> And I do think as a writer my job of course has changed dramatically in the > last thirty years because of this new technology [смартфоны, Интернет]. So > when I began writing, say in 1995, I would go to Tibet or Cuba and I would > assume that none of my friends or neighbours or potential readers here would > ever have a chance to go to those places. So my job was to take in as many > sights and sounds and smells as possible, to import to people who have no > chance of seeing Tibet or Cuba. Now anyone of us in this room tonight can go > back to our bedrooms and access on YouTube scenes from Cuba or, on Discovery > channel, corners of Tibet that I could never go to. So as a writer you have > to claim those places that no video camera or tape recorder or multimedia > instrument can do better. And that's an interesting challenge for the writer > to face, because most of the territories that I would try to claim, or > literature would try to claim now, are internal ones. I think they have to do > with memory or silence or some personal engagement or ambiguity. If I go to > Iran next week I can't bring Iran more vividly home to you than a CNN show > could. But I can follow some invisible, inner investigation into Iran that > maybe they wouldn't be able to do so well visually or orally. So that's one > way in which writing has changed. Weapons of Mass Distraction with Pico Iyer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpDpVoM1Yy8&t=35m32s