Yet, although the literary community – in the broadest sense – is part of this paradigm shift, it is odd, and slightly baffling, how little reference is made to it in poetry, drama or fiction. Jeanette Winterson published The Powerbook in 2000, exploiting emails as a genre. In India, Chetan Bhagat (One Night @ the Call Center) and Aravind Adiga (The White Tiger) have flirted with the socio-economic impact of the new technology on Indian life. Otherwise, I cannot think (perhaps readers can help out here) of a contemporary scene or character whose narrative or development owes much, if anything, to the new technology.

Apparently, Robert McCrum is reading very different books than I am.

And ignoring the here/gone dynamic in online services making mentions dated overnight (MySpace, anyone?).

And quoting Baroness Greenfield on computers, which is a bit like asking a frothing Puritan to give sensible, considered opinion about fornication.