Peter, I think you’re exaggerating here. When Eric Snider used the word “life”, he meant that Wells requires Internet access in order to continue his career. It was an incredibly annoying inconvenience, yes, and it sucks when something like that happens to anyone, especially someone whose career was Internet-based. However, it’s not like he was going to “die” or experience anything similar to dying.

Jay: The fact that wifi is available at some coffee shops and fast-food restaurants (sometimes for free and sometimes not, sometimes for an hour or two and sometimes longer) is neither here nor there. It is the festival’s job to minimize the inconvenience to its guests — or, failing that, to compensate them for the inconvenience (through honoraria, access to movies that they have never seen before, or whatever else does the trick for the guest in question).

Again, I don’t say any of this to justify the way Wells handled the situation. I think it was wrong to tell his readers that he was quitting the panel before he told the festival organizers, for example. But if bad internet access is “death” to someone in Wells’s profession, then I don’t blame him for, well, dying.

That’s the real story, of a generation so addicted to their machines they become sniveling jellyfish. And of course, Wells is empathy autistic and his lack of awareness shows this. But good times on the blog!

The thing that astounds me is that this man who claims to be a professional has neither the will nor the intestinal fortitude to show up for the panel! I have it on good authority that very few people got sleep, but all of them made it to where they needed to be. All but Mr. Wells.