To some extent the internet makes clear that those walls never existed in the first place. Authors, with rare exceptions, aren't secluded from the world. I worked with Pat Conroy's daughter in high school, and Robert Olen Butler's son was a roommate at summer camp. It's always been the case that one could find oneself in a social situation with an author, which can complicate one's relationship with their works. I think that distance looks like a wall because it makes someone less accessible, and the internet obliterates distance.