Letters to the Editor
pacificwhim
Published Letters: 201 Editor's Choice: 37
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Everybody Poops
[Read the article: The bowel movement]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I bought my 3-yo daughter the book, "Everybody Poops" and she's absolutely fascinated. She thought she was the only person who had this stuff coming out of her bottom. She said, "Daddy, you make caterpillars out of your bottom, too!" I almost fell off my chair laughing.
I think of this book as the adult version of "Everybody Poops."
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Dawkins...
[Read the article: I don't believe in atheists]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...is not an evolutionary biologist. He's a zoologist. Just so we have our facts straight.
We now return you to your offended atheists beating the crap out of Hedges while missing his entire point that fundamentalism of any stripe, religious or non-religious, is a danger.
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And the misanthrope of the month is...
[Read the article: Still has a mouth, and still must scream]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]OK, I love Harlan's writing. I've devoured his work since I was in college, especially incredible essays like "From Alabamy With Hate" that stay with you for decades like a splinter in the eye. I was fortunate enough to interview him for a few minutes when I was an intern with Los Angeles magazine back in 1986. He's a genius, and his refusal to budge one inch toward compromise with the dehumanizing crap machine that is corporate pop culture is an act of pure bravery.
But Salon, what's up with the bitter old farts? I mean, first George Carlin and now Ellison? What, you couldn't dig up Vonnegut and let him wax miserable about the human condition from beyond the grave? Carlin, Ellison, Zappa and their ilk all suffer from a common disease of the truly visionary and passionately gifted: they are blind to the truth that most human beings are not geniuses who are driven by otherworldly fire to create and defy and rage against the dying of the intellect. They're just ordinary folks shuffling along trying to get by, trying to maintain some sort of moral center while beating their heads against the wall of a culture and economic system that wants to suck the money out of their marrow. And they've made your career possible, Harlan, by buying your books and watching your teleplays. Shoot them in the head for not knowing who Bessie Smith is? Fuck you, Jack.
Is this the start of a Misanthrope of the Month column or something? You gonna do a fireside chat with Chuck Manson next? How about a three-way with Osama bin Laden and the Unabomber? Better yet, try mixing in some geniuses who know how goddamned lucky they are to have spend decades making a great living doing something most people only dream about doing. You know, folks with perspective and humility.
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Obama was right
[Read the article: Rev. Jeremiah Wright isn't the problem]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I've listened to several conservative friends opine about how Obama has doomed his campaign by not severing ties with Rev. Wright years ago. What good would that have done? Does anyone really believe the Right wouldn't have dug his Trinity Church membership up in a nanosecond and brought the story to the fore anyway? The only difference would have been that Obama would have been accused of engaging in a cover-up of his past affiliation with Wright, making the whole affair far more damaging.
As for this nation's absurd, adolescent aversion to any questioning of our virtue, Gary hits it right on the screws. Look at the comment boards of mainstream papers like the NY Times after stories like the ones that have run today about reaching 4,000 dead in Iraq. You'll find the most pathetically brain-dead pseudo-patriots you can imagine, spouting the usual mindless lines about Islamo-fascists and Defeatocrats.
The fact is we're a nation bereft of its intellect, like a 14-year old boy on sugar and hormones. We think with our balls and react without reason. Cognition is too much trouble, and God forbid we might have to face the harsh truth that we've brought much of our trouble on ourselves. We can only hope that enough Americans have become grownups after 7 years of the GOP disaster to see past the Fox/Weekly Standard/Free Republic stupidity of this time and put the adults back in charge.
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Copy
[Read the article: How can I get a writing job?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I've been making my living (and a damned good on) as a freelance writer for more than 13 years, and though I now earn 95% of my income ghostwriting and co-writing nonfiction books, I started as an ad copywriter. That's a great place to get some experience. Even if you have no background in advertising, you can go to local businesses and offer to write their ads, brochures, websites or direct mail pieces. Offer to do the first one for free to prove you have the chops, then write the shit out of it. Then ask for a decent rate for subsequent work.
Once you have some work in your portfolio, get a job at an ad agency, design shop or web shop and spend a couple of years writing goal-oriented stuff on tight deadlines. You'll learn brevity, how to create actionable copy, and sometimes get a chance to be creative. You'll also make great contacts. That will also give you an income so you can write what you love in your off-time.
One more piece of advice: beware of writer's workshops. Most of them are circle jerks for wannabes who would rather talk about writing than write. The only groups I ever got anything out of were the ones where everyone had to produce a new piece of work every week. Writers learn by writing. Write something every day.
And for God's sake, start your own blog. It's free and simple and you can go off on any subject you like. What could be better than that?