10,000 Words A Minute

Not particularly relevant, but too good to pass up: I was reminded of this bit from Norman Mailer by a brief item on NPR this morning. I wanted the longer quote (from "10,000 Words A Minute") and Google delivered:

... Mailer's description of the reporters drinking and smoking and trading anecdotes in the press room: "So they char the inside of their bodies in order to scrape up news which can go out to the machine, that enormous machine, that intellectual leviathan which is obliged to eat, each day, tidbits, gristle, gravel, garbage cans, charlotte russe, old rubber tires, T-bone steaks, wet cardboard, dry leaves, apple pie, broken bottles, dog food, shells, roach powder, dry ball-point pens, grapefruit juice. All the trash, all the garbage, all the slop and a little of the wealth go out each day and night into the belly of that old American goat, our newspapers...

"So great guilt clings to reporters. They know they help to keep America slightly insane."

If he thought that was true of the newspaper press, what would he make of the blogosphere?