Lee Siegel has had a worse time online than most. In 2006, as a culture critic for The New Republic, his articles attracted a stream of anonymous online abuse which his editors refused to remove. So he posted comments praising himself under the alias Sprezzatura (after the ideal 16th-century courtier’s ability to maintain a facade of effortless skill and charm). He was found out, humiliated and suspended from his job. Now he’s fighting back in Against the Machine, a book inveighing against the internet’s dangerous influence on our culture. Jo Marchant asked what’s bugging him
What’s wrong with the…
