Letters to the Editor
Christopher1988
Published Letters: 681 Editor's Choice: 46
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C.A.B. Fredericks,
[Read the article: The end of the affair]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I suspect the Powers that Be are pleased with you. As a fellow Buffy fanatic, I know I am.
As to the hostility expressed by some letter writers, who insist "grown up" people in the "real world" don't consider fictional characters to be their companions, I think it must suck to live such a dry, empty life. Of course most of us who get caught up in imaginary worlds also have real life friends, and active life, and are connected to the world beyond our books or television screens. But any imaginative person feels a strong connection with a beloved work, and the characters do come to seem companions. It's a pretty typical response to a work of art on the part of anyone who is not a computer (or not as advanced a computer as Data or the Doctor).
Back in the Buffy/Angel days, I was very emotionally connected to both series. Buffy's death at the end of the WB run brought tears to my eyes, as did Wesley's final scene with Illyria. The episode involving Anya and Xander's wedding also comes to mind, and there are a lot more. These characters meant something to me, and I admit that the world seems a little emptier now that they are gone. Certainly the airwaves do.
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What a clueless, self-congratulatory post!
[Read the article: The end of the affair]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]No doubt, in the 19th century, you'd have chastised all those people standing on the docks, calling out to the ship carrying the latest installment of The Old Curiosity Shop, "Is Little Nell still alive?"
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David L.
[Read the article: The dark legacy of Carlos Castaneda]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm a member of Generation X. I read and was intrigued by Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Many Gen Xers did. We also read Be Here Now, embraced Richard Bach's Illusions, and felt a strong connection to established classics like Hesse's Demian and Steppenwolf.
At this point, I don't really agree with a lot that they have to say, but I took much of it to heart back then, and I was hardly alone in this. It was a fairly common experience for those of us in high school and college around that time: the mid-80's through the early 90's. There was also a big hippie revival going on that a lot of Xers embraced (Lennon and Hendrix and acid were quite the sensation).
Your cliched image of Boomers and Xers doesn't fit what actually was going on with either. Don't let two movies, Clerks and Slacker, define your perimeters. They were two parts of a larger picture.
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You're right, Dazed was better.
[Read the article: The dark legacy of Carlos Castaneda]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I have more affection for my New Age period than you do. I don't think all of it is a "lie" as in a conscious scam. There are scam artists like Castaneda. Ramtha would be another. I don't think this is true of most of these writers. On the other hand, I don't think most of what they say is accurate, either.
What turned me off the Boomers for so long was less related to their ideals than the total hypocrites I kept running into. For a long time, I was a total "I hate the Boomers" person. Now I'm looking at things a bit more evenly.
Castaneda sounds like a scam artist, but he's just one person. I think I got a lot of good out of Bach and Ram Dass and even Shirley MacLaine. They certainly opened me up to being a more loving person, and I think my willingness to forgive people and let go of whatever has happened in my past (I used to hold grudges forever and always wanted to "get back" at people) comes from them. And I'm grateful for that.
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Cary!!!!! What the hell???????
[Read the article: My boyfriend's climbing partner let him fall]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm not going to get into trying to resolve the ethical matter, which if examined in detail may be a little complicated.
This is exactly what you're supposed to do. Indeed, what your column is predicated on! And you just sidestep it in one sentence?
I appreciate the experienced climbers willing to offer advice. I have no experience climbing, and no close friends who climb, so I wondered what the ethics of the situation were. While there's not complete agreemement on this, I have a clearer picture of the issues involved. Thanks.
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There's always some humorless people around...
[Read the article: I Like to Watch]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]In the first place, we usually are more willing to laugh at the people with power in our society, and usually men have the power. So the reversal of the position involved in prison rape is a source of jokes, while the teenaged girl jumped by her seemingly trustworthy date and/or boyfriend is not.
Secondly, a person in jail is, of course, a criminal (theoretically) and seeing someone who tried to get ahead by inflicting misery on his fellow humans now have to accept certain, um, attentions, can make the joke funny too.
It's not, like, the funniest joke, either. And as I'm gay, I don't consider anal sex the ultimate shame. Prison rape jokes basically leave me indifferent. But I get why people can make them, when they would't make them about a brutal assault on a woman.
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Women Don't Makes Less Than Men
[Read the article: Tough titties]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This was disproved looooooooooooong ago. At minimum wage jobs, there is a set hourly wage (the minimum, duh). Salaried jobs vary from person to person and it is impossible to distinguish standards based on gender. Your salary has much more to do with your bargaining power than with you sex.
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I should add...
[Read the article: Tough titties]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]though I'm not remotely a feminist (Paglia cured me of that), Valenti impresses me.