|
|
veryone goes into a slide sometimes. And everyone reaches for a different lifeline to pull out of it. David Winder's slide turned into a terrifying freefall. When he hit bottom, he found his way back by reaching for the Internet.At 27, David's wild life on the streets of London was cut short by encephalitis. He left the hospital a year later in a wheelchair -- his speech and memory severely impaired, and his family shattered. Facing a life of unbearable bleakness, David attempted suicide twice. Addicted to drugs and alcohol, he became a notorious wheelchair racer, whose adventures often ended in drunken barroom brawls. Despite his self-destructiveness, David's physical condition slowly improved. At one point, friends gave him a computer, which he used to practice hand-eye coordination. When someone connected him to the Internet, David began reinventing himself: He found an audience more interested in his ideas than his appearance, and morphed into Wavey Davey, leader of a new underground culture he keeps alive through gritty, often bitchy, weekly Web columns and his own newsgroup. "I regained respect, and above all else I regained a sense of belonging," says David, who now has 10 books on cyberculture to his credit. "The Net gave me back a role in the world at a time when I thought I didn't have one."
|
|
|
|
|
Pierced and mohawked, one-time hellion David Winder is now an author and cult figure in the cyberworld. (Photograph by Dario Mitidieri) |
|
|
|
|
David Winder, AKA, Wavey Davey,
finds inspiration for his weekly Web column in the English countryside around his home. (Photograph by Dario Mitidieri) |
|
|
