The Internet is a huge boon to free speech -over 2 billion webpages are out there, showing people's thoughts, dreams and stories. Whatever you go looking for, you will find. The Web is Caliban's mirror - when I go there I find a community of intelligent discourse, wry jokes, technological assistance and the greatest works of human history, lovingly transcribed by those who care about them. Oddly, when Jack Valenti looks there, all he finds are thieves, hucksters and crooks.

In his preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), Irish humorist Oscar Wilde defines two kinds of literature by the hostile reactions of readers: “The nineteenth century dislike of Realism is the rage of Caliban seeing his own face in a glass. / The nineteenth century dislike of Romanticism is the rage of Caliban not seeing his own face in a glass.” Professor John Hunt comments: “Wilde’s meaning seems clear enough: the self-absorbed bourgeois are like Caliban, the anti-hero of Shakespeare’s The Tempest— resistant to all civilizing influences. When realistic art accurately imitates the bourgeois, they are outraged to see themselves represented so unflatteringly. But when romantic art offers an alternative, expressing the avant-garde genius of the artist, the bourgeois howl in protest at not seeing anything like themselves.” (Ulysses Project)

By focusing on the condition of the looking glass, Joyce suggests the artist does not start his work with a clean slate. Rather there is considerable baggage he or she must overcome. This baggage might include colonial conditions or biased assumptions. Form and context influence content.

This is the Caliban's mirror effect again. I find intelligent dicourse on the web. Chernin finds pornography and worthless content. All human life is there. What you find is what you look for.