Letters to the Editor
Tigerr
Published Letters: 103 Editor's Choice: 2
-
Take young readers serious
[Read the article: The accidental heretic]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]When will we get rid of this heavy damp blanket of protection that still covers children's literature today? (And what is that, by the way, children's literature? They're books. Period.)
Who says books have to be safe?
It's high time we started taking young people serious: read the books with them, engage in debate, talk with them, discuss life's big questions no matter what your beliefs are.
Listen to them.
-
Discipline
[Read the article: Flirting with disaster]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]She may got the voice, but she does not have the discipline of a truly committed artist. Shame of the talent.
-
Hollywood-style news
[Read the article: Chris Matthews is right ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Haven't we seen the same thing happen in Hollywood for the past decades?
There's so much money involved in making movies nowadays - movies that should appeal to as many people as possible - that every kind of risk or challenge is automatically edited out, just to make sure nobody is offended and stays away.
MSM work the same way. They cost so much that nothing is said or shown that would put off possible consumers and threaten maximum revenue. (Journalists are "stars" now too.)
Further more it's based on the false assumptions that democratic news coverage (1) only means reaching as many people as possible (2) people are generally stupid and would not understand more complex or challenging issues and (3) they should and cannot be educated, or at least, that that is not MSM's task.
It has become an industry, just like any other. And the consuequences are an alarmingly rising inflation of democracy.
PS: Just check out Michael Mann's "The insider" too for a grate take on this: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0140352/
-
"Pentagon added sound later"
[Read the article: The U.S. military inflicts more damage on its own credibility]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Sorry no time to read all the comments today. Just wanted to add this, in case anyone missed.
A respectable Dutch newspaper (10/01/08) wrote yesterday that the Pentagon admitted sound had been added to the images at a later stage.
http://www.nrc.nl/buitenland/article887819.ece/Iran_video_VS_met_speedboten_is_nep
Can American sources confirm this?
PS: Favourite short poem, late, I know, but anyway:
Tiger, tiger burning bright
Who the hell set you alight?
- Colin Thompson
-
Semantics
[Read the article: "We're all fascists now"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]From now on, I'll call blue green and write a 500-page book about it to prove that the blue shirt you're now wearing actually is a green one.
That's what it all comes down to, his "new" personal definition of what fascism is? Send the man back to kindergarten and get him to learn the colors. Please.
-
Vanity
[Read the article: CNN's John King responds]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You'd think a real journalist would
(1) be able to distinguish between criticism on his work and on his person/ego and
(2) would at least be prepared to consider that he might have made a mistake.
Just the fact that he's not able to think critically about himself, well, that says enough.
Reminds me of that great line Pacino so wonderfully delivered: "Vanity, my favourite sin."
-
User is free
[Read the article: Trapped in the grid]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Just like any other medium, de medium itself won't give us more freedom. Freedom will consist of how exactly we'll continue to use it.
-
Bush Makes Privacy Board Vanish
[Read the article: Is Michael Mukasey prioritizing the harassment and imprisonment of journalists?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm short of time here today, and can't read all comments now. But in the context of this thread, and previous ones, this headline might be interesting too:
"Bush Makes Privacy Board Vanish"
http://www.wired.com/politics/onlinerights/news/2008/02/privacy_board
Wired.com | By Ryan Singel | 02.04.08 | 12:00 AM
Sorry if this is a double post.
-
The bravery of being out of range
[Read the article: The fun and excitement of civilization wars (fought from afar)]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Allow me to quote good ole Roger Waters on this:
Hey bartender, over here
Two more shots and two more beers
Sir, turn up the TV sound, the war has started on the ground
Just love those laser-guided bombs, they're really great
For righting wrongs, you hit the target and win the game
From bars 3,000 miles away, 3,000 miles away
We play the game,
With the bravery
Of being out of range
-
Turn it around!
[Read the article: Now that I've got my master's in writing ... I'm not writing!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Dear LW, it's a hard job, isn't it, writing and meeting up to your own expectations?
I think you have a very fixed idea of how writing should work for you. What is that idea exactly, and where does it come from? Think about that. And then let it go.
Are you waiting for that special feeling of inspiration which will make the writing suddenly go well, and make you líke writing again?
It works the other way around. You won't enjoy it, and it won't come, unless you do it. It's hard work, but that's the only way. And it's great Work, sacred Work, but it's still Work.
How about starting a blog to meet your publication needs? Blogging is a different kind of writing too, it doesn't need all that thinking over, and it might help you to start liking written words again. It always gets me in the right mood to work on "the other thing".
And maybe the writing is confronting you with aspects of yourself you don't like. Writing made me accept who I am, and I started writing again when I learnt to accept myself. Who knows, maybe you need some therapy to tackles those issues.
Good luck!
-
HSP
[Read the article: Nothing makes any sense anymore. I'm at the end of my rope]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Dear LW,
Thanks for the beautiful letter. You are very brave.
By what you say and how you say it, I figured you might be a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP). There's a love for arts, lots of empathy for the people around you and lots of sensing, probing and feeling and being in touch with your deepest feelings and thoughts. It might look normal to you, but it's rather rare.
Your body and your soul are telling you the old way is over. You recognize that, that's wonderful, and it's in your nature to do so. To HSP's empathy is one of their great qualities, but also a trap: you forget about your own personal borders and needs.
Check out this website http://www.hsperson.com/ and start reading the books. You might need some help later on, further on the road, you might not. But it's going to be fine.
Take care.