Letters to the Editor
dendrio
Published Letters: 200 Editor's Choice: 27
-
But Why the Anger?
[Read the article: The Fix]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Deceitful? Conniving? Dishonest? Manipulative? Yes, yes, yes, and yes.
But if the literati and the public, who once thought that his/her four published books (all marketed and labelled as fiction) had literary merit, now think that they miraculously don't have any merit by virtue of a false biography, then they didn't have a very clear idea of what literary merit is in the first place.
I also find it rather telling that the public and pubishing community who lapped up his/her seedily titillating biography now cry foul because their "sympathy" and "compassion" was abused. Call me a New Critic, but I like a book because the book is good, not because I feel sorry for the writer. So if one is of the opinion (held by "bite_me"), that J.T. LeRoy's works have little if any merit in and of themselves - false biography or not - that's a perfectly valid discussion.
So to summarize, being a conniving, dishonest asshole doesn't automatically make one a bad writer, just a bad person. If you spent a money on a book that you now no longer like, all I can say is "So sad, too bad." It happens. If you signed a writer because you wanted to exploit his/her biography to sell some books (or magazines), and it turns out they they exploited you to do just that, then all I can say is "Buyer beware."
-
Not Real?
[Read the article: A business deal with a friend went bad, and he never paid me back]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What's with the recurring meme that Cary's letters are fake? I could see a phony letter slipping in under Cary's radar every now and again, but every day? Is it because some of the letter writers seem irrational? Self-contradictory? Or because you don't see why their dilemma is a dilemma? Well, maybe that's why they have to write to a total stranger for advice! If they were logical, rational people with a clear sense of who they or what they believe, they probably wouldn't have these problems to begin with, and if they did, they'd solve'em on their own!
Now if folks really think that Cary's a dupe and an easy mark, or that he consistently gives bad advice (another daily meme), or that they could give better advice (yet another recurring thread), why do they keep reading it? Why not start an advice blog where one can dispense one's sage advice, taking meticulous care to weed out the apparently large population of people who get off on writing fake letters to advice columnists.
Then again, it's harder actually to do something (and do it well) than it is to talk smack about what a shitty job someone else is making of it.
-
An Anecdote
[Read the article: Exposé or just innuendo?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]A friend of mine was thinking about becoming a journalist. One of her first assignments for a basic class in writing was to watch the evening news, and write a lead for one of the stories. Her lead in was "Neo-Nazi groups are on the rise in former East Germany." When the professor (who was a practicing journalist) had the students write their leads on the board, the professor crossed out my friend's lead decrying, "No gloom and doom! No gloom and doom!"
Nowadays it's "Mud, not blood! Mud, not blood!"
-
Tongue-In-Cheek Analysis
[Read the article: The Alberto Gonzales School of Constitutional Interpretation]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Perhaps by arguing that we don't necessarily have the rights the Constitution bars the gov't from abridging, Gonzales is laying the legal groundwork of the privatization of rights and rights protection.
Perhaps he and the neocons envision a brave new world where the rights we apparently don't have can by purchased via membership in an organization - a Corporate Legal Action Network (CLAN for short) - which would grant and protect the rights of its members in its territory. Of course, those commie liberals who distrust big business could form and join a Cooperative Legal Action Network.
Conflicts among members of the same CLAN would be settled by the CEO of CLAN or his designated subordinates, while conflicts between members of differing CLANs or the CLANs would be settled by the interplay free market forces (the CLANs offering the best protection will tend to out-compete/defeat those that don't) without interference from the Federal Government.
Under-priveledged or impoverished people who can't buy CLAN membership or whose CLAN was unable to complete with the others will simply have to look at their choices in life and make betters ones.
However, the system isn't completely without mercy. Individuals in such a situation would be free to purchase a lower-priced membership and become a Special Economically-Reduced Freeman (SERF) in a CLAN, albeit with reduced benefits and protections.
-
I've Said It Before, and I'll Say It Again ...
[Read the article: Embracing a "culture of life"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Conservatives" should stop calling themselves Pro-Life and call themselves "Pro-Birth," since they could care less about what happens to people after their born. Unless of course someone is one death's door and wants a little push through the threshold ... then suddenly the Conservatives are once more concerned about the "sanctity of life."
-
Sisyphus...
[Read the article: The Alberto Gonzales School of Constitutional Interpretation]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]He's telling us it's time to have a Revolution.
-
Pollock...
[Read the article: WayLay]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Died whilst driving drunk, hence the booze and blood. I guess the cartoon is saying he was born, lived, and died by the splat.
This is a WayLay I actually like - gruesome, (darkly) humorous, yet poignant, like much good art. Usually I don't bother with WayLay, it lacks the craft and care of Lay's other work (like "Good Girls"), but I'm glad I made an exception today.
Never was an art major, but I did pay attention in high school. And I like art. Does that make me an art geek too? Probably.