Friedrich --

Do you use Amazon.com much? I do as a shopper, and also as surfer -- I can get lost there, and happily so, for hours. As an arts fan, I find its existence and (I hope) success heartening.

I'd also make the case that it's an artistically revolutionary force, if I didn't dislike the word "revolutionary." If I were a betting man, I'd bet that in a hundred years art/lit historians will look back and decide that the advent of Amazon was much more important an art event than, say, any Jonathan Franzen or Toni Morrison novel. Why don't editors/writers/critics/artists/profs discuss this? Could it be that they're -- gasp! -- not listening to me?

I'll bore you with my fullblown Theory of Amazon later -- or, more likely, I'll do it in dribs and drabs, as time and mental energy become available. For today's installment, I focus on one fact: that Amazon has given a number of good writers and critics a venue.

For example, here's an Aussie who's terrific on Popper-ish subjects.

Here's a dazzling Irish film critic, of the annoyingly-radical-grad-student ilk.

Here's an English conservative who's smart and provocative about the Mideast.

Here's another Englishman, this one an elegant and helpful guide to early movies on DVD.

All of them strike me as considerably more interesting and entertaining than 9/10s of the writers commercial (and otherwise conventional) magazines are publishing these days.

All hail the Web. And power to the people --at least those I approve of.

Best,

Michael