Against Interpellation

Did anyone else notice that the Post-It on the far left of Susan Sontag's Mac gives the directions of how to open a new file in Microsoft Word? (Visible in the paper version but not online.) Now I know that I'm a computer snob and that I have no right to make fun of people who cannot find their way around the most basic computer interface elements (even commands that haven't changed in twenty years). I know it's not the same as having a Post-It that says "Start car here" on the ignition switch in your Toyota. And I know it's not like never glancing at the embossed plastic icon in the dishwasher that shows that flatware should point downward. But it is funny (to me) that the person that Times types routinely trot out as the smartest person of the 20th century--someone who managed to be a monument to learning and bookishness but not, yuck, an academic--would need notes (several, really) to remember how to use her computer.

[Now, before you accuse me disrespecting, let me tell you that we love Susan. What I've read of hers has usually been fascinating. Plus, she sat behind Anne and me when we watched Fiona Shaw perform Eliot's Waste Land. It was all very highbrow, and she'll be missed.]