Letters to the Editor
JenniferC
Published Letters: 121 Editor's Choice: 7
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You forgot to mention the antidote-- Mad Men on AMC
[Read the article: Women are the new men on TV]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The AMC series Mad Men only recently premiered and should be considered in this fall lineup, as possibly the anti-trend outlayer.
It is a 1960s retrospective about flannel-suited ad men, and will give you all the old boys' club, martini-lunching, wink-wink, secretary chasing, "honey-make-yourself-useful-and-go-make-me-a-sandwich" throwback sexism you could possibly ever want in a television series.
Also, the pregnant women smoke and drink. Hilarious!
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Cary's advice was finally right today
[Read the article: I'm an existential artist. People just don't get me!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The LW sounds like a self-absorbed brat who hasn't yet had to pay her own way in the world, and certainly hasn't had to take on responsibility for anyone else's well-being and security in the world.
Some people outgrow this hipper-than-thou crap, and others don't, and just grow stranger and more self-absorbed as time goes by. Artists are supposed to live outside the norm, anyhow, so they can cast a critical eye upon the society in which they live.
So, LW/Existential Artist-- either embrace your strangeness and let it continue to inform your art, or change your ways of thinking and start painting pictures of beautiful little snow-covered cabins with pretty yellow lights shining through the windows.
Or, find a middle ground by which you can continue to make your existential art and accept that maybe your views are just a choice among many valid choices, neither superior nor inferior to the general zeitgeist of your time.
Be glad you live in a free society that doesn't banish all the weirdos to labor camps.
If you are lonely but can't tolerate the masses, why not volunteer some of your time working with the poor or the insane. These are the people hanging on by a thread at the tattered margins of society, and they probably could use your help.
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And another thing...
[Read the article: I'm an existential artist. People just don't get me!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It occured to me, Radiohead makes extremely depressing music which amplifies feelings of strangeness, alienation and depression in the listener. It can be beautiful and complex, but I usually want to kill myself after hearing it.
If this is the LW's favorite band, no wonder she is trapped in a state of suspended alienation.
I would further advise the LW to put on a Wiggles CD, or search YouTube for some classic Sesame Street clips. Toddler music is ALWAYS cheerful. It is all about the simple pleasures and peculiarities of life, like brushing one's teeth or sneezing on a meatball. Toddler music will lift your mood and help you see the world a little differently.
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Jr. Wells quoted Sartre
[Read the article: I'm an existential artist. People just don't get me!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I wondered if someone would eventually quote Sartre.
I remember a long wasted afternoon reading "Nausea" as part of an existentialist philosophy class in college. When it got to the part about the narrator sitting in the cafe, contemplating how the coffee mugs were making him ill, or some such drivel, I think that was when I threw the book against the wall and went outside for some fresh air and sunshine.
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Great piece
[Read the article: Romney and Huckabee's religious intolerance ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I too, cringed reading Romney's comment "there can be no freedom without religion." YIKES! I studied history, I agree with Mr. Conason that religion is antithetical to freedom and tht separation of church and state is the only way to ensure freedom of conscience. GREAT WRITING! I hope the idea gets emailed all over the 'net.
Look at the way Catholics and Christians are jumping all over the Golden Compass today-- a story I am as yet unfamiliar with, but after seeing Narnia through an adult lens, I can say this, the Chistian allegory never appeared more absurd than watching Anslan humiliate and sacrifice himself in accordance with some arbitrarily imposed, unexplained and completely irrational rule of existence that required someone to be punished to the death because some selfish kid let a stranger give him candy.
For us parents who want alternatives for our children, is great that there is an author willing to write moral adventure stories about the struggle between good and evil that aren't necessarily tied to the Christian myth.