Letters to the Editor
borinquena
Published Letters: 228 Editor's Choice: 26
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Sacred Cows
[Read the article: Annie Leibovitz's reckless candor]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I don't understand the villification of the author in these letters. She raises a valid point, which is that being merely revelatory does not make you a good artist. I haven't seen the photos so I can't judge them on their artistic merits, but the fact that they reveal moments that are painful and intimate does not automatically mean they are worthy of display in a museum exhibition.
Someone earlier claimed that authors are not chastised for writing self-revelatory works, but that's not true. The memoir fad, with authors trying to outdo each other with ever more lurid revelations of childhood abuse, has rightly come under criticism for favoring exposure over craft and insight.
Leibovitz is an artist, displaying her work in a public forum. Regardless of the content of her photographs, it is well within the right of any critic to make judgements as to the artistic merits of those photographs.
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Gawker nails it: "If you use enough big words you can convince yourself it's not celebrity coverage"
[Read the article: Reproduction of the rich and famous]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]http://gawker.com/news/salon/if-you-use-enough-big-words-you-can-almost-convince-yourself-its-not-celebrity-coverage-216140.php
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Bwah!
[Read the article: Do I have the right to control how Christmas money is used?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Brilliant answer, Cary.
P.S. The LW sounds like a controlling jerk.
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Bravo
[Read the article: Diary of a turkey killer]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Wonderful article. You can respect an animal and also choose to eat it--look at Native Americans. If I had the outdoor space I would also raise my own turkey for Thanksgiving.
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Do vegans keep carnivores as pets?
[Read the article: Diary of a turkey killer]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Rambler, this quote got me thinking: I also raise dogs and cats (and birds and fish), so I have to think about how I feel about having protein-gobbling critters around for my own amusement.
Do vegans keep dogs and cats as pets/companion animals? If so, what do they feed them? I read somewhere that dogs can be fed a vegetarian diet (though I can't believe that's optimal for their health) but cats have to have taurine in their diets, which can only be found in animal protein. Does that mean that cats are out as pets?
BTW, if you think that the author was cruel, try checking out WhatJeffKilled.com, which is a photo blog of the critters the author's cat catches and eats (it's pretty graphic so if you have a sensitive stomach don't go there). Predators in nature aren't sensitive to things like causing minimal pain in slaughter or even ensuring the prey is dead before starting to eat it.
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Cliches have a grain of truth
[Read the article: The fall of the house of Pynchon]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Well, most postmodern [a loaded and frequently meaningless term] authors can't write character. They're just empty suits, and all the author is looking for is word games anyway." That's not an opinion; it's critical shorthand. It's a filtration of a hand-me-down criticism that probably wasn't accurate in the first place. I'm sure there are many real criticisms of this book, but it doesn't serve anyone to resort to such tired cliches.
Speaking as someone who doesn't have an English degree and has never studied postmodern theory, the complaints about character ring true to me. I've tried several times to finish reading Pynchon's books, as well as David Foster Wallace and others who write in a similar vein. While I can appreciate the cleverness of the writing, I always inevitably lose interest and put the books down because I simply don't care about the characters. This has nothing to do with liking the characters--Richard Ford's Frank Bascombe is infuriating. But I devoured The Sportwriter and Independence Day because I was completely invested in Bascombe even if I often wanted to reach into the pages and smack him. With Pynchon, I get the sense that he doesn't care much about the characters he writes about, and that authorial distance turns me off.
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Question for NestEgg
[Read the article: Do I have the right to control how Christmas money is used?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Why don't you buy them presents instead of giving cash? I don't understand why this isn't an option for you.
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Chimpanzees are not strictly vegetarians
[Read the article: Diary of a turkey killer]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~stanford/chimphunt.html
In the early 1960's, when Dr. Jane Goodall began her now famous study of the chimpanzees of Gombe National Park, Tanzania, it was thought that chimpanzees were strictly vegetarian. In fact, when Goodall first reported this behavior, many people were skeptical and claimed that meat was not a natural part of the chimpanzee diet. Today, hunting by chimpanzees at Gombe has been well documented (Teleki 1973; Goodall 1986), and hunting has also been observed at most other sites in Africa where chimpanzees have been studied, including Mahale Mountains National Park (Uehara et al. 1992) (also in Tanzania) and Tai National Park in Ivory Coast in West Africa (Boesch and Boesch 1989). At Gombe, we now know that chimpanzees may kill and eat more than 150 small and medium sized animals such as monkeys, wild pigs and small antelopes each year.
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John and Cheryl
[Read the article: Diary of a turkey killer]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Thanks for your posts. Different points of view but both very eloquent.
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If the brother is stealing the gift money...
[Read the article: Do I have the right to control how Christmas money is used?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]then why doesn't the LW STOP GIVING THEM MONEY and send gifts instead? Her brother may be a thief but she's being completely passive-aggressive about this.
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Temple Grandin designs slaughterhouses for a living
[Read the article: Diary of a turkey killer]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]She also eats meat even though she is a strong advocate for reforming slaughterhouses. In fact, I think she's an excellent example of how to be an ethical meat eater.
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Lovely presents
[Read the article: Do I have the right to control how Christmas money is used?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I also love the cigar box, but having grown-up boy wallets is really cool too. Nicely done.
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Herpes Information
[Read the article: I have herpes. Do I have to tell all my partners?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Some websites on genital herpes:
NIH
http://www.niaid.nih.gov/factsheets/stdherp.htm
American Academy of Family Physicians
http://familydoctor.org/091.xml
American Social Health Association
http://www.ashastd.org/herpes/herpes_learn_questions.cfm
And an aside: you are obligated to tell your partner, but I understand why people don't given the hysteria surrounding herpes. In the vast majority of people herpes outbreaks are mild and infrequent, and with current medications symptoms are often non-existent. There really isn't any rational reason for herpes to be so stigmatizing.
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Pewella...
[Read the article: My husband wants to take nude photos of his mom]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Thanks for making me LOL!!
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Criticizing the author
[Read the article: Souls on ice]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Domini and others like her, is it possible for a person of color to criticize another person of color without using language like "rejoin the black community?" You don't agree with the points she made? Fine. But who the hell are you to make any judgments about whether or not she belongs to the community? It's a form of excommunication: "You refuse to adhere to our dogma so we're casting you out." It's intellectually lazy garbage.
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chicgeek...
[Read the article: A mother's love]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Thanks for your post. You said everything I was thinking but was too angry to articulate.