March 3, 2000

E-Mail and the Law of Unintended Consequences

By LUCIA PERILLO

I used to pooh-pooh e-mail as a harbinger of the death of literate culture, though I suspect the cause of my disdain was really my being simply too cheap to buy a new computer. My old 286 was little more than a glorified typewriter, but perfectly serviceable. What did I need but a typewriter? I even toyed with the idea of chucking computers altogether, becoming one of those writers whose photos show them posed with their manual Olivetti. That picture fit the image of

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