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A Virtual Dilemma

Jun 11, 2013
by Caroline Miller
"Give Me Everything You Have On Being Stalked", dark side of the web, James Lasdun, Jonathan Nolan
2 Comments

Yesterday, I read an excerpt from a book, Give Me Everything You Have On Being Stalked, by James Lasdun. It’s a harrowing account of one woman’s relentless effort to use the internet to destroy the author’s reputation. Stephen King couldn’t have run a deeper chill down my spine, particularly as Lasdun’s story is true. Someone else writing about the dark side of the web is Jonathan Nolan. Nolan and his brother Christopher co-wrote a number of screen plays, including The Prestige and The Dark Knight.

We don’t live in the information age. That would be an insult to information, which on some level is supposed to inform. We live in the communication age. Ten billion fingers fumbling away, unautocorrecting emails, texts, and tweets, each one an opportunity to offend, alienate, aggrieve, all in public and at the speed of light. (“Viewpoint” by Jonathan Nolan, excerpted from The New Yorker by The Week, May 31.2013 pg. 10.)

 Many of the problems Lasdun and Nolan point to in the virtual world stem from laws in the real one that haven’t addressed this parallel universe. Deception, aggression and all manner of evils can thrive in the shadow of the web’s anonymity.

 Both authors’ comments hit home when I opened my Facebook page later that afternoon. The avatar of a woman popped up who had once been identified to me as a stalker. She’d come in on the news feed and when I saw the image, I froze. She wasn’t addressing me but a mutual Facebook friend. Did I have a duty to speak up? Or would doing so be an unwarranted defamation of character? After all, I knew nothing about this woman except what I’d been told. Though I trusted my source, an old friend, did I have a right to judge on her word only? Thorny questions that occur in ordinary life become murkier in the shadows of the virtual world.

shadowy figure

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Courtesy of richardnorth.net)

 

 

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2 Comments
  1. Bing March 19, 2014 at 1:39 am Reply
    I am really inspired together with your writing abilities as well as with the format in your weblog. Is that this a paid subject matter or did you customize it your self? Either way keep up the nice quality writing, it is uncommon to look a great blog like this one today..
    • Caroline Miller March 19, 2014 at 7:34 am Reply
      Bing, my platform is a free one. I do not allow advertising on the site, either. I do this blog for the love of writing, thought and reaching out to others like myself who are curious about the world.

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Contact Caroline at

carolinemiller11@yahoo.com

Portland, Oregon author Caroline Miller had distinguished careers as an educator, union president, elected official and artist/advocate.

Her play, Woman on the Scarlet Beast, was performed at the Post5 Theatre, Portland, OR, January/February 2015

Caroline published a serialized novelette, Marie Eau-Claire, on the website, The Colored Lens.  She also published the story Gustav Pavel,  a parable about ordinary lives, choice and alternate potential, on the website Fixional.co.

Caroline has published four novels

  • Ballet Noir
  • Trompe l’Oeil
  • Gothic Spring
  • Heart Land

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