Doctorow and his cult of personality are entirely indicative of the current Portland miasma. Bandwagon blowhards who come off as snobbish know-it-alls, when in fact anyone who has interest/history with the development of the underground can see right past the sensationalism. What you call cutting edge is merely a watered-down, commercialized version of DIY activism.
Flash games and remixing and book serialization? Web 2.0? More like Web 2.nope.
If the serialization format bothers you, wait until its all done and read it in one sitting. Its free, you can't really complain