Now, on the web, you can view DaVinci's hopelessly damaged masterpiece at closer range than you could ever hope to in its climate-controlled grotto in Milan. The digerati think this somehow surpasses the experience of seeing it "live." Perhaps, in this tragic case, they're right. But I'm still far less impressed than they - indeed, this reminds me of a strange gulf between me and so many of my friends: they seem to prefer the gap between themselves and their "mediated" experiences more than the press of actual reality. We need to coin a word for this - "virtualism," perhaps?
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