37:55 EST

@belltolls:
As a Certified Angry Blogger, I resemble that too.

My torch and pitchfork is at the ready for when we villagers all go deprive Lee Siegel of his cushy livelihood.

Arundel

Lee Siegel: The Internets Is Ruining Us All

belltolls — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 17:44:45 EST

I resemble that remark!

belltolls

Lee Siegel: The Internets Is Ruining Us All

olivia2.0 — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 17:23:50 EST

Everyone watch out; I don't want to hear anymore "misleading comments" or you will ALL be suspended from the New Republic.

olivia2.0

Lee Siegel: The Internets Is Ruining Us All

Harvey Birdman — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 17:18:10 EST

From Wiki: "In September 2006, Siegel was temporarily suspended from The New Republic, after an internal investigation determined he was participating in misleading comments in the magazine's "Talkback" section, in response to anonymous attackers on his blog at The New Republic's website. The comments were made through the device of a "sock puppet" dubbed "sprezzatura", who, as one reader noted, was a consistently vigorous defender of Siegel, and who specifically denied being Siegel when challenged by an anonymous detractor in "Talkback." In response to readers who had criticized Siegel's negative comments about TV talk show host Jon Stewart, 'sprezzatura' wrote, "Siegel is brave, brilliant, and wittier than Stewart will ever be. Take that, you bunch of immature, abusive sheep."

Harvey Birdman

Lee Siegel: The Internets Is Ruining Us All

Moff — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 16:59:23 EST

@kamra: So he's having trouble with the carbon-based mob too, it seems.

Moff

Lee Siegel: The Internets Is Ruining Us All

kamra — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 16:54:30 EST

Was at the live taping, Siegel looked very uncomfortable--crowd overwhelmingly disagreed with his book and what he had to say. Stewart barely had to look at his notes during the interview as the author made it very easy to poke holes in his theory.

kamra

Lee Siegel: The Internets Is Ruining Us All

olafhumbert — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 16:44:51 EST

He's got a point. Despite the turtleneck. All gawker-snarkyness aside, I have to say he's right.

Look at these posts. Look at the tone we use here. It's all about putting something up and reading your own zinger and checking back to re-read one's own delicious wit. This isn't a dialogue. If I were locked in a room with people talking at each other the way people talk at each other here, I'd kill myself.

I'm going outside.

olafhumbert

Lee Siegel: The Internets Is Ruining Us All

mathnet — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 16:43:50 EST

@moff: Haaa!

mathnet

Lee Siegel: The Internets Is Ruining Us All

Dickdogfood — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 16:39:53 EST

You yourself comfortably adopted a false persona when you had Sprezzatura comment about one of your critics that he "couldn't tie Siegel's shoelaces." Doesn't that show great immaturity on your part?

I am too childlike to be immature.

Is that just doublespeak?

No, I'm saying it under my own name.

Dickdogfood

Lee Siegel: The Internets Is Ruining Us All

Linkletter'sDaughter — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 16:39:14 EST

Once those automobiles start taking over, people are going to miss that one-on-one human contact with sidewalks. The telephone has already isolated us from our families. And don't get me started on refrigerators with their cold, mechanical lure. When we lose the ice man, we lose a part of ourselves. The future looks bleak, confusing, soulless.

Linkletter'sDaughter

Lee Siegel: The Internets Is Ruining Us All

adminslave — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 16:37:35 EST

Then he went home and frantically attempted to post first on TMZ and Perez. LOLZ.

adminslave

Lee Siegel: The Internets Is Ruining Us All

Moff — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 16:28:36 EST

Moff

Lee Siegel: The Internets Is Ruining Us All

cockfightbarmitzvah — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 16:22:26 EST

I wonder how many of the Amazon reviews for the book were written by him as well. "5 STARS!!! BEST BOOK EVER!"

cockfightbarmitzvah

Lee Siegel: The Internets Is Ruining Us All

if_i_only_had_a_heart — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 16:18:13 EST

he is funny looking

if_i_only_had_a_heart

Lee Siegel: The Internets Is Ruining Us All

bittergreen — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 16:16:15 EST

"Electronic Mob?! But I was selected as Time's Person of the Year '06."

bittergreen

Lee Siegel: The Internets Is Ruining Us All

NYM — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 16:07:35 EST

Didn't the Uni-bomber start out like this?

NYM

Lee Siegel: The Internets Is Ruining Us All

doctordog — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 16:05:58 EST

Another retarded instance of blaming the means of production for the social disintegration effected by the mode of production. God... duh.

doctordog

Lee Siegel: The Internets Is Ruining Us All

TheHonJudgeSmails — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 16:03:56 EST

The TV is good for you though.

TheHonJudgeSmails