Letters to the Editor
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So the cause was
feeding and cleaning these street adults until they have the time and energy to develope into violent street gangs?
Seems like we should save the money on food and soap. If they had to worry about basic needs thn they woulodn't have time to develope a subversive culture.
Ahh, the unintended consequences of soft headed liberalism continue to bear fruit!
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Heavens!
Oh my god, idle and violent white youth coming to kill unsuspecting upstanding adults? And we're not making them work for food and shelter at fifteen years old? What is this world coming to?
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Thoughts/Reactions
Come on, gamers. I've been playing AD&D and assorted other table top RPGS for about twenty years now. After the 80s, I think it's clear that only a very small percentage of morons believe it is a cause of violently anti-social behavior. Maybe I misread, but I don't see Ms. Denfeld referring to AD&D as a cause anywhere. She describes a symptomatic characteristic of some street kids, specifically those in the upper northwest.
Denfeld's book "The New Victorians: A Young Woman's Challenge to the Old Feminist Order" (1995) was an attack on the women's movement as prudish, anti-male, too pc, and so on. It was basically a collection of over-the-top anecdotes, very much in the mold of the many similar books of the day, like Katie Roiphe's "The Morning After" (date rape is just bad sex), Karen Lehrman's "the Lipstick Proviso," Christina Hoff Sommers "Who Stole Feminism?" and Camille Paglia's stream of words. While it is perfectly possible for a feminist to make these criticisms, and many have, Denfeld seemed to think the only real problem women had was feminism itself--the caricature of feminism she presented in her book, that is.
I don't get it. You obviously disagree with her criticism of a particular mode ("caricature") of feminism, although you graciously admit that it's "perfectly possible for a feminist to make these criticisms". How does that in any way discredit this other, unrelated work? Was The New Victorians sloppily researched? Did she blatantly misrepresent the words or acts of her subjects? Can you give concrete examples? Sounds like sour grapes to me. That's fine. No matter. What annoys me is that it has nothing to do with the article/interview/book in question. Basically, you attempt to discredit a work you haven't read based solely on how much the author's previous book offended your sensibilities. Fantastic.
I'll echo the observations of at least three or four other letter writers here. I notice those letter writers who have any real experience with these "kids" agree with the thrust of the author's conclusions, while those who don't seem to be little else than self-appointed apologists talking out of their asses. I lived in downtown Portland for seven years, but I don't pretend to know anymore that what I was shown. Please save us your penetrating insights via superficial association.
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What an amazing article
about the homeless that never mentions the fact that in Portland over the last 20 years housing costs have skyrocketed, or that Portland is the only very large city in a very big state, and that this is where lots of kids from small towns go for excitement, which is actually understandable. Ms. Denfeld also neglects to mention the overdevelopment of Portland, where developers buy up affordable housing, say in Hillsboro or NW Portland, only to turn the properties into giant shopping centers with huge clusters of apartment complexes surrounding them.
I lived in Portland for 21 years, and something that I was aware of that was pretty frightening was the ease and frequency with which the Portland police department shoots its own citizens. A few years ago, a Beaverton cop was jogging off duty and shot and killed a yellow lab that barked at him. There was an incident where a kid in Portland was being held hostage by another kid in his own home. The Portland police shot and killed both of them. There have been more such incidents recently. So where's that book? I'm not saying the homeless in Portland are harmless, but you can't tell the story and omit the fact that there is no safety net in this country for the mentally ill and adults who are mentally handicapped. It's not just prison or video games that are creating this problem, though it comforts people to believe that. I'm also sure that this lady would love to see these unpleasant people do what they are expected to do and stay hidden, living lives of quiet desparation while she is shopping downtown at one of the fabulous new department stores in Portland with the snotty salespeople.
Twenty years ago, homelessness was considered a huge problem, with protests held in Washington, DC, and Bruce Springsteen sang about the death of small towns. The MSM was full of stories of the repercussions of deregulation and urban blight. Now it's all business as usual, that's just the way it is and the way it's going to be, I guess. The cost of maintaining a home, rental or otherwise, goes up all the time while wages do not. There should be a book about that. I love Portland and hope to live there again soon. It's a wild place full of imagination and creativity. I lived in the city for years and my kids and I took walks at night without any trouble. There are lots of homeless people downtown, but it's a beautiful downtown, very lively with beautiful buildings and great old theaters, stores and restaurants. Where I live now in the Northeast, crime is low, people stay home, and long gone is the lively downtown of 20 years ago. People leave here in droves. There's got to be some kind of in-between.
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RE: Thoughts/Reactions
JM-
The information is relevant because in the first or second graph of the story, Olen describes Denfeld as a "feminist writer." Like many of unchallenged/unsupported assertions in this piece, it goes to credibility.
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fantasy
"Maybe I misread, but I don't see Ms. Denfeld referring to AD&D as a cause anywhere."
I think you missed it. She makes it seem as if these kids got infected with some kind of fantasy culture when, obviously, it's a culture they adopted as part of an escape from their crappy lives. The nature of the fantasy is, frankly, meaningless.
Is it worth noting that black gangs are full of romantic bullshit about kinship and have a whole fantasy-world constructed as well? Every youth subculture relies heavily on image and fantasy.