Very cool: I just found out that the writer William Gibson linked to Only Connect (my E. M. Forster site) in his blog entry on Thursday. He talked about Forster and a way Forster has influenced his own writing. "In Forster’s sense of things," Gibson wrote, "I have always tried very hard to not be a ‘political’ novelist." Then he continued to discuss the politics of today. Thanks, Mr. Gibson, for the link.

Of all the sites I’ve ever done (not counting the sites I’ve created for work), Only Connect is by far the most visited and referenced. Prior to that it was my X-Files reviews, but never mind. (Connection alert: For non-X-Philes, Gibson co-wrote the X-Files episodes "Kill Switch" and "First Person Shooter." Hmm.)

In any case, I’m at the point where it’s no longer surprising to see traffic for Only Connect coming in via English departments’ pages, sites for book groups, blogs of people who reference the quote "Only connect" with my site, or sites of fellow Forster fans. A few years ago the site had one of its biggest surges in traffic when The Guardian published an interview with V. S. Naipaul and included a link to Only Connect. Aside from his very homophobic remarks, VSN disparaged A Passage to India and attacked the character of not only Forster but John Maynard Keynes. (I refrain from linking to the interview, but if you really want to read it, a copy is easily found via Google or the Guardian.) I wonder what readers of the article thought, after reading such harsh criticism and then clicking on the link to find my low-key, quiet site on Forster.

If the only thing I accomplish in this life is successfully encouraging people to read more Forster — and having them appreciate and be moved by his work — it’s not a bad accomplishment.